Drove the new Land Rover Defender for a few days recently. Long anticipated, and it did not disappoint. This SUV is an icon, and I’m personally thrilled that they modernized it and brought it back. Many Kingsley Holgate expeditions were followed by myself with avid interest.

The unmistakable silhouette is familiar yet new. It looks tough and is tough but designed with purpose and engineered to excite. Iconic in name, shape and capability, Defender can be personalised to allow owners to make the most of their world. 

Exterior Styling.

The distinctive silhouette makes the new Defender instantly recognisable, with minimal front and rear overhangs providing excellent approach and departure angles. Land Rover’s designers re-envisioned familiar Defender trademarks for the 21st century, giving the new 4×4 a purposeful upright stance and Alpine light windows in the roof, while retaining the side-hinged rear tailgate and externally-mounted spare wheel that make the original so identifiable. 

The silver and black colour really suits it, and it looks like it can take you anywhere. This SUV attracts attention, and three days of having people wave and thumbs up was thrilling.

Cabin.

The stripped-back personality of the original Defender has been embraced inside, where structural elements and fixings usually hidden from view have been exposed, with the emphasis on simplicity and practicality. Innovative features include a dash-mounted gear shifter to accommodate an optional central front ‘jump’ seat, which provides three-abreast seating across the front like early Land Rovers. The cabin has lots of space, and the boot area is cavernous.

As a result, the Defender 110 offers five, six or 5+2 seating configurations, with a loadspace behind the second-row seats of up to 1,075 litres, and as much as 2,380-litres when the second row is folded. The Defender 90 will be able to accommodate six occupants in a vehicle the length of a compact family hatchback. The great thing is that it really is a family vehicle, and with the internal materials, you don’t think twice about throwing the dogs in as well. They really can’t hurt the car at all.

User-friendly features include practical touches and advanced technological innovations. Durable rubberised flooring shrugs off the spills of daily adventures and once-in-a-lifetime expeditions, providing a brush or wipe clean interior. This lends itself to rural life, or just taking the dogs down to Emmarentia dam.

Land Rover’s new purpose-engineered D7x (for extreme) architecture is based on a lightweight aluminium monocoque construction to create the stiffest body structure Land Rover has ever produced. It is three times stiffer than traditional body-on-frame designs, providing perfect foundations for the fully independent air or coil sprung suspension and supports the latest electrified powertrains. 

So the Defender has been through a myriad of tests, to ensure that it is engineered to the best of it’s ability, to deliver on all fronts of it’s purported strengths, namely off-road, and adventuring.  Permanent all-wheel drive and a twin-speed automatic gearbox, centre differential and optional Active Locking Rear Differential ensure it has all the hardware required to excel in the soft sand of the desert, the freezing tundra of the arctic and everywhere in between. 

The new body architecture provides ground clearance of 291mm and world-class off-road geometry, giving the 110 approach, breakover and departure angles of 38, 28 and 40 degrees (Off Road height) respectively. Its maximum wading depth of 900mm is supported by a new Wade programme in the Terrain Response 2 system, which ensures drivers can ford deep water with complete confidence. 

On dry land, Land Rover’s advanced ClearSight Ground View technology helps drivers take full advantage of Defender’s all-conquering capability by showing the area usually hidden by the bonnet, directly ahead of the front wheels, on the central touchscreen.

Engine.

So the variant I drove was the powerful 3.0-litre straight six-cylinder P400 featuring efficient Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle technology with outputs of 294kW and 550Nm. This baby has some oomph and can really shift when it is pushed.

Alternatively, customers can choose a 2.0-litre D240 turbodiesel with 177kW and 430Nm. This one we did not drive yet, so no comments as yet.

Technology

Tech is so important to everyone presently, in a world when we need to be in touch constantly. So the Defender introduces Jaguar Land Rover’s new Pivi Pro infotainment system. The next generation touchscreen is more intuitive and user-friendly, requiring fewer inputs to perform frequently used tasks, while its always-on design guarantees almost instant responses.

In addition, the new Defender takes Software-Over-The-Air (SOTA) technology to a new level, with 14 individual modules capable of receiving remote updates.

Price.

The Defender 110 3.0 L has a few variants, it starts at R1 129 400, and tops out R1 498 000.00 which in my opinion is not bad pricing for such an iconic off-roader. Totally loved my very short three days in it, and just hope that I can test some other variants in due course.