The car firms latest filed accounts show they have secured a £600m bank facility that will enable them to keep trading until the end of next year.

JLR were within days of defaulting on loans when it negotiated an extension which will hopefully secure hundreds of jobs at its Halewood plant

JLR was within days of defaulting on its loans before it negotiated an extension with its syndicate of more than 20 banks.

JLR is still hoping the government will underwrite a £340m European Investment Bank loan which will be used to develop new models such as the 60 miles per gallon LRX concept vehicle.

Land Rover has announced its support of the British & Irish Lions in a deal that will see the manufacturer as the “Official Vehicle of the British & Irish Lions 2009″ for the forthcoming summer Tour of South Africa.

Land Rover will provide a fleet of the supremely capable Discovery 3 vehicles for during the UK preparations and then throughout the two month tour of  South Africa. The vehicles will provide an essential role transporting the players, support staff and kit in comfort.

Chief Executive of the British & Irish Lions, John Feehan, commented, “We are delighted to have this support from Land Rover. Acquiring the backing of such a reputable supplier, that will be an undoubted asset to the squad and our Tour, has been very important to us.”

With a long and established relationship with the British & Irish teams, providing vehicles for both the 2001 & 2005 tours to Australia and new Zealand, Land Rover is again reinforcing its commitment to rugby.

Phil Popham, managing director of land Rover commented: “We are extremely pleased to be supporting the team yet again throughout this exciting tour both in the UK and in South Africa…”

Both sides are insisting that the talks are still ongoing at its Halewood plant, although owners, Tata Motors are understood to be refusing to accept the terms the Government want to impose on the loan.

Senior strategist at BGC Brokers, Howard Wheeldon, said he believed the conditions included restrictions on the Governments willingness to underwrite a £340M loan offered by the European Investment Bank (EIB) which would help partly finance the development of new greener cars.

It is also thought that demands include Tata invest millions of pounds more into JLR on top of the £940M it has already promised since taking over the company from Ford last year.

Ministers are also said to be demanding high level management control, including the right to choose a chairman and veto board decisions.

Howard Wheeldon described the government’s demands as “backdoor nationalisation” after the government said it would only guarantee £175m of £340m in loans to JLR approved by the EIB and for only six months. He also claimed the government demanded payment of a 15% premium for its role. With the Government backing, JLR would then have access to a further £450M in commercial bank loans.

The Discovery, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport all get new engines, major front end styling (to make them even uglier) and massive interior improvements (to make them even less likely to be driven anywhere near mud).

Land Rover Discovery 4 (2010)

The Discovery 4, Land Rover’s most versatile model has over 3,000 new parts, which is roughly the same number when the change was made from Discovery I to II.

The Discovery 4 is not due to go on sale until September 2009 and so far there is no pricing information available. I imagine Land Rover are keeping it close to their chest and seeing what state the market is in nearer the time.

Discovery 4’s package of changes include:

• 3.0-litre TDV6 engine, producing 241bhp/442lb ft, but is both: more economical and less polluting than the previous unit which will still continue for a while). Mpg is 30.4 and CO2 emissions are 244 kg/m
• LED bi-xenon lighting
• Massively redesigned interior, including a new dash
• Improved handling and ride
• More powerful brakes
• Improved 6-speed ZF autoshift transmission
• Keyless entry and pushbutton starting
• Terrain Response ‘Sand’ position now has new launch control for gentle initial acceleration
• Tow Assist cameras and plus Trailer Stability Assist to detect and stop unwanted snaking
• 360 degree cameras for parking outside the school or in the Waitrose car park.
• DAB digital radio

2010 Range Rover

The 2010 Range Rover, due to go on sale in June 2009, goes even more upmarket. Sporting a new front end, 5.0-litre supercharged V8 petrol engine and interior improvements including: active damping, TFT dash screen with virtual dials and information displays, more powerful brakes (so the drivers can sit even closer behind me on the motorway) and a range of bling improvements including keyless entry and parking cameras.

Land Rover design chief, Gerry McGovern said that market research showed that buyers didn’t want it changed, just made better and Land Rover certainly have followed the advice.

The package of improvements include what they call “a more noble face” as well as a whopping 5 litre supercharged V8. The inside hasen’t been neglected either.

2010 Range Rover package includes:

• More ‘noble’ front-end styling with LED lights
• 5 litre supercharged V8 petrol engine with better performance and improved economy and emissions
• 5 litre normally-aspirated V8 petrol engine for US market (not UK and Europe)
• Better specified premium-quality interior, with redesigned dash and optional leather rooflining• Keyless entry/push-button starting
• Thin Film Transistor (TFT) dash screen with virtual dials and information displays
• Dual-view central touch
• Active damping
• Adaptive Cruise Control
• Tow Assist and Tow Hitch Assist
• More powerful brakes
• 360-degree cameras for parking manoeuvres and off-road

The new 2010 Range Rover is due to go on sale from Jube 2009, again, as of yet no prices.

Range Rover Sport

According to the Land Rover marketing team, the Range Rover Sport has been given a “more attractive front end” as part of a major revamp. Other improvements include a new supercharged V8 engine along with the 3.0-litre TDV6 used in the Discovery 4, “Cleaner, more contemporary, less threatening front-end styling” and a host of internal improvements.

Range Rover 2010 packages include:

• 5 litre supercharged V8 producing 503bhp/442lb ft. Better economy and reduced emissions
• 5 litre normally-aspirated V8 for US market (not UK and Europe)
• 3 litre TDV6 engine, producing 241bhp/442lb ft, yet is more economical and less pollutive than the previous 2.7 unit (which still continues for the time being). Mpg is 30.7 and CO2 emissions are 244 kg/m.
• Less threatening front-end styling
• Optional paddle shift gearchange
• Active damping for improved ride and handling
• ‘Dynamic’ go-faster setting on the Terrain Response for road use
• LED bi-xenon lighting
• Improved interior
• Tow Assist and Tow Hitch Assist
• More powerful brakes
• Keyless entry/push-button starting
• 360-degree cameras for parking manoeuvres and off-road
• Faster changing 6-speed ZF autobox

The new Range Rover Sport is due to go on sale from September 2009.

The EIB today approved a whopping £340m package for Jaguar Land Rover and a £370m (400m euros) package for Nissan’s UK and Spain operations.

Jaguar Land Rover had applied for money to invest in research and technology to develop more environment-friendly cars at its Midlands and Merseyside plants. I personally think this is a bit of a lie and they desperately require the money just to stay afloat.

Lets hope they go back to building good old utility vehicles rather than these Chelsea tractors they have been churning out recently. Who needs a 4×4 in London?

According to government sources, the firm has met the loan criteria.

A loan of £364m (400m euros) will also be split between Nissan’s plants in Sunderland and Spain, bringing the UK total to £455m (500m euros).

Jaguar Land Rover said it could be a number of weeks before any cash was handed over.

Sources at the company were more cautious, stressing that whilst they were confident the money will be approved, they did not want to assume it would.

If the EIB loan is approved by its board when it meets in Luxemburg, it would then need some form of government guarantee before any monies were disbursed.

They add the deal is likely to be approved by the board of the EIB when it meets in Luxembourg next week.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has set aside £2.3bn (€2.5bn) in support for the car industry which is mostly made up of loan guarantees as well as direct aid to car makers.

The criteria for any EIB loan require car makers to invest in new greener technology to lower emissions during vehicle production and driving.

The car industry has been particularly hit by the recession with UK sales down 22% and car production plummeting 59% on the same time last year.

Jaguar Land Rover cut 450 staff in January 2009 and are seeking further 300 salaried redundancies from its 14,500-strong UK workforce. Some 50,000 British jobs are dependent on the firm.

Staff are essentially working a four-day week following an agreement with trade unions. Hourly-paid employees are working a 35-hour week and a pay freeze has been agreed on the guarantee of no compulsory job cuts for two years.

Based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, it employs about 15,000 people in Castle Bromwich, Coventry and Solihull in the West Midlands and Halewood, Merseyside.

Some 12 million people are employed in the European car industry, including 800,000 workers in the UK.

I saw my One Ten on Ebay and after many emails with the seller I drove down to Dover and met up with a friend from a forum I frequent to check it over. He is a mechanic and a land Rover owner so was ideally placed to advise me as I knew nothing about them then, and only marginally more now.

After checking it over from top to bottom, paying particular attention to the chassis and bulkhead he gave it a clean bill of health and I became one very happy Land Rover owner.

Driving it home was an experience as I wasn’t used to the handling characteristics of these things and by the time I got home I was worn out and wondering if I had made the right decision. It’s a big jump from a Renault Clio to a One Ten and I found the vague steering difficult. The next morning I woke up feeling as though I had flu my arms and back were so sore. Maybe I am just weak and it had nothing to do with the landy

Luckily this was only temporary and after a few days I was used to the big old lump and the inane grin has still not left my face almost a year later.

The first thing I did was spend 4 hours washing, T cutting and then waxing her from top to bottom. I wanted to see how it looked when washed and polished as it would probaly never look shiny again, and believe it or not, where there is paint it came up a treat!

But of course this is no way to treat a vehicle of this heritage so the very next day I jumped in and found some very deep mud on the farm and proceeded to get very stuck.