Land Rover Defender: Zero compromise, at a price
Maybe the best all-round SUV
I understand that the title of this article comes across as hyperbole, but I am trying to say something very specific: What’s the best car in the market to do a few specific things the best, where these “specific things” are almost inherent tradeoffs against each other?
Here is the inherent tradeoff dilemma in any given vehicle type, but in this case we are talking about a midsize SUV, which after all is near the center of today’s US automotive market anyway: You have to choose between off-road capability and on-road sophistication. Basically, either such a vehicle is better-suited for off-road capability, or it is engineered to drive smoothly on perfectly paved roads in regular suburbia and on freeways.
Tommy Mica explains this tradeoff in this video:
In other words, you have to compromise, because you can’t get both in the same vehicle. Or can you?
Well, for a price, you sort of can. What price, you may ask? Starting at $70,775, to be precise.
That is the Land Rover Defender. It’s not cheap, but does it deliver for its price?
The current Land Rover Defender story began in 2019
To begin to answer this question, I have to go back in time and provide the perspective from which I came to review the Land Rover Defender at this time. The story starts in September 2019. That’s when I first saw the all-new Defender in person, a few months before deliveries began. It had white “steel” wheels, which was mighty retro. I loved the exterior design, especially the upright and square rear -- with only the front headlights being the suboptimal design detail (They make it look like a puppy from up front).
Then, during the next few years, before I had a chance to review the Defender, my initial positive perception of the Defender changed to the negative, and for a single particular reason: The wheel/tire package many or most buyers picked. What am I talking about, you might ask?
Here is the deal: The Land Rover Defender is nothing but for its off-road capability. There are degrees of off-road worthiness when it comes to wheel/tire combination: You can have an extreme off-road wheel/tire combination, moderate, mild or at least “neutral” -- a street tire with a tal sidewall. That is also the least expensive option.
What you can’t -- meaning “shouldn’t” -- have is a low sidewall option. That’s a no-no. The Land Rover Defender, just like the Mercedes G, does not go with low sidewall under any circumstance. It is as infuriating when I see low sidewall tires on a Mercedes G as when I see it on the Land Rover Defender. It makes me think ill of the owner. It is so wrong. It is like walking into an elegant cafe or restaurant and hearing rap music instead of Frank Sinatra or soft background jazz.
For some reason, from 2020 until 2024 I kept seeing a worryingly high percentage of Defenders with low-sidewall tires, and it skewed my entire opinion of this vehicle. I would have driven it earlier than 2024, but as a result of this faux pas by a large percentage of the owners, I didn’t even drive it for years.
Then came Summer 2024 and I got the opportunity to drive a Land Rover Defender. To my surprise, it came with an appropriate off-road tire/wheel combo, which immediately made me feel like I hadn’t walked into an elegant venue and turned on inappropriate music. Years of hesitancy immediately turned into hope: Now, would the Defender driving experience actually deliver?
One of the great packages
Before climbing into the Defender -- which has a great hip height for someone around 180 centimeters of height -- one has to, once again, study the exterior measurements and proportions. The Defender 110 is of a great length, height and width to make perfect use of its space, without being either too big or too small. The upright rear ensures this efficiency. It has just enough size to be useful, but with all of it being “muscle” -- no unnecessary fat.
One great detail is how the rear exhaust is cut: It preserves the departure angle, and reduces risk of damage in an extreme off-road situation. I love it. It is one of many thoughtful design details that have the ultimate practicality in mind.
Interior: Nearly perfect, too
The dimensions and proportions mean that the luggage space is sufficient, and that the rear passengers have ample headroom and legroom. The floor surfaces are literally in rubber. This is a supremely practical vehicle, appropriate in all dimensions and details.
The weak spot of Range Rovers in the past was the touchscreen interface, hardware as well as the software. It was difficult to set up and use. For the 2024 Defender, that has been largely fixed. No, it is not as easy to use as a Ford, but it’s getting closer. The Android Auto interface continues to be suboptimal, but it wasn’t nearly as complicated as it was a few years ago either. It may now be modestly better than BMW’s latest system, which is admittedly a low bar in today’s competitive environment.
But other than that, all the buttons and knobs are where you want them to be. My particular vehicle had the touchscreen go dark for a few hours, and then the center stack of buttons and knobs went unusable for a few hours. I don’t know what caused it, but it came back eight hours later, in the late evening. It was a sunny and hot day, so perhaps it became compromised by the sun and heat. It happened two days in a row, and then it was fine again. Something to worry about, perhaps -- or perhaps I was just the unlucky and inevitable “one in a thousand.” It happens.
Driving it: Perfectly balanced
The Defender drive starts with the high driving position. This is almost like a bus, with a most commanding driving position. It takes a few hours to get used to it, but then it is excellent. Visibility is outstanding.
Pulling away, the straight-six gasoline engine is silky-smooth and properly muted. The steering is perfectly weighted. The suspension along with the off-road wheel/tire package provide for a perfectly appropriate balance of comfort and steering feel. It doesn’t get much better than this, especially in the context of the on-road/off-road tradeoffs with which I started this article.
It may have only one competitor: Jeep Grand Cherokee
When it comes to this size SUV that has a reasonably similar level of off-road capability, and is based on a unibody chassis so that it can have the same “near zero” compromise between on-road and off-road capability -- and be sold in the US today at prices under $100,000 -- the Jeep Grand Cherokee may be the only competitor to the Defender.
Alex Dykes agrees with my competitive assessment in this video:
Technically, a Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4 starts at $41,830. However, it may be more appropriate to compare with the three-row L version which is $2,000 more, so $42,830. Clearly the Defender at $70,775 is in a whole other league.
The Grand Cherokee is available in 4x2 as well, at an even lower price, but the Defender is available only as a 4x4. The other main difference is that the Defender, manufactured in Slovakia, is available essentially world-wide. It’s sold in nearly every country on Earth. In contrast, the Jeep Grand Cherokee is made in Detroit and heavily focused on North America, with exports elsewhere being extremely limited.
Before the Summer of 2021, the Jeep Grand Cherokee was a deeply inferior product to the new (2020-2024) Land Rover Defender. It was outdated in many ways. However, the current Grand Cherokee is nothing like it was through Spring of 2021. It has radically narrowed the degree of sophistication when compared with the Land Rover Defender.
It is up to each would-be buyer to drive the Defender and Grand Cherokee and compare them, and see if the price difference is worth it. For some people, some details may be worth the higher Defender price. For others, not. And for yet others, the Jeep Grand Cherokee may not be available in your country.