zsd-puma wrote:

I see them at work all the time, along with Fords, Toyotas, Nissans etc.. Sometimes they're just doing something mundane like engine calibrations or maybe in this case something do with with trailer stability. Just because it's camouflaged doesn't mean it's a new vehicle, it might just be an existing one which they're making a change to.

I've seen cars with just the bumpers camouflaged, where they're testing out a new body kit or facelift. When the XF estate was being developed we kept seeing XF's with just the back half in camouflage. I've seen Fiesta's with ugly plastic bumper covers where they're driving a car which has new prototype bumpers, they might just be driving it to a supplier for them to test for example new headlamps. I remember a Mondeo, which was LHD and all badged up as a Fusion with i think US plates and all sorts of other mismatched bits of trim, if i recall correctly the driver said he was just doing engine calibrations, they drive them in various bits of Europe in different climates to give them real world data to allow them to get the map right. The same applies to gearboxes, traction control, active suspension etc. Ford still have a big development site in Essex, Nissan and Toyota both develop vehicles in the UK too.

Sometimes i think they leave them camouflaged just to attract attention, i mean it obviously worked in this case. Or it's just a late production ready development mule and they can't be bothered to strip the camouflage off but they're still using it for testing other things. Lets say for example they've had lots of complaints about the Disco's traction control when towing on slippery surfaces. (just a random example i've made up), they might then take a test mule out on some slippery surfaces to see if they can see what the problem is and issue a software update for it.

It might well be the new Defender, with a Disco body on it. Sometimes they'll test a chassis and running gear but dump another body on top to hide what it is. The first BMW mini's used at the first design preview were actually Fiat Punto's underneath, because they had the same wheel base and track, so they could graft a body shell on to the floorpan.