Land Rover’s designer director has hit back at critics of the new Discovery’s styling, retorting with “I’m a professional designer and they’re not”.
According to motoring.com.au, design director Gerry McGovern jumped to the defence of the fifth-generation Discovery – which is due to launch in South Africa in July (see pricing here) – after questions from the media.
“Well, I could be quite glib about it. I’m a professional designer and they’re not. I think it hangs together really well,” McGovern said, according to the Australian publication.
The Coventry-born designer admitted that the new seven-seater model had prompted a strong reaction from the public, but argued that it had been largely positive.
“In terms of the overall feedback we have had, the reaction is really high in terms of positivity. There have been one or two detrimental words, but there are always going to be. You take it on the chin, but it’s not going to stop the car selling,” he said, according to motoring.com.au.
“Some people will say this has lost that very special look that Discovery had, but that to me is the specialist talking. We know for a fact with [the previous generation Discovery] – which personally I loved but I am not designing for myself, I am designing for the consumer – that is a design that didn’t resonate with a lot of people. It was very polarising,” he said.
McGovern said that the brand could not afford to be polarising.
“All the vehicles we create now need to sell a certain volume, get that investment back and re-invest it in the future. Now, we are never going to be a massive volume, but we need to get to a critical mass of volume in order to sustain ourselves … and that’s for both Jaguar and Land Rover.”
