Land Rover Defender 90 2022 long-term review
We finally reach the front of the queue for the most in-demand car on sale right now
*Why we’re running it: *Can the Defender’s breadth of appeal really cover everything from disaster zone to congestion charge zone?
-Month 1 - Specs-
-Life with a Defender 90: Month 2-
*To three-door or not to three-door? That is the question - 9 March*
I’ll um and ah over whether the three-door was the right choice for someone with three kids forever more. It looks better to my eyes, and the space in the back is ginormous and comfortable once you’re in there, but the hassle of opening the large, heavy doors, sliding the seat back and then shutting yourself in is a palaver a passenger has yet to complete without a groan. JH
*Mileage: 2091*
*It’s a great ad for not only its maker but the forgotten fuel, too - 2 March*
Diesel: so much maligned these past years that it’s now on the cusp of becoming the minority powertrain of new car sales, long eclipsed by electric cars, soon to be eclipsed by plug-in hybrids and heading for the file labelled ‘history’.
Yet here I am, driving around in a car powered by a 3.0-litre six-cylinder diesel engine – and I couldn’t make a case for anything more suitable. It’s powerful, smooth, refined, relatively economical (at around 30.0mpg) considering the Defender’s 2.2-tonne weight and, dare I say it, while acknowledging the life-threatening shortcomings of what it emits, relatively clean, given the toughest-ever emissions tests that it must now pass.
For this car at this time, it offers everything almost every owner could ever want, and any improvements, in terms of performance, economy, emissions or suchlike, can only be delivered with serious compromises from one to the other. In my view, the petrol or PHEV variants are likely to suit only very specific use cases.
You might make a case that, living on the outskirts of London and commuting regularly into a built-up area, a PHEV would suit me better. Maybe, just maybe, some of the time that could be true – but even my short commute would probably bea challenge for its all-electric range, and my occasional 100-to-300-mile trips further afield would be catastrophic in terms of economy.
In a car of this size and with such bluff aerodynamics, I can’t believe petrol would be a strong choice for anyone but the lowest-mileage drivers, either. And if you are going to drive low miles, I’d suggest the Defender might not be the car for you at all, unless you’re a total show-off with an ego only the V8 can satisfy.
So diesel it is, and diesel I’d recommend. Aside from a short pause at step-off (a Land Rover characteristic), it offers layers of power and torque, taking the Defender from 0-62mph in a scarcely believable 8.0sec, but more crucially also giving total flexibility in tricky conditions (yes, Matt Prior has been off-roading, of which more another time) as well as keeping fuel bills manageable. It’s even pretty refined – certainly more so than you might expect from something paired to a car with such humble roots.
Do I expect all buyers to follow suit and opt for diesel? No, I don’t. But for those who are wavering, despite still being less than 2000 miles into my time with the car, I have no hesitation in recommending feeling at ease with going against the wider trend. Diesel isn’t dead yet, and this car is the perfect example of why.
*Mileage: 1927*
*Defender's full-size spare wheel comes in handy - 16 February*
Gah! The unluckiest of starts to life with the go-anywhere Defender as a metal tack found its way past the heavily treaded part of the wheel to cause an at first slow and then fast puncture. The full-size spare helped to get me going again, but the sheer weight of the wheel and tyre made locating it on its lugs a test of strength that I was only just able to pass.
*Mileage: 1276*
-Life with a Defender 90: Month 1-
*Welcoming the Defender to the fleet - 9 February 2022*
This is the car that Matt Prior built – something I mention early on both because I suspect that anyone who knows me will be pondering where this outbreak of good taste has come from and because it swiftly explains why someone who lives in the suburbs of London has gone all in for the off-road vibe, from the who-cares-if-you-scratch-them steel wheels to the chunky all-terrain tyres (plus an active differential).
Don’t worry: this is one Land Rover Defender that will make it outside the M25, not least because it was a condition of the handover that Prior would be taking it back to point it at the scenery in Wales.
Heartbroken though I was by the calendar reshuffle that had Prior take custody of a Polestar 2 just a few weeks before the much-in-demand Defender finally made it down the production line, I gamely stepped forward and agreed to help him out.
I was hardly going to argue, was I? I dare say there’s barely a motoring enthusiast on the planet who doesn’t have an opinion on the new Defender and fewer still who would quibble when offered the chance to try one over a few months. It’s the hottest mainstream car in the world right now, as evidenced by the eye-watering premiums nearly new examples are selling for and the huge waiting lists prompting a growing number of people to pay them.
The ‘small’ model this 90 may be, but perhaps inevitably there’s nothing diminutive about its price. Powered by a powerful 3.0-litre six-cylinder diesel engine (good for 0.62mph in 8.0sec even at a 2.2-tonne kerb weight) and in high-end HSE trim, the base car comes in north of £55,000 on the road and close to £65,000 after what looks like a mere smattering of options.
These were taken chiefly to give it the maximum off-road capability, from electronic diff to mudf laps and scuff plates, but also for the addition of the two-tone paintwork and a tow hook. Authenticity and fitness for purpose come at a price, it seems. Too much for a three-door car? I refer you once again to those waiting lists...
But the contradictions are clear, and I might as well get them out there. This is a £65,000 car that might not entirely suit a town-dwelling, family lifestyle.
It has, for instance, a Volkswagen Golf-like 397-litre boot that requires you to have the dexterity of a bomb disposal expert if you want to balance anything inside it without it dropping out when you swing the back open.
Land Rover is so sure you will use the rear seats for carrying stuff rather than people if you opt for the Country Pack that it installs a heavy metal divider behind the front seats, which I’ve now had to remove as a result of having children. Access to those rear seats is hard, requiring you to haul yourself up, shuffle round and then, if nobody is in the front passenger seat, thrust yourself a body length forward to be able to heave the vast door shut.
And, while highlighting that room up front and in the back is generous, there’s also the fact that these compromises are packed in a car 4.5m long with the spare tyre (already used) considered, 2m wide, of a length that makes it hard to park anywhere and of a height that makes entering many car parks a hazard.
And yet... after a week of thinking the world had gone barking mad and I would never be able to live with it, something clicked. One moment my brain was awash with negatives (a list you could add to with the age-old Land Rover characteristic of hesitant step-off and slightly vague steering, perhaps not helped by the knobbly tyres), the next I was pondering how I could ever live without it. I’ve experienced this before, including with a Range Rover, and it’s easy to explain but hard to fathom. These are cars that just click; suddenly you know your way round it, know and anticipate its foibles; and then, just like that, your right elbow is resting on the door frame, you’re steering with one hand and you would be devastated if it were taken away.
Hold the five-door 110 solution. Even the kids, pectorals now built up from all the steps and lunges they’ve been doing, are hopping in with relative ease, if still needing to be caught on the way out.
Where does this leave me? Maybe it should be no surprise, given that the world’s most famous utility vehicle has morphed into one of the most fashionable, that I’m wondering if this love affair, compromised and contradictory though it is in part, will continue to flourish in town, on the motorway and off road. For this money, I want a car that can win my heart and mind – and there’s plenty more hurdles it will have to overcome in the coming months to do that.
*Second Opinion*
Unsurprisingly, I’m rather taken with the Defender. It’s so unlike the old one I own: it’s exceptionally refined over long distances, large outside yet small in the back. But like the old one, it’s at its best in the sticks. Twice I’ve had to change parking spaces as it was too wide for me to get out.
*Matt Prior*
*Back to the top*
-Land Rover Defender 90 3.0 Ingenium D250 MHEV HSE specification-
*Specs: Price New* £58,875 *Price as tested* £64,485 *Options *Country Pack (classic mudflaps, load-space partition, scuff plates, wheel- arch protection, portable rinse system) £1585, Off-Road Pack (electronic differential with active torque vectoring, black roof rails, off-road tyres, domestic plug socket) £1450, Tasman Blue paint £895, white contrast roof £900, detachable towbar £780
*Test Data: Engine* 2997cc, 6cyls, turbocharged diesel *Power* 248bhp at 4000rpm *Torque* 184lb ft at 1250-2000rpm *Kerb weight* 2228kg *Top speed* 117mph *0-62mph* 8.0sec *Fuel economy* 31.1mpg *CO2* 231g/km *Faults* None *Expenses* Puncture repair £48
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