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4
T
HERE’S a weird story of how the Land Rover
Freelander came into being; believe it or not,
the Honda CR-V and the Land Rover Freelander
are actually distant cousins. If you’ve got time,
you should read this story. If not, skip down a few
paragraphs to the review itself.
Britain’s car industry had been in decline for
decades by the time the government nationa-
lised most of it in 1975. The nationalised Brit-
ish car companies were turned into a corporation
called British Leyland, which owned, among other
brands, Rover and Land Rover.
The new chairman of British Leyland, Sir Mi-
chael Edwardes, closed down or sold off most of
the British Leyland companies and in 1982 re-
named the company as the Austin Rover Group,
later shortened to just the Rover Group.
As part of the modernisation of the Rover
Group, Edwardes arranged a deal with the Honda
Motor Co to share technology and manufacturing
facilities in England.
