When an automotive press office stops using the much over used Special Edition terminology and replaces it with the dour sounding ‘derivative’ you know something has gone wrong in the world of the PR spin machine. Or has it, derivative or special edition, it doesn’t matter what you use to describe the Discovery because at the end of the day the product life-cycle needs to extended. But why extended? It may be the case Land Rover are gearing up to replace the fourth generation Discovery and in order to stretch out and therefore flog a few more vehicles a few new ‘derivatives’ might keep up the buying interest. The first generation Discovery had a near 10 year product life-cycle but it was the third generation that was the real revelation and it was so far advance from its predecessors that it looked and felt like the 25th Century had arrived… today. So to keep the interest going Land Rover have launched the Landmark and Graphite derivatives or should that be special editions? Land Rover say both models will broaden the appeal of the Discovery but we argue its pretty broad enough already. And expensive, the Landmark will retail at £55k and the Graphite is going to set you back £47k for the privilege of what we see as the last of the current generation Discovery model updates. So what do you get for your hard earned money? The Landmark is basically a fully loaded version of the HSE Luxury Discovery with numerous adornments/upgrades to justify the asking price. The roof rails are in a bright finish that highlight the familiar stepped roof design of the Discovery. Distinctive black fender vents, grille and mirror caps complement silver bonnet and tailgate badges, alongside Landmark badging to the side and rear to further distinguish this model. 20-inch 5-split spoke alloy wheels complete the design. The Landmark is available in a limited range of five body colours, including Zanzibar which has been exclusively reserved for the Landmark edition and is not available on any other Discovery. The interior is refined further still with Windsor Leather seats and the Extended Leather Pack throughout, furnishing the dashboard, door casings and fascia. The interior is purposefully limited to three colourways – Ebony, Almond and Tan. Customers can opt for either the Grand Black Lacquer or Straight Grained Walnut Wood & Leather steering wheel with two other variants fitted as standard to complement the choice of veneer. The Graphite edition is based on the Black pack again with exterior and interior upgrades such as A grey Graphite finish to the fender vents and grille, which also sports a gloss black and lighter grey frame. The Graphite gets exclusive 19-inch 7-split spoke alloy wheel in a high gloss dark grey as standard, with the option of a 19-inch 7-split spoke alloy wheel. The customer can choose between a spectrum of nine body colours and three interior colourways. Both of these editions will be powered by the 3.0-litre SDV6 which outputs 254bhp and can return a claimed combined economy figure of 36mpg when combined with the ZF-8Speed automatic. And of course both editions, I erm mean derivatives, will feature Land Rover’s acclaimed 4-wheel-drive technology and a fully loaded interior full of tech-gear. We reckon if you wait about 12 months then you may well see the launch of a new fith generation Discovery. We also reckon the firth gen Discovery will be lighter and will have a revised chassis architecture to accommodate Plug-in Hybrid technology.