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The first Land Rover was designed in 1947 by Maurice Wilkes as a farm vehicle that could be used for everything from ploughing fields to driving to town, based on Willys Jeeps he had seen in action in World War II. In fact the first land rover the centre steerThe centre steer is an early Land Rover automobile. One of the first to have been built, it is the same as the Series I 80, but with the steering wheel central, like that of a tractor. As the car itself has never been found, the only evidence it existed a was built almost entirely from Willy's Jeep components. Then and since, their most distinctive feature has been their bodies, constructed of a lightweight proprietary alloyAn alloy is a combination, either in solution or compound, of two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal. An alloy with two components is called a binary alloy; one with three is a ternary alloy; one with four is a quaternary alloy. The result of aluminiumAluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is the chemical element in the periodic table with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. A silvery and ductile member of the poor metal group of elements, aluminium is found primarily as the ore bauxite and and magnesiumMagnesium is the chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. Magnesium is the eighth most abundant element and constitutes about 2% of the Earth's crust, and it is the third most plentiful element dissolved in seawa called BirmabrightBirmabright is a lightweight proprietary alloy of aluminium and magnesium used in the body of the Land Rover vehicles. (being rustThis article is about the type of corrosion. For the fungus, see rust (fungus). For the person, see Mathias Rust. For the town in Austria, see Rust, Austria. Rust is the substance formed when iron compounds corrode in the presence of water and oxygen.proof, this contributes to the vehicle's longevity); most feature sturdy ladder-frame chassis. The vehicles are designed (or some would say feature brilliant lack of design) to allow them to be field-serviced. For instance, ads for Rovers have bragged about vehicles driven thousands of miles on banana oil.
Land Rovers, particularly the commercial and military models, became ubiquitous throughout rural areas and in the developing World. The Land Rover featured in the South African movie The Gods Must Be CrazyThe Gods Must Be Crazy was a movie released in 1980, written and directed by Jamie Uys. It told the story of Xixo, a Bushman of the Kalahari Desert (played by Namibian bush farmer N!xau) whose tribe has no contact or knowledge of the world beyond. One day illustrates the love-hate relationship many owners feel with the early series vehicles.
Land Rovers have competed in the Paris Dakar RallyThe Paris Dakar Rally (or The Dakar ) is an annual, organized, professional off-road race. The race is currently sponsored by Total and organized by TSO, the Thierry Sabine Organization. Despite its name, it is an off-road endurance race rather than a con as well as being the vehicle used for the Camel Trophy as part of a sponsorship deal. The Land Rover Defender is also used by military forces mainly in countries within the British sphere of influence, specifically the British Commonwealth. In the UK armed forces the very expensive Pinzgauer, now built in the UK, is increasingly common in roles previously the preserve of the Land Rover Defender such as ambulances, artillery tractor and weapons platform.
Since the 1970s in most remote areas of Africa, South America, Asia and in the Australian Outback the Toyota Land Cruiser has very strongly overtaken the Land Rover as the utility 4x4 of choice, probably because of the superior durability and build quality of the Land Cruiser.
In the United States, Land Rovers have a reputation as overpriced "yuppie" toys, since most are never used off-road; however there are also enthusiasts and clubs that take the vehicle to its limits.