New Land Rover Discovery Will Have A Hard Time Selling Because It's Ugly

There was a rather unfortunate period in the Land Rover Discovery's history where the tall SUV had to shed its famous name in the North American region. The Discovery Series I and Series II had gained such a bad reputation for reliability among Americans that Land Rover decided to call it the LR3 (a nod to this model being the Series III in other regions) and then followed that with the LR4 (for the Series IV). Throughout that period, the Discovery never lost its defining right angles.

Until now that is, because the first Discovery to be introduced to America since 2004 looks completely different than any of its predecessors. It doesn't take 20/20 vision to see that the muscular angles of the old Disco have given way to soft lines and curvaceous sheetmetal. According to what Jaguar Land Rover Australia's managing director Matthew Wiesner toldCar Advice, the new design may be hurting Land Rover's bottom line. "The new shape is certainly going to test some of the traditional owners of Discovery," Wiesner says. "I think the size is quite deceptive until you see it in the flesh, and get in there and have a play." In this case, we don't think size is the main thing holding customers back.