Discovery 3.

The Discovery 3 (codename L319) was the first all-new Discovery, developed under Ford ownership and revealed on 2 April 2004 ahead of a New York Auto Show debut, going on sale as the LR3 in North America and the Middle East. Almost nothing carried over: the 'Integrated Body Frame' welded a monocoque body to a hydroformed ladder chassis, suspension became fully independent (with cross-linked air springs on most models), and Terrain Response - the rotary controller that reconfigured engine, gearbox, diffs and traction electronics for chosen surfaces - made its world debut, becoming a Land Rover signature.

Gerry McGovern-era design under Geoff Upex replaced the original Discovery's soft edges with an unapologetically geometric body that kept the model's landmarks: the stepped roof, stadium seating and near-vertical tail (now with an asymmetric split tailgate). Three rows seated seven adults, with the rear rows folding into a flat floor. Engines came from the Ford-Jaguar portfolio: the 2.7-litre AJD TDV6 diesel that dominated European sales, the 4.4-litre Jaguar AJ-V8, and a base 4.0-litre Cologne V6 for North America.

The Discovery 3 was showered with awards - including a string of 4x4-of-the-year titles and Australia's '4WD of the Year' - and Top Gear's road testers rated it among the best vehicles in the world at any price for its combination of off-road ability and on-road manners. A G4 Challenge liveried fleet and strong global sales cemented it as the definitive mid-2000s expedition and towing vehicle.

Production ran at Solihull (with some assembly in Aqaba, Jordan for regional markets) until 2009, when the substantially upgraded Discovery 4/LR4 took over the L319 platform; no model-specific production total appears to have been published. Ownership changed beneath it in 2008, when Ford sold Jaguar Land Rover to Tata Motors.