Land Rover Defends The Faith

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: August 31st, 2011

Often times concept vehicles portray an already-decided future direction. Other times, concepts are built to suggest one possibility in an ongoing debate about a model’s future. Land Rover has taken the latter approach with its new DC100 concept, telling Autocar that the Frankfurt-bound concept

builds upon essential elements of the Defender’s character and allows us to open the debate and inspire people to dream about Defenders of the future. The DC100 isn’t a production-ready concept, but the beginning of a four-year journey to design a relevant Defender for the 21st century.

Will the new Defender get an all-new version of its rugged, body-on-frame chassis, or will it move to a re-engineered version of the T5 platform that underpins the Discovery and Range Rover Sport? That’s all still to be decided as Landie navigates a sales and regulatory environment that makes life extremely difficult for old-school SUVs. And because the Defender has lost much of its developing-world market to more reliable Toyota 4x4s, I’d guess the next Defender will be a less-traditional interpretation of the original. While that’s all being hashed out ahead of the 2015 launch date, at least we have an attractive concept to go along with a compelling debate.

#3WTP #4x4 #Branding #Concept #Defender #Design #FutureVehicles #LandRover #Trucks

Edward Niedermeyer

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2 of 24 comments

Rental Man on Aug 31, 2011

Kosher? Maybe the star of David rims... Business case? 3 door, 9 pass. Wagon, pick up truck in different wheelbases. Base bare bones like an African jungle vehicle and an American beach cruiser for rich dad kid's. Take a look at the extended family of the Wrangler. More doors more sales. That is what you do with an icon. BTW check out specs for a Diesel high MPG truck. Dream on...

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Slance66 on Sep 01, 2011

Are they serious about the aspect ratio on those tires? Those look like 35's. On an off road vehicle? If that's what it ships with, then they are clearly selling a car with a certain look more than an actual intent to perform.

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