Land Rover Pictures

Land Rover is to the United Kingdom what Jeep is to the United States: an iconic builder of SUVs that can go anywhere and do anything at any time.

Originally affixed to a 4-wheel-drive vehicle produced by Rover and launched in 1948, Land Rover expanded into a lineup of off-roaders that proved successful enough that a separate Land Rover company was established in 1978. BMW bought the brand in 1994, and then sold it to Ford Motor Company in 2000, which subsequently sold it to Tata Motors Limited, where Land Rover is now paired with another legendary English automaker, Jaguar.

Autobytel’s archive of Land Rover pictures dates to 1999, when the company sold two rugged but luxurious SUVs in America: the Discovery and the Range Rover. In the years that followed, the compact Freelander helped to expand the lineup, but it was the BMW-developed 2003 Range Rover that really modernized the brand’s products and lent significant legitimacy to the company’s claim to provide luxury and capability in equal doses. Take a look at this revolutionary luxury SUV in our gallery of Land Rover photos to decide for yourself.

The new Range Rover was followed by a new Discovery, but rather than stick with that globally revered moniker, Ford called the new Disco the LR3 in America. Doh. Wisely, though, Ford repackaged the LR3 with a low-slung, fastback-style body and called the new model the Range Rover Sport. This new vehicle would become the best-selling model in the lineup, and the reasons are clear by looking at our historical Land Rover images.

Now, new owner Tata is in the process of revamping the entire lineup, a process led by the successful Range Rover Evoque, itself a repackaged LR2 model. The redesigned Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are already out, and now Tata must determine what to do with the LR2 and the Discovery/LR4. Given its careful stewardship of the Land Rover brand to date, expect good things.