Fifth-gen Land Rover Discovery launch delayed

HOPEFUL Discovery owners may have to wait for up to six months as delays on the fifth-generation model, coupled with high demand, may create the perfect storm.

Coming out of a sales boom for Land Rover, the news of a delay has reportedly become the single biggest problem for the multinational company. Motoring.com.au spoke to JLR Australia managing director Matthew Wiesner about the issue.

“Our biggest challenge is the gap for the Discovery, our focus is to manage that” said Wiesner.

Weisner further reported that stocks are dangerously low and are projected to vanish from showroom floors by February 2017.

“We’re going to have a bit of a gap before the new model arrives. By February-March the current model will be gone, so there will be a period of time where we will be without Discovery.”

With around 200 pre-orders for the Discovery 5 and less than 300 Discovery 4s still in the wild, the demand is there and the heat is on for JLRA as stock continues to dwindle.

Excitement is still high for the new Discovery 5, with a further 2500 expressions of interest lodged ahead of its July release.

As Land Rover’s main volume seller in Australia for the last 27 years, contributing 25-30 per cent of the current total sales, this hiccup could cause serious damage for the classic series.

With a price tag of $81,950 and a slew of new features, only time will tell how Land Rover and Discovery will be affected by their coming hiatus.