Land Rover Santana (1959 to 1994)

The Land Rover Santana was an off-road vehicle produced by Santana Motor in the Spanish municipality of Linares from 1958 to 1994. Essentially a Spanish production Land Rover Series, these were initially produced when the Santana factory (Metalúrgica de Santana)-an agricultural machinery factory- expressed interest to the Rover Co. Ltd. to produce their vehicles outside the Solihull factory, which at the time had limited capacity. Starting with the Series II Land Rover in 1958, the agreement with Land Rover persisted until 1983, after the company had produced Series II, Series IIA, Series III Land Rovers. From 1983 until 1994, the company continued producing the Series IV Santana (also known as the 2.5/2500), which was based on the Series III but was aesthetically closer to the recently launched Land Rover 90/110, which later became the iconic Defender.