LAND ROVER DEFENDER It’s built to go the distance, and to make that easy, but there is one thing we’d change MILEAGE 4422 WHY WE ’ R E RU N N I N G IT Can the Defender’s breadth of appeal really cover everything from disaster zone to congestion charge zone? IMAGE
owever fond I may have been of the old Land Rover Defender, the prospect of covering any kind of long-distance journey in it was not one to savour. I know colleagues who have owned and driven them as far as the Iberian Peninsula on holidays (hello, Matthew Prior). But no, not for me. Clearly, any car designed and engineered by Land Rover to go on sale in the 2020s is going to be immensely capable of devouring long distances, and the new Defender is no exception. But just how capable it was of doing big miles blew me away recently, when I racked up more than 500 miles on a whistle-stop 48-hour tour of Cornwall one wet and windy February weekend. My only real experience of the new model to date had been a day on the
H
LOVE IT CO M FO RT Who’d have thought a Defender would be such a relaxing place to cover big miles?
LOATHE IT WI DTH It feels like the Defender 90 is almost as wide as it is long and tall…
64 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 16 MARCH 2022
Our 90 looks great, but what do you think of this rear-access solution? Eastnor Castle estate at the Land Rover Experience (still about as good a day out for an enthusiast as you can get), where we skipped straight to the harshest terrains to show off the car’s quite incredible off-road prowess. Unsurprisingly, it excelled, the only limitations seemingly the driver’s confidence to attack the obstacles in the first place. That such a car could then be so quiet, refined and comfortable on the motorway blew me away all over again. When Land Rover talks about the Defender being the most capable 4x4 in the world, it doesn’t only mean on the mucky stuff. Two key things are in the favour of our beautifully specced Defender 90 in this respect: the large tyres with as chunky a sidewall as I’ve seen on a modern car in a long time, wrapping those oh-so-desirable steel wheels, to help set up such a comfortable
ride; and the silky-smooth straightsix diesel engine offering all that refinement. The ride quality of the Defender is fantastic, with more in common with a Range Rover than any Defender before it. Those tyres are the first line of defence in insulating occupants from bumps in the road. As my passenger noted: “Didn’t the roads down here used to be much worse than this?” What our eyes saw and backsides felt were very different things. As for that engine, the Defender’s key keeper, Jim Holder, has noted before just how well suited that six-pot diesel power is to the car, and I’d echo every word. The hushed tones were welcome on the extended motorway runs and the low-end torque a boon on narrow Cornish lanes. We returned around 30mpg over the 500 or so miles,
which impressed me for a car of the Defender’s size and weight and the nature of many of those miles. What else did I enjoy? Those looks, for starters. The heart fluttered each time I set eyes on the car before driving it. So many cars have become so serious to look at, over-styled or even aggressive. The Defender just looks fun. The blue and white contrasting paint and trim really helps set things off, and I’ve still yet to see a Defender that looks better than this one. Much has been written about the reverse Tardis effect of the Defender 90, though. Actually, I found the rear cabin in particular massive, but the issue is access to it. So here’s a solution (royalties to the usual address please, Land Rover): what the 90 needs is a small rear-hinged door that opens only once the front door has opened, much like on a BMW i3. Access to such a large, useful space would then improve dramatically. What it will do to the aesthetics I don’t know, but luckily our own Ben SummerellYoude is on hand to show us. MARK TISSHAW
TEST DATA L AN D ROVE R D E FE N D E R I N G E N I U M 3.0 M H E V H S E Price £58,875 Price as tested £64,485 Faults None Expenses Puncture repair £48 Economy 28.9mpg Last seen 9.3.22
OWN ONE? SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE jim.holder@haymarket.com
