Per Jerry McGovern:
1)“This is a business and the old Defender, at the end of its life, was a niche vehicle. Take out corporate sales and it had around 4500 retail customers a year. That is not sustainable. This car needs to have universal appeal."
Maybe if they didn't just sit on the design since 1982, and actually updated it to keep in line with various safety and emissions requirements that made it more and more of a niche vehicle over time, they wouldn't have sold so few near the end.
It also seems like a little bit of bad timing on Land Rover's part. In the U.S. at least, the "off road" market is absolutely red hot right now. Jeep sold over 240,000 Wranglers last year alone. Toyota's "TRD Pro" models can't stay on the lot, same with the Ford Raptor, Chevy has the ZR2, and Ford is coming out with the new Bronco. In the meantime, "vintage" SUVs like the Jeep Comanchee, old Land Cruisers, and old Land Rovers have skyrocketed in value.
In this market, a retro-designed Defender would have been very successful. But who knows how long this market will be here? And is this market the same across the world?
You easily get the sense, though, that nobody in charge at Land Rover is interested in going off-road. At Jeep, the heads of design and engineering attend all the official Jeep safaris and get togethers, not only to participate, but also to talk to people and get an idea of the common consensus. Land Rover just sends some driving instructors and maybe some of the old Camel Trophy participants. Still neat, but I doubt they have the kinda pull back at LR HQ that the Jeep guys do.
All the above notwithstanding, McGovern could have done two simple things, in my opinion, to make the reception this thing is getting be a lot better:
1. A front in more in line with the original.
2. Room for bigger tires. 33" is cool, but 35's would have been better.
That's not "all the way there," for a lot of people, but I'm guessing those two things would have made a lot more people like it.
2)“My hope is they say it’s right for the brand today. Yes, lots of current owners will keep their current cars forever – but to be brutally business-like about it, there’s not much point designing a car for them in that case, is there?"
He has a point there. It's not hard to find pristine, stored in bubble wrap examples of Defenders available for sale. But, again, I think what he's missing is that people (Americans, at least) really essentially wanted a Defender that was daily driveable.
The interior of the new Defender looks exceptional. People wanted that, but inside the body of a reasonably-updated Defender.