It’s finally here. The new 2020 Land Rover Defender has arrived, replacing a car that could trace its roots back to the very 1948 birth of Land Rover.
Land Rover doesn’t like to call the Defender an SUV – insisting it is a true 4×4 – but the new car can be had in either short-wheelbase 90 or long-wheelbase 110 form, as tested here.
It comes in a variety of forms. We’ve driven the 2.0 diesel D240, a 176kW diesel with a 0-100km/h time of 8.7 seconds and a top speed of 188km/h. Then there’s the P400, a V6 petrol engine with a 0-100km/h time of 5.8sec and a 190km/h top speed.
When it goes on sale, the Land Rover Defender will face competition from all kinds of vehicles, from the Jeep Wrangler to the Ford Ranger Raptor to the Toyota Land Cruiser and more. Here’s what it’s like, driven over vast distances albeit all off-road…