manoftaste
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Another blurry shot of the front end of what looks to be the 4-door model.
View attachment 8712
This makes it look like they've made the unfortunate decision to give it similar headlights to the entire rest of the Land Rover model lineup. I had hoped they would keep the round headlights, but that hope was probably misguided.
I personally would be ok with the non-round headlights if the overall design brings the Defender into the modern world but with its own image intact, like the way they had done the Disco 2 to LR3 transition, heritage and lineage was kept there. In fact, the LR3/4 became an icon itself, and we all were hoping to see a nice evolution of LR3, not Disco 2, in the form of D5. Now that says something about a good design.
And thats exactly what they have/had the opportunity for and what they need/needed to do with the Defender. But looking at the undercarriage and its components (same short control arms pulled straight from the siblings, exhaust hanging under the diff, etc.), I am less hopeful with the current crew in charge of the ship. Its pretty clear, they certainly are not interested in this kinda **** anymore. The laziness of recycling parts from the siblings its obvious in the pics. If it was just another model filling a gap in the lineup I would totally respect the recycling of the parts, thats what all makers do to cut costs.
But, this is not a Toyota Camry or an Evoque we are talking about here.
This is, supposedly, the rebirth of their thee most anticipated, thee most sought after, thee most wanted, instantly recognizable top icon. The 'Best 4x4 by Far" that is, right? I mean, when you think of the words "Land Rover", the Defender shape/icon comes to mind, not the Range Rover silhouette. Its an identity in itself. Its not just another "white space" that respected Mr. McGovern is trying to fill, and yet they dont have the will and desire to design specific components for this particular model which they know it will not have any problems selling. But the problem here is that in their desire to milk even the last dollar out of the whole process of creating another model in the lineup, they would like to turn Defender too into a volume sales product and are willing to take chances with something as cherished and iconic as Defender. And with that thought process and prevailing philosophy, our LR4 really had absolutely no shot of surviving let alone being updated, ha.
The display of non-seriousness here about their most recognizable and loved icon that practically put these guys on the map is almost like that LR kinda just dont really want to be part of all that 4x4 nonsense anymore (hence the decision to drop the requirement of having an off road course at the dealerships) but they are really being forced to do so because they either want to milk the last dollar out of that legacy and/or, aside from the obligatory flash/bling/luxury, they really don't have anything else different to offer anymore. So if they got rid of their 4x4 heritage completely, the brand would be just like another diluted anything else in this oversaturated market albeit with much inferior reliability history and track record.
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