A voyage of Discovery

The company isn’t called Jaguar Land Rover these days, but JLR. Which, to be fair, is what everybody called it anyway. And the web domain is still landrover.co.uk, but visit that website now and tell me how long it takes you to find a single reference to Land Rover.

Let me save you the hassle. It’s right down at the bottom of the page, beneath the links to the privacy policy and cookie preferences, just above the footer where you’ll find endless disclaimers in small print, and even then it’s just a grainy Land Rover logo half the size of your thumbnail. One of Britain’s most admired automotive brands, an institution, has almost literally become a footnote.

Well, sort of. You will still find Land Rover logos on the cars themselves and above the door at dealerships, but under the brave House of Brands strategy (one departing employee called it TK Maxx), announced to universal acceptance and no pushback whatsoever two years ago, the Land Rover name has been sidelined. In its place, pushed front and centre, are four individual brands – Jaguar, Range Rover, Defender and Discovery – of which only Jaguar has been more than a model nameplate until now.