Dog Parts

While surfing the web for some inspiration, which I did not find – good, this blog might actually have a longer life span than just two posts – I stumbled upon an interesting interview given by Gerry McGovern - JLR’s Design Director - to a small group of Australian media¹ in April this year. While this interview is six months earlier than the Edwards interview quoted in post 1, it was held after JLR had decided to can the DC 100 and gives some interesting insights into the reasons behind that wise decision and more importantly into the new Defender.

For starters, he emphasized that the new Defender will look nothing like the DC 100. Well, that’s settled then. He said “we’ve moved it on and I think that we’ve got something now that is even more relevant and even more desirable and even the traditionalists will love me for it”. McGovern continued “ we did a survey of the response to [DC 100]. We got 250.000 respondents on the internet. 90% of them loved it – pretty good – 8% were indifferent [why take part if you have no opinion? - TD] and 2% wanted to kill me”. Only 2 %? Worldwide? Sorry, I digress. McGovern went on to say that the DC 100 was just one of many different directions JLR was thinking in: “ I’m very pleased we did those concepts because it made very clear to me that… we needed something that was maybe not more elemental but something that was even more appropriate” . If as McGovern states, DC 100 was one of the many directions he was considering, why did JLR not show us a few of the other ‘directions’ after DC 100 was killed? I know, I would have had to find something else to kill my time with than this blog if it appeared that one of the other directions was more digestible, but I would have been ready for that sacrifice.

 Anyway, moving on to the new Defender, McGovern said that JLR was working on a number of variations that will make up an expanded Defender family. “There’s an opportunity to spin it in different ways and different version” said McGovern, “ …different types of Defenders, pick-ups and all types of things.” McGovern continued by saying that he does not want to do “a heavy duty, dual-purpose, incredibly durable vehicle [does that mean this thing is only going to be ‘somewhat’ durable? Too bad, thought that JLR might fix that issue this time around – TD] that looks like the dog’s dinner. Why can’t a car that’s incredibly durable and workable look good as well?” Exactly, that’s what 2% of us wondered when we saw the DC 100. “This thing, I can assure you” he said “will be incredibly distinctive. You’ll look at it and say ‘That Is a modern-day Defender’, and there will be nothing else like it.” He eloquently summed it all up by saying: This car will be the bollocks, the absolute dog’s bollocks”. Well OK then.

1.     Quotes taken from www. caradvice.au.com: New Land Rover Defender will be the “dog’s bollocks” : Designer, by Tim Beissmann, 30 March 2013.