Land Rover 90 Defender

A dinosaur and the daddy at the same time. The Land Rover Defender is an off-roader that can travel on-road, rather than the other way around. Recent changes mean that it’s not quite as mind-numbing and physically demanding to drive than before, but this remains a car that puts agriculture before culture

• Comfort

  The seats may have adjustable backrests for the first time, and the steering wheel may now adjust (a bit) but the Defender is still one of the most uncomfortable cars ever to leave the farm. Enthusiasts will tell you they are comfy, but they’ve been affected by years of driving the Defender and have no real insight into modern levels of comfort. The Transit engine is also noisy and truck-like.

  

• Performance

  The new 2.4-litre common-rail diesel is derived from the one used in Ford’s Transit, so if nothing else it should be reliable. It feels more powerful than anything that’s gone before it in a Defender – though 90kW doesn’t sound like much – thanks to a proper torque curve with 360Nm at its disposal. The six-speed manual also has longer ratios to make cruising less brain damaging and that means the sprint to 100km/h takes a leisurely 14.7 seconds.

  

• Cool

  If you think hammers are cool, or that brass knuckles are cutting edge weaponry, then the Defender is cool. But anything this honest has a certain charm.

  

• Quality

  There’s a new dash for the latest Defender, and it borrows more stuff from the Freelander and Discovery to give it a more upmarket and up-to-date feel. It’s still a great big slab of dash though, and it errs on the cheap side for quality. Function doesn’t have to be ugly, but in the Defender, it is.

  

• Handling

  The Defender has been conceived as the ultimate off-roader, so long-travel, Eiger-subduing suspension doesn’t do much for on-road manners. It will go around a corner (eventually), but you have to be careful and slow to avoid hellish understeer. Saying that, with the right technique and tyres, the Defender remains one of the world’s greatest off-road vehicles.

  

• Practicality

  It’s a box with a hefty 4x4 drivetrain, so the Defender is as practical as these things get. You won’t find the old side-facing rear seats for new-fangled safety reasons, but you can still seat four in the 90-inch version and seven in the 110. It works, but because it happens to be a very regular and large expanse of interior rather than anything clever.

  

• Running costs

  The diesel will sip 11.1L/100km. Not bad for a big(ish) car. Insurance is reasonable but at $48,990 for the base model, there are cheaper alternatives around.