The highly esteemed Range Rover marque in SUVs celebrates its 40th year on the 17th of June this year. Starting out as an upscale version of the iconic Land Rover about to end its production line, the new Range Rover became a landmark in the emerging 4X4 SUV trend. Visit McDonald Land Rover to find out how Range Rover is celebrating the passing of its fourth decade of existence.

That would soon sweep the automotive industry as the first vehicle of choice among executives, diplomats and government leaders. It remains in production to this day with the first generation models produced between 1970 and 1995 getting re-badged as the Range Rover Classic. You can find Range Rover Classic parts at McDonald Land Rover.

The 40th anniversary celebration caps of with the debut of the baby Range Rover LRX set to be unveiled at the 2010 Paris Motor show towards the end of the year. First exhibited as a concept in the 2008 Detroit Car Show, this LRX makes a fitting salute to the marque as the smallest and lightest SUV in the Rover line, not to mention that it will be getting the most fuel efficient 2.2 liter engine capable of 50 miles to gallon.

It’s worth remembering that the first Land Rover didn’t intend the Range Rover to be the luxury SUV marque it is today, but just a more comfortable upscale variant of the iconic Land Rover vehicle that are more seen off-road than on it.

It inherited the same upright British demeanor and signature boxy profile of the Land Rover but with more sculpted finesse.

The first generation Range Rovers had none of the sybaritic appointments on the modern Range Rover, with just vinyl seats, rubber floors and plastic dashboards. But over the next few years, Land Rover released variants that eschewed power steering, air conditioning, leather and cloth seat, carpeted floors and other appointments so that by the time the first generation had ended in 1994, Range Rover name has became synonymous to a flagship luxury 4X4 that is the most sought after SUV worldwide.

Phils Popham, Land Rover’s Managing Director, extols the Range Rover line saying that “it is 4 vehicles in 1. It’s a luxury car, a leisure car that can go far over highways and no-ways, a high performance long distance car and a cross country utility vehicle.” McDonald Land Rover is also a great place to look for new Land Rover engines, if you need a new engine for whatever reason.

Charles Spencer King, a former engineering chief and considered the “father” of the Range Rover name, pays tribute to the marque as having been designed “to combine the on-road finesse and comfort of a Rover saloon with the off-road prowess of a Land Rover. Nobody though it could be done nor was it ever done before but it seemed worth the try. Land Rover needed of a fresh new product.”

The next generation Range Rover entered the markets in 1995. It was at this time that Britain lost its road icon to Germany’s Bavarian car maker BMW which promptly gave the SUV a “German” engineering makeover with a new BMW V6 engine as an option to its standard Rover V8. It ended up being more luxurious than G-Wagon of rival Mercedes Benz.

In 2002, the new owner Ford unveiled the 3rd generation Range Rover that had been gestating under BMW. Now owned by the India’s Tata Motors Group, the Range Rover continues the tradition of trend-setting SUV luxury that will soon see the baby Range Rover hit the road in 2011.