The new 2020 Land Rover Defender dash has made an appearance on Twitter recently with a rather awkward exchange between the bloke that posted it, and Richard Agnew, who according to his Twitter bio, is the Land Rover Comms and PR Director. After a little research, it does indeed appear that Richard Agnew is the Comms and PR Director at Land Rover/Jaguar, and that is his Twitter account. The greatest issue if Land Rover wanted to keep this under wraps, is well, once it’s online… it stays online.
The post and response in question has garnered quite a bit of interest online, with what appears to be a drunken Twitter post revealing the high-tech, yet retro-looking dash, and a PR Director threatening to sic the rapid-response legal team onto said (possibly) drunken poster.
Land Rover’s US PR team have confirmed that the posting “was not part of a PR operation”, and that the image in question is actually an “older, out-of-date internal photo”. We can only guess as to how out-of-date and how old, however chances are we’ll not know until we get to see the final product.
The photo in question however, does go on to show a fully digital dash, with a tacho that goes all the way up to 7000rpm, and an automatic shifter. It will be a nice change to not have to sit behind a Defender owner at traffic lights for two minutes while they try to find first (up, left, down, down, X, X, square – for those wondering).
Further to the auto and dash upgrades, it also appears that STOP and GO are emblazoned on the pedals, just in case you can’t remember and need to glance down at your feet in an emergency braking situation to see which is the ‘go’ pedal, and which makes everything come to a screeching halt. The word DEFENDER is also imprinted on the steering wheel, and the passenger dashboard, for when you forget which vehicle you’re driving, however glancing out the front windscreen and awaiting the ‘Queens Wave’ from other Defender owners should be enough of a hint.
So despite the fun we’re having here at Land Rovers expense, the new 2020 Land Rover Defender dash images do add quite a bit to the ongoing spy images of the thing, and honestly, we’re just ready to see it in the flesh, and take it for a proper drive off-road to make sure it lives up to the name it’s earned over the past decades.