What It Is

The next generation of Land Rover’s free-range utilities, with multiple farm-friendly body configurations, including wagons, pickups, and convertibles.

Why It Matters

This British icon hasn’t been redesigned in more than 30 years and remains the direct descendant of the original 1948 Series I. The new model will finally make a clean break, ditching the ancestral corrugated-cardboard styling yet retaining its predecessor’s rugged, agricultural appeal. Land Rover last sold the Defender in the U.S. almost two decades ago, and the brand’s core identity needs some burnishing to offset the latte-and-smartphone crowd that, in the intervening years, has claimed it for its own.

Platform

Jaguar Land Rover won’t confirm that the new Defender will adopt an aluminum-intensive unibody similar to its other vehicles, but we’re betting on it.

Powertrain

Jaguar Land Rover has a broad engine lineup, from supercharged 5.0-liter V-8s and 3.0-liter V-6s all the way down to the new 2.0-liter inline-fours, both diesel and gas, coming in the Jaguar XE. Any and all of these engines are fair game here.

Competition

Jeep Wrangler, Mercedes-Benz G-class, a ’90s Defender, restored Ford Broncos and International Harvester Scouts.

What Might Go Wrong

Reactions to the cartoonish DC100 (DC for Defender Concept) shown at the 2011 Frankfurt show were violent enough that Land Rover design guru Gerry McGovern issued a disclaimer, saying it was only “the beginning of a four-year journey” to redesign a British icon as identifiable as Big Ben. Land Rover’s Jeep-like bind: If it makes the ute too hard-core, the faux-roaders won’t buy it, but if it’s too soft, the loyalists (including the British army) might revolt.

Estimated Arrival and Price

The neo-Defender should arrive in 2017 as a 2018 model, at about $55,000 to start.

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