The Land Rover LRX should be on its way to our Madison new cars lineup … eventually. Several months back the UK granted Land Rover $37.2 million to help for the capital needed to begin production on the LRX by the final quarter of 2009. That makes us believe that the LRX will be turning heads on UK streets in 2010, but from what we can tell, the LRX will take another full year to reach the States.

Expect it to arrive stateside though. This vehicle is far too exciting to live exclusively across the pond. The LRX seems to take the Land Rover design into the future in a big way. There is no mistaking the sleek, compact design for anything but the ultimate off-roading four-wheel drive. However, the LRX is certainly a design and model that will transform the shape of the brand. It manages to look very much in the spirit of the inventory currently at our Land Rover Madison dealer, but the LRX gives the design quite a twist. With its smaller size and city appeal, the LRX should find a new, younger and more urban market. We think this will be one of the best Madison new cars to hit our lots in a long time.

This has already been called the smallest, lightest and most efficient vehicle to drive out of a Land Rover factory. Likely to be marketed under the Range Rover badge, the LRX figures to attain gas mileage numbers that rival the very best small SUVs on the road today. Not only that, I would not be surprised to see the LRX feature the first-ever hybrid in the Land Rover family a year or so after it first hits our Madison dealer. Rumors of a diesel-electric hybrid powertrain are already running rampant for the European market. That same deisel hybrid would be exciting to see here, but we’re betting we would see a gas-electric option in the U.S. first.