Land Rover redesign: do you want a familiar face or modern muscle?
Updating a much-loved classic car design is a tricky business, and Land Rover is giving itself until 2015 to refine the DC100 concept into a Defender production model that overcomes customer reservations.
Traditionalists who love the box-on-four-wheels that was the original Land Rover (above left is a Series 3, 1976 vintage) have taken a look at the DC100 pictures released this week (above right) and express disquiet about “turning the Landy into a drug dealer’s car”.
Commenting on the DC100 unveiled this week, Gerry McGovern, director of design at Land Rover, anticipated such resistance: “Replacing the iconic Defender is one of the biggest challenges in the automotive design world; it is a car that inspires people worldwide. This isn’t a production-ready concept but the beginning of a four-year journey to design a relevant Defender for the 21st century.”
The pictures do show a car with contemporary 4×4 styling, but some characteristic lines have been retained. The front roof slope is the same on old and new versions, for example.
The face is clearly a Land Rover’s, too, with the straight-ahead light configuration providing echoes of the old Defender (see below).
Adding to the sense of familiarity is the half-raised bonnet, which remains faithful to the original by continuing the straight lines from headlights to windscreen. The lines continue downwards, framing the grille, also like the older design.
The VW Beetle, MINI and Fiat 500 all encountered design-focused criticism when relaunched. Yet, the MINI, for example, has just seen its two millionth model roll off the production line, demonstrating the uptake of retro redesign by a younger generation.
So, with the age profile of traditional Land Rover buyers almost matching the age of the old design, the car maker may well be thinking: “Do we need to take the traditionalists with us?”
Leave a Reply