Land Rover Defender 90 (2020 - ) review

There’s no such thing as a cheap Defender, the starting price as chunky as the looks and only getting chunkier as you start adding the bits you probably want, to the point where our test car had a bottom-line price of over £80,000 with options. No wonder farmers are all buying pick-ups these days… Beyond purchase price a Defender is going to be costly to run as well, mild-hybrid assistance on selected petrol and diesel motors not doing enough to fuel consumption or mpg to really make much difference. There is at least a full plug-in hybrid option now, which can travel short distances on electric power and has more favourable on-paper efficiency stats that help on tax for private buyers and Benefit In Kind if you’re running it as a company car. But not by enough to make it an affordable choice, insurance likely to be another hefty bill to factor in.

A question of perception versus reality, hopefully. For the fact as a brand Land Rover doesn’t have the greatest reputation for reliability but counters that, as a model, Defender has a better record than most. You’d like to think so, given toughness and dependability is such an important part of the image.

The Defender is built like a tank, meaning anything you hit is going to come off worse than you. Like it or not, that’s a major reassurance for many buyers, especially families seeking that sense of security. It’s also packed with all the modern active safety you’d expect, though it’s annoying things like Blind Spot Assist only comes on the upper trim levels. We appreciated the ease with which you can turn off the more annoying systems like speed limit warnings and lane-keeping from a hot-key on the wheel, and a ‘dark’ mode for turning off the central display and dimming the switchgear for driving at night on unlit country roads – an absolute blessing compared with the eye straining screen glare you get in most modern cars. If you count off-road ability as a safety feature it goes without saying the Defender is more or less unstoppable in the face of snow, mud, sand or, indeed, flooded roads, the 90 even more so for its shorter wheelbase.

We’ll not judge the Defender 90 too harshly on its near comical lack of practicality for the fact you have the choice of a five-door 110 if you need rear seat access and a boot bigger than that of a Kia Picanto. For luggage space in the 90 is literally that pitiful, at least with the rear seats in place! Pays your money and all that. We’ll also have to caveat our glowing impressions of our D350 version’s comfort and refinement for the fact the big engine meant near effortless performance and the one we tested had the fancy, multi-level air suspension which is an expensive option on all but the top trim level. As equipped, though, the Defender is nothing short of remarkable for its comfort and refinement given it’s a tall, chunky and off-road focused SUV. The clever suspension stops it feeling too top heavy and wallowy on twisty roads while on long motorway runs it seems pretty much as quiet and comfy as a Range Rover. We’d be interested to see how it compares on the standard suspension but, based on this experience, the fancy set-up feels well worth the extra money.

Once you’ve swallowed pretentious boasts of ‘Constructivist’ interior architecture and ‘Resist and Resolve’ seating beloved of Jaguar Land Rover’s head of design the Defender’s clever mix of functionality and luxury looks great for its mix of chunky materials and wipe-clean surfaces. The in-house Pivi Pro operating system powering the central screen is also clear and easy to navigate, while clever multi-purposed controls for heating and ventilation strike a neat balance between physical controls and clearing the clutter of buttons from the pre-screen era. Standard fit 360-degree sensors are a big help when parking, given the Defender towers over all around it and visibility isn’t all that great, a heated windscreen another fit for purpose feature welcome on frosty mornings. Tech and features inevitably get fancier as you work your way up the range and there are endless options and accessory packs to choose from but – be warned – it’ll cost you if you get too carried away.

When we first drove the Defender the only engine available was a four-cylinder diesel, which did its best but could feel somewhat overwhelmed. No such bother with the effortlessly powerful D350 we drove in the 90. Diesel may not be the most fashionable way of fuelling a car in this day and age but it’s perfect for a big, heavy SUV of this type and surprisingly brisk in all situations, with a suitably powerful rumble from under the bonnet. On some models there’s a D250 version of the same engine, or you can go silly and have a big petrol V8 if you really want to stick two fingers up to convention. Defender buyers with a little more social conscience are meanwhile served by the P400e plug-in hybrid, which we’ve not tried but appears to have a cake-and-eat-it mix of power and vaguely sensible fuel consumption thanks to its electric assistance.