Defender of the Faith No More: Land Rover to Build Iconic 4x4’s Successor in India

If there’s one car the British industry can be proud about (apart from the Mini), it’s the Defender. Land Rover’s 4x4 has been in production since 1949 and, even though it evolved somewhat over the decades, at heart it was always the same.

And even though Land Rover has licensed the manufacture of some derivatives and clones of the Defender in countries such as Turkey and Brazil, it was always built in Solihull, UK.

In three years’ time, this tradition will come to an end as Land Rover's owner Tata Motors has decided to manufacture its 2015 replacement at its Prune plant in India and export it from there to the rest of the world.

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Tata Motors Recalling World's Cheapest Car, the Nano, to Upgrade Starter

Tata Motors, the Indian automotive giant that owns the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, has issued the biggest ever recall action in India, concerning a little over 115,000 Nano city cars to replace the starter motor.

However, the company prefers to use the term "upgrade" instead of "recall" as it claims there is no safety hazard associated with the old starter motor.

The maker of the world's cheapest automobile said the installation of the new starter motor began in October this year and that it has already replaced the starter in 50,000 Nano cars.

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Tata Launches 2012 MY Nano with More Powerful and Fuel Efficient Engine [Video]

India's Tata Motors announced today the introduction of the 2012 model year Nano, which perhaps not too surprisingly, looks identical to the outgoing version. However, even though the design remains the same, the Indian carmaker claims to have made a host of improvements, the most important of which is a revised engine. Read more »

Japanese Engineers Envy Manza Sedan in New Tata Commercial

In one of those funny but not so funny commercials, India's Tata Motors takes a humorous stab at its Japanese competition with a new ad for the Mazda Mazna small sedan.

Tata's latest TV spot takes off from where we first saw fictional Japanese engineer Tanuka San trying out the Manza saloon as he travels to India along with his goofy sidekick to supposedly discover why customers are buying the sedan model.

See both ads for yourself in the videos after the break.

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Report: Jaguar and Land Rover to Build Cars in China in Partnership with Chery

What do you do when you are a luxury carmaker and sales aren’t going as well as expected? Simple: you invest in China, as despite the cooling car market, buyers continue to have an appetite for foreign luxury cars.

In July, we reported that Jaguar and Land Rover owner, Tata Motors, would invest heavily in the two brands in order to improve their sales, especially those of Jaguar, which are on a sharp decline.

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