Land Rover launches Discovery 3 in Namibia
The all new Discovery 3 came to Namibia recently to make its much awaited debut, along with senior management from LRSA Pretoria and a troupe of motoring media, mainly from South Africa but with representation from here in Namibia and also Angola. Once again this country's spectacular scenery, breathtaking landscapes and variety of terrain provided a major drawcard for a Southern African vehicle launch.
The Sunday afternoon saw the press first assemble in a marquee erected in the bush veldt of Okapuka Ranch, a premier accommodation establishment some thirty kilometres north of Windhoek. Two journalists to a vehicle, the Discoverys were first put through their paces in a variety of specific conditions created by the Land Rover Experience team in their three week pre-launch build-up. Areas of grass, gravel, water, sand, rocks and mud - a veritable obstacle course - designed to test Terrain Response, Land Rover's much vaunted electronic masterpiece, which controls vehicle functions and optimises traction through a simple rotary dial. Five settings can be selected: General (normal mode), Grass/Gravel/Snow (slippery conditions), Mud and Ruts, Sand and lastly Rock Crawl (for slow traverse of rocks and boulders etc). When dialled in, each specific mode adjusts suspension height, throttle response and gearing, selecting the most appropriate settings for all the vehicle's high tech controls. This 'smart' technology leads to awesome performance with such simple driver input needed.
Indeed this all singing all dancing Discovery 3 simply bristles with class leading technology in a totally revamped premium SUV offering. And Land Rover South Africa's top man, Thomas Viehweg (officially President of Ford's Premier Automotive Group in the republic) made it quite clear that this was the first of three 2005 vehicle launches designed to lead Land Rover forward, indeed hopefully clear of their rivals in the upper strata of the hugely competitive 4x4 marketplace. Success for the new Discovery was paramount to the factory's future progress, he stressed. Build quality, until now continually maligned by customers and doubtless compounded by several changes of ownership - the Rover Group, British Aerospace, BMW and now the Ford Motor Company - in recent years, is said to be much improved at the UK's Solihull plant under the specific focus and governance of new owner Ford.
Customer service, a reduction in warranty problems and better parts supply are areas on which the new South African management team will be concentrating in particular, according to Sales and Marketing chief Dawid van der Merwe. Figures for the last two years show distinct improvements, with warranty claims halved for instance, but Land Rover still need to haul themselves up from the bottom of various manufacturers' customer satisfaction surveys.
Next, a convoy style adventure through the delightful scenery of Okapuka's 14000 hectares. Twisting upwards into the mountains from the main lodge and its twenty comfortable thatch-roofed rooms, the track climbed past the lake where owners Fritz and Monika Flachberger have introduced crocodiles and towards one of the highest points in these Otjihavera mountains. The stiff ascent proved no problem for the vehicles; neither did the steep descent, Land Rover's renowned Hill Descent Control making the journey easy. And a surprise in store for all on our return - there, sitting in the Okapuka railway halt, was the fabled Desert Express luxury train.
After attending to business on board with a thorough presentation of the new Discovery by the factory's top brass, we settled back to enjoy a wonderful meal and a night in our most comfortable air conditioned compartments as the train wound through the countryside towards Swakopmund and the coast. The Desert Express's regular schedules include trips to Swakop as well as Lüderitz and the Etosha game park. A great experience.
A misty dawn - courtesy of the advective fog rolling in from the Atlantic - found us stopping at the Rand Rifles Halt in the desert, greeted by an impressive line up of new Discoveries alongside the track. So now a chance to drive on Namibia's usually excellently maintained gravel roads, before a magical journey through the dry Khan riverbed and finally the tar road on its spectacular journey twixt sea and dunes between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. Land Rover's immaculately presented launch seeming as much a touristic trip as an insight into their new offering.
Plenty of camera film needed now, for with permits aplenty, the convoy takes to the sand and the 4x4 route to Sandwich Harbour. A great test for the vehicles and a first time opportunity for some to drive in perhaps the trickiest medium of all. Once again, the advanced engineering of this new model should help the novices' cause immensely: specifics of this all new Discovery include the aforementioned Terrain Response system, fully independent suspension with height adjustable air springs, an integrated body frame where the monocoque body sits on a traditional ladder frame and new engine options coupled with a highly sophisticated six-speed automatic transmission. All this tested to the full in the most awesome surroundings. The Atlantic lapping to our right and the spectacular dunes of the Namib to our left. The colours, the silhouettes, the sand, the sea and the silence. Namibia at its best.
After an extraordinary tented lunch stop on the shore, Discovery 3 is allowed to show off its prowess in the very dunes themselves. Like our surroundings, most impressive. Playing "follow my leader", we return to the Swakopmund Hotel & Entertainment Centre, tonight's resting place. We are, intriguingly, asked to assemble outside the hotel at 19.30 hours - and there complete with Land Rover chauffeurs our carriages await. A mystery trip as, with seven passengers to a car, we admire the cleverly designed stadium seating that affords all three rows of passengers excellent unobscured vision and the veritable cornucopia of storage space will accommodate all odds and sods, including, the factory promise, some 17,5 litres of cool drinks! Yet another magical moment as the Discos, now in darkness, round a turn in a dry cliff edged river course and park in a natural bowl illuminated by hundreds of candles placed amongst the rockfaces. An evening, with an Arabian theme and excellent fare, to be remembered.
Reveille is early on Tuesday as we look forward to the long and picturesque drive back to the capital Windhoek and, for most, Hosea Kutako airport. Over three hundred kilometres in all on tar, managed effortlessly by each of the three engine options (the exciting TDV6 2.7 litre turbodiesel unit, modified from the existing Jaguar powerplant, the 4.4 litre V8 petrol developed again from a Jaguar unit or the very tractable V6 4 litre Ford plant). Only the automatic version will be available at launch, but with the driver being able to override all changes manually courtesy of Land Rover's "Command Shift" function. A manual version of the diesel car will follow later.
We cruise smoothly through changing vistas, through the kaleidoscope of colours that is Namibia, past the rural towns of Usakos, Karibib and Okahandja before reaching the capital and journeys end.
The Sunday afternoon saw the press first assemble in a marquee erected in the bush veldt of Okapuka Ranch, a premier accommodation establishment some thirty kilometres north of Windhoek. Two journalists to a vehicle, the Discoverys were first put through their paces in a variety of specific conditions created by the Land Rover Experience team in their three week pre-launch build-up. Areas of grass, gravel, water, sand, rocks and mud - a veritable obstacle course - designed to test Terrain Response, Land Rover's much vaunted electronic masterpiece, which controls vehicle functions and optimises traction through a simple rotary dial. Five settings can be selected: General (normal mode), Grass/Gravel/Snow (slippery conditions), Mud and Ruts, Sand and lastly Rock Crawl (for slow traverse of rocks and boulders etc). When dialled in, each specific mode adjusts suspension height, throttle response and gearing, selecting the most appropriate settings for all the vehicle's high tech controls. This 'smart' technology leads to awesome performance with such simple driver input needed.
Indeed this all singing all dancing Discovery 3 simply bristles with class leading technology in a totally revamped premium SUV offering. And Land Rover South Africa's top man, Thomas Viehweg (officially President of Ford's Premier Automotive Group in the republic) made it quite clear that this was the first of three 2005 vehicle launches designed to lead Land Rover forward, indeed hopefully clear of their rivals in the upper strata of the hugely competitive 4x4 marketplace. Success for the new Discovery was paramount to the factory's future progress, he stressed. Build quality, until now continually maligned by customers and doubtless compounded by several changes of ownership - the Rover Group, British Aerospace, BMW and now the Ford Motor Company - in recent years, is said to be much improved at the UK's Solihull plant under the specific focus and governance of new owner Ford.
Customer service, a reduction in warranty problems and better parts supply are areas on which the new South African management team will be concentrating in particular, according to Sales and Marketing chief Dawid van der Merwe. Figures for the last two years show distinct improvements, with warranty claims halved for instance, but Land Rover still need to haul themselves up from the bottom of various manufacturers' customer satisfaction surveys.
Next, a convoy style adventure through the delightful scenery of Okapuka's 14000 hectares. Twisting upwards into the mountains from the main lodge and its twenty comfortable thatch-roofed rooms, the track climbed past the lake where owners Fritz and Monika Flachberger have introduced crocodiles and towards one of the highest points in these Otjihavera mountains. The stiff ascent proved no problem for the vehicles; neither did the steep descent, Land Rover's renowned Hill Descent Control making the journey easy. And a surprise in store for all on our return - there, sitting in the Okapuka railway halt, was the fabled Desert Express luxury train.
After attending to business on board with a thorough presentation of the new Discovery by the factory's top brass, we settled back to enjoy a wonderful meal and a night in our most comfortable air conditioned compartments as the train wound through the countryside towards Swakopmund and the coast. The Desert Express's regular schedules include trips to Swakop as well as Lüderitz and the Etosha game park. A great experience.
A misty dawn - courtesy of the advective fog rolling in from the Atlantic - found us stopping at the Rand Rifles Halt in the desert, greeted by an impressive line up of new Discoveries alongside the track. So now a chance to drive on Namibia's usually excellently maintained gravel roads, before a magical journey through the dry Khan riverbed and finally the tar road on its spectacular journey twixt sea and dunes between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. Land Rover's immaculately presented launch seeming as much a touristic trip as an insight into their new offering.
Plenty of camera film needed now, for with permits aplenty, the convoy takes to the sand and the 4x4 route to Sandwich Harbour. A great test for the vehicles and a first time opportunity for some to drive in perhaps the trickiest medium of all. Once again, the advanced engineering of this new model should help the novices' cause immensely: specifics of this all new Discovery include the aforementioned Terrain Response system, fully independent suspension with height adjustable air springs, an integrated body frame where the monocoque body sits on a traditional ladder frame and new engine options coupled with a highly sophisticated six-speed automatic transmission. All this tested to the full in the most awesome surroundings. The Atlantic lapping to our right and the spectacular dunes of the Namib to our left. The colours, the silhouettes, the sand, the sea and the silence. Namibia at its best.
After an extraordinary tented lunch stop on the shore, Discovery 3 is allowed to show off its prowess in the very dunes themselves. Like our surroundings, most impressive. Playing "follow my leader", we return to the Swakopmund Hotel & Entertainment Centre, tonight's resting place. We are, intriguingly, asked to assemble outside the hotel at 19.30 hours - and there complete with Land Rover chauffeurs our carriages await. A mystery trip as, with seven passengers to a car, we admire the cleverly designed stadium seating that affords all three rows of passengers excellent unobscured vision and the veritable cornucopia of storage space will accommodate all odds and sods, including, the factory promise, some 17,5 litres of cool drinks! Yet another magical moment as the Discos, now in darkness, round a turn in a dry cliff edged river course and park in a natural bowl illuminated by hundreds of candles placed amongst the rockfaces. An evening, with an Arabian theme and excellent fare, to be remembered.
Reveille is early on Tuesday as we look forward to the long and picturesque drive back to the capital Windhoek and, for most, Hosea Kutako airport. Over three hundred kilometres in all on tar, managed effortlessly by each of the three engine options (the exciting TDV6 2.7 litre turbodiesel unit, modified from the existing Jaguar powerplant, the 4.4 litre V8 petrol developed again from a Jaguar unit or the very tractable V6 4 litre Ford plant). Only the automatic version will be available at launch, but with the driver being able to override all changes manually courtesy of Land Rover's "Command Shift" function. A manual version of the diesel car will follow later.
We cruise smoothly through changing vistas, through the kaleidoscope of colours that is Namibia, past the rural towns of Usakos, Karibib and Okahandja before reaching the capital and journeys end.
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