❝THE NEW LAND ROVER DEFENDER'S DESIGN WILL MAKE BREXIT DEBATES SEEM MILD❞

JIM HOLDER STICKS HIS NECK OUT WITH A PREDICTION ABOUT THE MOST ANTICIPATED NEW CAR OF 2019

Actually, a very large part of me thinks that there won’t be a debate and that automotive enthusiasts have already closed their minds to accepting the new Defender.

But here’s hoping that Autocar readers are a bit broader-minded than this – and that we can all wait until the covers come off before leaping to conclusions. After all, the best pictures we’ve seen of the Defender so far are resplendent in camouflage to make the SAS proud.

The case for the defence has merit. First, if the Defender is to exist at all, Land Rover must turn it from a 20,000-units-a-year seller to a 50,000-a-year one. It would be business suicide to plough the same furrow carved by the old Defender.

Second, they won’t be launching a new Defender per se, but rather a new family of Defenders. Does that mean there will be one designed for showing off in Chelsea rather than traversing a swollen Zambezi? Probably. But don’t moan: just take your pick.

Finally, Land Rover’s design team arrive at this point with a string of king-hits to their name, the rear end of the latest Discovery aside (arguably). Like it or not (and isn’t it so very British to be snooty about it), they have knocked out success after success. Could it be that they could top their greatest triumph of recent times – the Evoque, surely – and unveil a Defender that makes us all fall in love with it?