We can’t wait for the new Land Rover Defender. It’ll be sold in the US for the first time since 1997, and it promises to be a big improvement on the old, charming but technologically outmoded model. Apparently, we’re not the only ones getting impatient for the 4×4. Speaking to Automotive News, Richard Woolley, Land Rover’s design studio director, says he wishes the new Defender was here already.
Woolley, who was responsible for the lovely two-door Range Rover SV Coupe that debuted recently at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, would have preferred it if the new Defender had debuted at the 2018 Detroit Auto Show this past January. Why? Because that would have put it alongside the new Mercedes G-Wagen that was unveiled in Detroit.
“I wish was that we were showing the Defender at the same time [as the new G-Class],”
Woolley told Automotive News. “I think that the Defender will, you know, push it in the shade.”
Them’s fighting words. We’re still at least a few months away from seeing the final production Defender, but Woolley offered a few words as a preview.
“It will be, has to be, a different kind of vehicle, but still true to the Defender and Defender principles,” he told Automotive News. “We know the burden of responsibility in terms of replacing [the Defender].
“‘Icon’ is a word that is bandied around a lot these days, but the original Defender is one that qualifies,” he added.
We’ve heard previously that the new Defender would be shown this year in concept form before hitting production next year. It will use unibody construction for the first time, riding on the same aluminum-intensive platform as the current Range Rover.
But until the Defender debuts, we’ll have to daydream about the lovely old-style Defender Works V8 built by Land Rover Classic. The new one can’t come soon enough.