Land Rover Defender

The horsey set can enjoy a tad more luxury than before in the latest Land Rover Defender, writes Mark Gallivan

Muscular 4x4 terrain capability with lashings of luxury. Hopefully reliability has improved too

The brand new Land Rover Defender is built on an entirely new platform and pays no homage to the past bar the name. The Defender’s credentials hold firm, with carrying capacity for a 900kg payload, a towing capacity of 3,720kg, and a wading depth in water up to 900mm. Land Rover is emphatic that their new Defender is an off-roader 4x4 vehicle and not an SUV.

The revised Defender pulls the slimmest veneers of styling cues from the Land Rover Series 1 that broke cover in 1948, or the subsequent Defender models that adopted the nomenclature in 1983. Prices start from €59,410 for the four-door 110 model, while the shorter two-door 90 is priced from €68,160.

For this test, I drove the 110 2.0 litre SD4 S (240hp) diesel engine, priced at €81,720. With all the options fitted, the final tally would be €95,514.

The front seating position is almost as tall as a light goods vehicle where you look down on the entire front bonnet. The suspension copes well with the jolts associated with urban speed humps, and one of the Defender’s strongest attributes is how well it flows through bends with a compliant ride and the absence of wind noise.

Using the Terrain Response system, the Defender completes hill approaches at the touch of a button without having to manually lock differentials. Land Rover claims the Defender is three times stiffer than the old body-on-frame vehicle, and at no time on the test was there any trembling from the A or B post structures. Ground clearance is 291mm and departure angles of 28, 38 and 40 degrees when the off-road height is activated.

On the move, the eight-speed automatic gearbox is smooth, and where the driver needs to hold onto a gear, the option of manual mode can be activated. I only took the test vehicle off-road once, crossing a field that would see a typical mid-sized SUV get bogged down, and the Defender ploughed on relentlessly.

The new cabin is completely redesigned. Banished is the cramped driving position and patchy heating system, replaced by a modern layout. The dashboard has a modern design with high-set controls like you’d find in a Volkswagen. Storage for oddments is generous, with scooped-out hollows in the main dash that are handy for a smartphone or keys.

The new Pivi Pro infotainment touchscreen can rival the best, though trails BMW/Audi/Mercedes for crispness and response. Smart details include the optional ClearSight Rear View mirror that offers rearward visibility using a video feed.

No passenger will struggle for space or headroom as the cabin’s dimensions are vast. Seating configurations are a choice of five, six or 5+2. Voluminous practicality gobbles up the largest items like a bicycle, with 1,075 litres of cargo space with seats upright and 2,390 litres with rear seats folded. When unloading items from the rear, it’s possible to lower the suspension, and the right-side hinged rear door is far easier to open and close than the typical top-hinged door offering with SUVs.

For business users, commercial variants will arrive later in 2020 in Hard Top form and the option of three abreast front seating. Showing a nod to reduced emissions, a mild hybrid version is promised too. The biggest challenge facing Land Rover’s new Defender is reliability. In the WhatCar? Reliability Survey for 2019, the Range Rover got the wooden spoon and the Discovery and Velar models joined it at the bottom of the league table. Time will tell if Land Rover has exorcised the brand’s perennial reliability woes.