Land Rover’s design boss has defended the asymmetrical rear design of the new Discovery, before blaming dealers for fitting the wrong type of numberplate.
Gerry McGovern told Auto Express that the latest version of the Discovery was “designed for a slimmer numberplate”.
“It doesn’t bother me,” McGovern told the British publication.
“You know what part of the problem is with that offset plate? It depends on what numberplate you put on it. And it was designed for a slimmer numberplate,” he said.
“What we’re seeing is, and we’re going to rectify it, is a lot of our dealers are putting deeper numberplates on the cars. And that compounds the problem. You get a load of yellow with the blue stripe at the side and it doesn’t quite fit,” the design director added, making reference to plates used in the United Kingdom.
McGovern went on to defend the controversial rear styling of the Discovery, saying that it served to pay tribute to the vehicle’s predecessors.
“Overall, I like the design of the back of the Discovery for its asymmetry, because it’s tipping its hat to the Discoveries of the past. I think what’s happened is that there’s a whole variety of numberplates.
“We’ve got a study going on at the moment and I don’t want to change that asymmetry, but we do need to do something about the numberplates,” he said.
Back in February, McGovern had strong words for critics of the Discovery’s design, saying “I’m a professional designer and they’re not’.
