“Are you going to work on the new Defender?” is a question which has of course come up a lot. I keep getting asked my opinion on the new Defender. I will try to explain:

The new Defender is like the new kid on the block with rich parents a super successful big brother and therefore a chip on its shoulder. I feel it shouts really loud at how good it is at everything and has every possible fashion accessory with it. It shouts to try and make sure everyone knows or thinks he/it is the best.

The classic Defender (or the big brother) keeps quiet, carries on its daily task and says absolutely nothing.

What makes the now Classic Defender super, super, cool, is the fact that it doesn’t try – never did try – to convince anyone of anything. It just does its thing. Cool isn’t designed, cool isn’t created, cool just happens.

That said, lots of people will buy the new Defender. Lots of people will drive it. It will be a great success for JLR® and for many the roots or history are not really relevant.

What JLR have created is an amazing new vehicle. Perhaps the design teams mistake was to try to mirror, take design elements and infer a link to the old one. It should just be an amazing new car and it wouldn’t have to shout at all.

Will we work on the new one? Never say never. However our full focus time and effort, as it has been for over 19 years, is solely on building our very own modern interpretations of the original from our increasingly rare stock.

My thoughts for what they are worth, if I mistyped and spelt wrong please forgive me, school wasn’t my thing.