Throughout Land Rover’s transformation from unrivalled king of the off roaders to lifestyle brand of choice for the upper-middle classes, somewhere along the line it has taken its eye off the ball. Under the radar, Santana has become the serious challenger to its traditional market. So we sent Andrew Stevenson to find out more.

Despite having been praised in the press and receiving the notable accolade of ‘best 4x4 in the world’, Santana is still a relatively unknown commodity, best known for producing the Land Rover under licence in Spain. The market it caters for – the seriously heavy duty end, carrying significant payloads and gangs of rugged men – have been fiercely loyal to Land Rover and Range Rover, putting up with the quirks and the rattles because, after all, they were the best vehicle out there. Weren’t they?

At a two-day event in the heart of the Sussex countryside, Santana got to work in what the Americans would call the ‘battle for hearts and minds’, starting with, from what Fleet Times could make out, a vast majority of Land Rover lovers and enthusiasts. Many of the punters at the event were ex-military and had taken the Land Rover to heart in civilian life, some even considered that they owed their lives to it, and so felt slightly treacherous even flirting with the options.

As Fleet Times doesn’t have a writer who has either owned a Land Rover or had to drive in a war zone, we decided to canvass the opinion of the experts on site.

The first impression (to the amazement of the owners of the older Land Rover models) was that conversation didn’t stop as soon as the engine fired up. People shouted ‘I can hear what you’re saying,’ but they really didn’t need to.

On the road the Santana handled more like a family estate car than the workhorse it is. Those used to fighting with stubborn steering were shocked, describing it as ‘light and fluffy,’ but, as the managing director of UK Plant, Rodney Hotham, who owns Santana dealerships in the Sussex and Kent area, said: “This vehicle is designed to be driven comfortably after a hard day’s work. People with no preconceptions about handling a 4x4 climb in and drive it beautifully.” Naturally, Fleet Times was driving beautifully.

But whilst its performance on the road was an unexpected bonus, the off road experience was exceptional. Again the Land Rover fanciers marvelled at how it handled the terrain. Their excited conversation highlighting the fact that the Santana range clearly benefits from having been designed properly, improving, where possible, on each of the Land Rover’s known weaknesses.

The Santana’s power is delivered via a soft response accelerator pedal, which maximises the off road driver control with 275 N m of torque being delivered at 1,800 rpm. And the power available through the 2.8 turbo diesel engine means that the vehicle excel whilst towing loads of up to 3.5 tonnes.

The five speed gearbox drives through a two speed transfer box providing 10 forward and two reverse gear ratios with selectable four wheel drive.

Santana pioneered the development and use of parabolic leaf suspension, which combines strength and simplicity and is easy and cheap to maintain. With two front and four rear leaves, the parabolic suspension is designed to carry a one-tonne payload, so, not only are tax benefits available across the range, but axle articulation makes light work of even the toughest off road driving conditions with the minimum of body roll and, as the terrain got worse, the engine growled with delight, providing exceptional torque all in relative comfort.

By the end of the ride the conversions had started, leaving the new disciples to go forth and spread the word. Encouragingly, the Ministry of Defence has approved the Santana for COTS (commercial off the shelf) and MOTS (military off the shelf), so it probably won’t be long before we’re seeing our ‘boys abroad’ riding round in this range of vehicles, and they won’t be disappointed.

Watch out Land Rover, your judgement day has arrived.