We need to talk about the Land Rover Discovery’s rear end

The 2017 Land Rover Discovery has been revealed ahead of the 2017 Paris Motor Show

We need to talk about the Land Rover Discovery's rear end

After months of teases, the 2017 Land Rover Discovery has been revealed at a special event on the eve of the Paris Motor Show. It featured Bear Grylls, Zara Phillips and a record-breaking Lego model of Tower Bridge.

The car is a huge deal for Land Rover, as evidenced by the huge marketing and PR budget that has gone into its launch. But reaction online has been varied. Our first impression was “it looks exactly as we expected”, but then we started to look a bit closer.

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Top Gear’s Chris Harris was amongst the first to point out that it looks a little, er, odd…

And even SsangYong UK’s CEO Paul Williams pointed out the resemblance between it and the Tivoli XLV.

But then it hit us. It’s that rear end.

Land Rover Discovery

Apparently design chief Gerry McGovern admits it’s a “radical departure in design”. To us, well, it looks a bit awkward. So what’s so odd about it?

Maybe it’s the fact that it doesn’t have a split tailgate, Range Rover-styley. Apparently they tried that…

Or is it the fact that the number plate is offset, mimicking the original Discovery’s side-hinged tailgate?

radical departure in design

Maybe we’re being harsh on the new Discovery – as Harris points out, it’s sure to be yet another hit for JLR. We’ll reserve our final judgement until we’ve seen it up close and personal at the show – but we’d love to here your thoughts. Is it us, or does it look a bit awkward? Comment below.

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Andrew Brady
Andrew Brady
Web editor at MR. Drives a 2005 Toyota MR2. Has a penchant for the peculiar.

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