When the new
Land Rover Defender range came into market, some quarters expressed their concern that their beloved, rugged old
Defender had become “soft and mushy” inside. They were partly correct, but mainly wrong. Yes the
Defender has shed its hard core image of yester-year and can now hang out with the premium children of its era. But most importantly, is it still the best 4x4 by far?
This question can be answered in two parts. We drove the
Defender 90 to attempt to do just that. This car is the 5-door version of the new
Defender, which makes it shorter and therefore smaller than its sibling, the
110. Some people might say sexier, though we can leave that up to the beholder. What is important is that with two less entry doors on each side, the
Defender 90 becomes less practical for someone who carries a fair number of passengers. Rear seat access is a bit more challenging, requiring the mandatory pull forward of the front seat and its repositioning. However, once this is done, it’s all systems go.
Because
Land Rover chose to place the spare wheel on the rear door again, there are some visibility issues. In essence, the driver is only able to see about half of what is going on through the rear window, which of course is not ideal for reversing etc. However, the ingenious solution of including a rear-facing HD camera on the roof, which displays on the 28.9cm hi-res infotainment screen, helps a great deal.
Land Rover calls it ClearSight, and it is.
While we drove the entry-level
Defender 90 D240 S, it felt nothing like a baseline model. Yes, the white 18-inch steel wheels do give it away, but we noticed that a number of onlookers were keen on this look. After all,
Defender is an off-roader by nature, and expensive alloy wheels are not necessarily ideal for that purpose. Besides, it still gets plenty of other current exterior tech, such as LED headlights, auto high beam assist, keyless entry, Lane Keep Assist, a 360-degree parking aid and Wade Sensing among others.
Being a modern
Defender the car has to conform to a lot more standards and expectations than its predecessors. Safety, comfort, gadgets, off-road capability, powerful yet frugal engines, and so on, are just some of the features buyers expect to find. It has to be a jack-of-all-trades in so many more ways than its forerunners. So the interior, in addition to the aforementioned Privi Pro infotainment system that includes Apple Carplay and Android Auto, has to be mainly insulated from harsh exterior elements, like dust and water, as the Defender has a wading depth of up to 900mm. Rubber mats and robust surfaces ensure that true off-road expeditions keep the car’s integrity intact, while providing adequate comfort for occupants. It's a good balance. Of course, the options list will provide those less inclined to take to the bundus plenty of premium touches.
For our pleasure, Land Rover supplied the D240 with a 2.0-litre turbo diesel engine that pulls out 177kW of power and 430Nm of torque. The brand says it can sprint from 0 – 100km/h in 9 seconds and top off at 188km/h. Both these figures are really not important in the bigger scheme of things with this car. What is important is that it has a maximum towing capacity of 3 500kg, but also un-braked trailer towing capacity of 750kg. In addition, we were able to average 8.7 litres per 100km in fuel consumption.
The Defender 90 is a sweet little off-road tool that is just as comfortable on tarmac as it is off the beaten track.
