When Land Rover first set up shop in Canada about 15 years ago, a Chrysler executive explained how the British firm was going to market its sole vehicle at the time, the Range Rover.

"It's badly designed, badly built, ungainly looking, unpleasant to drive, uncomfortable to ride in, hard on gas and has one of the worst quality ratings in the world," he said. "The only thing they can do is charge a lot of money for it. If it was reasonably-priced, no one in his right mind would buy it."

Thus the basic premise of exclusivity: If a vehicle showed the world you are so rich you didn't need to buy a good car, it had served its purpose and you just lived with its faults.

Land Rover has been working that angle ever since, through an increasing number of models and three sets of owners: Rover originally, BMW for a couple of years in the late 1990s, and now, Ford.

The firm's marketing technique is just as interesting. Though very few owners actually take their vehicles off-road, Land Rover has developed a "wellies and tweed" mystique that speaks to some powerful desire to be like the British gentry and drive in dirt.

However, the only off-road experience many Land Rover buyers experience is seeing their vehicle up on the service department hoist.

Land Rover has a reputation for poor quality that is kept burning by the latest J.D. Power and Associates' Initial Quality Survey ratings, though it must be said these results are better than those that went before. The latest IQS show the sport-utility vehicle firm dead last in the standings, with three times the things-gone-wrong record of such brands as Buick and Lexus.

Perhaps this is why sales have begun to sag for the firm that was supposed to give Ford profits from the luxury SUV buyer but hasn't yet. In Canada, sales are down about 11 per cent compared to the year before, and off 30 per cent in July.

A sales decrease could be the result of increased competition for big-spenders from General Motors' Hummer division, which has two new models coming in the next few months.

Or it could be the growing lack of interest in truck-based SUVs and the various liabilities they've always had, such as poor ride and handling qualities.

Many of these buyers are moving to vehicles that look like they'll go off-road but can't, which I think of as faux-by-fours but are more commonly called crossovers.

It probably doesn't help that gasoline prices are starting to draw people's attention to the poor fuel economy levels of such vehicles.

Whatever the reasons for the brand's sales decline, Ford certainly has big plans for its luxury SUV division. The Range Rover that debuted about two years ago is a light-years improvement over the first model sold in Canada and has the best interior in the industry.

Range Rover is the only Land Rover model to register a sale increase in North America this year.

Soon enough will come the LR3, the North American name for the vehicle that's called the Discovery 3 everywhere else. Whatever that is like (tune in next week for a first look), it has to be better than the Discovery 2.

As for the decision to drop the traditional names in North America in favour of alphanumeric ones, it came down from on high and is not yet widely accepted across the Land Rover family. The company has a lot of equity in the Range Rover name, the theory goes, so why should that be abandoned for LR4 or whatever it may be?

After the LR3 comes the next-generation Freelander. Freelander has registered by far the biggest sales drop in North America this year.

The theory is that by upgrading existing models and adding models to compete in new segments, Land Rover will increase its volumes and finally earn Ford some profits.

The challenge, however, is that just about every car company in the country has the same theory, so there'll be extra Hummer and Jeep models, among others, for Land Rover to battle in the new segments as well as the old.

Under those circumstances, the "wellies and tweed" mystique and charging too much money may not be enough.

Price increase for Land Rover

When the 2005 LR3 arrives in Canada this fall, it will be more expensive than the Discovery 2 model it's replacing. The Brampton, Ont.-based distributor of Ford Motor Co.'s British brands in Canada says the MSRP of the LR3 SE will be $61,900, which is a $7,000 (or 12 per cent) increase over the same trim level of the Disco 2 or a $12,900 (26 per cent) increase over the base trim of the old model.

An upscale HSE trim will retail for $67,900, which is a $10,300 (17 per cent) increase over the price of the same trim level in the old model.

For sure, the LR3 will likely be a vast improvement on the Disco 2, but other companies launching greatly improved models have been able to hold or even lower prices.

These huge prices increases are probably the result of the continuing strength of the British pound against the Canadian dollar, so we can likely see other big sticker jumps when any new model comes to market from now on.

Land Rover Canada is going to launch a cheaper LR3 with a six-cylinder engine, but not for some time apparently.

Vic Bernardini, president of Aston Martin Jaguar Land Rover Canada, said "the all-new LR3 is the most technologically advanced and boldest Land Rover ever launched in the history of the company.

"This premium SUV, with its unmatched versatility and capability, is an excellent value considering the amount of feature, content and innovation Land Rover is bringing to the market," he said.

LR3 gets a 4.4-litre V-8 engine mated to a six-speed electronic automatic transmission on a new architecture, and "numerous technological advancements."

Bernardini says the LR3's on-road ride is greatly improved, which is a good thing since virtually no Canadian who buys one will ever take it off-road.

Next BMW 3 Series revealed

Drop by germancarfans.com if you can't wait to see what the next model of BMW's biggest selling line looks like. Apparently a brochure destined for the market in Slovenia has gone public and the company's plans for a careful rollout have been scuppered. The car is expected to go on sale in Canada in a year.

The 2006 BMW 3 Series has a modern look, but it seems to have been spared a flagrant application of the controversial "Bangle butt" (so named for chief designer Chris Bangle) rear end that has swirled around the more expensive 5 and 7 Series models.

Wind to power fuel-cell car

Hydrogenics of Toronto has set up a demonstration program at this year's CNE that will take power from a wind turbine and use it to create hydrogen from water.

Energy generated by the wind turbine will be used to power the HyLYZER, which is capable of producing about 65 kilograms of hydrogen a day.

Next spring, the hydrogen station will be used to refuel two fuel-cell-powered John Deere Gator all-terrain vehicles, which will be used by maintenance staff at Exhibition Place as part of Toronto's Hydrogen Village initiative. At the CNE in 2005, plans call for the demonstration of an urban transit bus, powered by Hydrogenics' fuel-cell power module technology.

The bus will be able to produce energy when it is parked and send this energy back into the electrical grid.