Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s head of design, has proved time and again that he has the Midas touch when it comes to both respecting heritage and reinventing for the future.
Few design teams, if any, have got it so consistently right in modern times, be it redefining established market leaders (Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Discovery Sport) or smashing open all-new sectors (Evoque and, yes, Evoque Convertible).
Read more: New Land Rover Defender is to be the brand's most high-tech car yet
Yet with the Defender, McGovern and his team face their biggest challenge yet. The goal is no less than reinventing an icon, giving it broad enough appeal to triple sales from where the old vehicle left off without denting the credibility of a car that, even in its current absence, is the anchor of the Land Rover brand.
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concinnity
Here's hoping the design reflects it's heritage.
Specially on their most utilitarian vehicle, which hopefully will be more of an aluminium 70 series Toyota LandCruiser competitor, than yet another overpriced 'lifestyle device' to bump over kerbs in the world's leafier city suburbs while being badly steered by the orange-skinned.
concinnity
'modernist ethos' sorry, big
Bullfinch
'67-year-old design'
Yes, it looked a bit like a Series I and of course it suits JLR PR to pretend it is the same car - we get that - but the truth is quite otherwise and the designers of the Defender must have faced a similar challenge in the early 1980s to those employed by the company now.
Give them some credit, please. Let's stop pretending that this one vehicle remained in production for 67 years and get real.
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@ Bullfinch
devil's advocate
Once again
TStag
This isn't that big a
androo
It's easy
Bullfinch
Fat chance of that, Androo
Waiting in hope
DEFENDER
scrap
The new Defender won't be a
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