A true Defender of the faith
AT LAST, I’m behind the wheel of Land Rover’s new Defender. Colleagues in the business have told me how good the car is but now it’s time for me to make my up my own mind.
For me the original Land Rover Defender is like Morris dancing: Watching it makes me feel extremely British and patriotic but I don’t want to join in myself.
I get the same feeling when I look at a Defender, but when it comes to actually driving the vehicle I lose all my enthusiasm.
Noisy, slow, terrible ride, vague steering and more. Sure, the Defender looks terrific and is almost unbeatable in the jungle and desert, but after a few miles up the road I’m busting to get out.
The last of the traditional Defenders (a name given to the Land Rover in 1983) rolled off the Solihull production line in January 2016.The car could no longer meet pedestrian impact regulations and hadn’t been able to meet US regs for several years.
Modifying the car to meet these regulations would have been incredibly costly and technically more difficult than starting from scratch. JLR started work on a new Defender as far back as 2011 so it hasn’t exactly rushed the job The new Defender is based on the same platform used for several JLR products including the Jaguar i-Pace.
It features bonded and riveted aluminium and on the Defender, steel subframes. JLR says the Defender isn’t a SUV, it’s a 4x4.A rather abstract distinction but I see what they’re getting at.And after driving the Defender off road, the point really comes home.
First, the styling.We’ll let you make your own mind up on that.
The lineage from the original Land Rover is clear to see: a windscreen that is as upright as regulations and aerodynamics can permit, flat sides and a side-hinged tailgate to which is attached a spare wheel.
I like it.The first Defender models to hit UK showrooms are