Ford to Launch New Land Rover SUV in North America for 2005

Ford Motor Co.'s Land Rover brand is planning to roll out a new sport utility vehicle in North America next year as way to entice more young buyers, the company said recently. "We aim to sell to a young, affluent, well-educated customer," Land Rover spokesman Larry Rosinski said.

The new LandRover SUV, labeled the Range Rover Sport, will be manufactured in the automaker's Solihull plant in the British Midlands, where new operating and working procedures are being implemented to improve quality and efficiency.

The luxury SUV maker, which is part of Ford's stable of foreign brands dubbed Premier Automotive Group, placed 28th recently in the J.D. Power and Associates 2004 initial quality study, well below the industry average and trailing sister company Jaguar, which was ranked third.

Land Rover stated that it expects the recently-introduced LR3 SUV and the Range Rover Sport, which will be priced below the Range Rover, will help to boost its image and reputation. The Range Rover Sport will be priced above the LR3, which starts at a suggested price of about $45,000 in the U.S., Land Rover said.

Land Rover has recently been hit hard by quality problems, poor exchange rates and somewhat shrinking sales. Its sales in the critical U.S. market are down 19.5 percent so far this year. The company was on shaky financial footing even before Ford bought it in 2000 from BMW. Ford expects the luxury brand to contribute significantly to its mid-decade pretax profit target of $7 billion.