Top Gear’s greatest cars of the last 30 years: landmark Land Rovers

The 2002 Range Rover. If Land Rover has a touchstone, this is surely it. Yes, we can all point back to the 1970 original, but really this is the car that all modern Land Rovers riff on. Older cars may be the roots, but this, the L322, is the trunk of Land Rover’s Tree of Life. Look what followed on: the Discovery 3 in 2004, the Range Rover Sport in 2005, the Evoque in 2012 and finally 2020’s Defender.

All branched off from this. Not the mechanical aspects, you understand, but the design, the philosophy, the feel – 2002 was when the Range Rover gained maturity. It was also when rivals woke up and realised what it represented, how potent a symbol it was, how they wanted a piece of that action. It always had a clear idea of itself, the Range Rover, and that’s essential for any car that comes to define a particular category. That was already there, but before 2002 the quality and design was patchy. Now there was talk of inspiration from sailing yachts.

It remains a class piece of design, the moment the Range Rover really stepped out of the field, but before it became too precious to get mud on its sills. That has always been the margin Land Rover has needed to tread. Yes, even with the Evoque. That’s another car with a clear idea of itself. Look at rivals.

I don’t know if this butts up against an Audi Q3, a Merc GLB or a BMW X2, but frankly I’m not interested, because if you’re in the market for an Evoque, you’re going to buy an Evoque. The German marques have superior quality on their side, but they’re so wedded to their own particular brand values, of looking like carbon copies of whatever else is in the range, that none of them have a personality of their own.

And don’t be sniffy about the Evoque. In our experience it does more than cope when the going gets Scottish. Back in 2012 it did something we’d previously have thought utterly outlandish for a Land Rover – it became fashionable beyond the wearers of red trousers. A trinket, an adornment, an accessory, something to be seen in. Loathe though we are to admit it even now, Victoria Beckham was an inspired choice of celebrity endorsement. It was, right from the word go, another car that understood exactly who it appealed to and what they wanted. It’s small, and small inside, but looks chunkily desirable in its own right, not that you haven’t been able to afford a bigger one.

Moving on. Controversy. How to replace the Defender? Everyone had their own opinions. The problem was that it couldn’t be a farming vehicle. That ship sailed 25 years ago, when the cheap pickup took over. And that meant it couldn’t attempt to overlap with the old one or it would open itself to ridicule. It needed a new identity. It’s found one. It wants to be the adventure truck.

It’s built and equipped for it, but the horizons of most owners extend no further than Cornwall in August with a paddleboard on top. Not the car’s fault, but it does leave the Defender vulnerable to accusations that it has no genuine purpose beyond being yet another seven seat SUV. Tougher than the rest is no defence if toughness isn’t a primary requirement. So have a 90, put it on steel wheels and go and do stuff with it. Thank me later.