Land Rover Defender 110 PHEV review: A new breed
When Land Rover announced that it was going to be ending the production of the Defender — effectively drawing a line under Land Rover as we knew it — there was no shortage of trepidation about what would come next.
But to say that the new Defender has captured the imagination of customers would be an understatement, as many have flocked to this new design. Anecdotally, it feels as though people are jumping from Discovery to Defender, embracing the new chunky, almost toy-like design, and the adventurous lifestyle that it projects.
And once you've spent some time with it, it's easy to see why.
4.5/5
The new Defender gets a bold new look, an interior with rugged design and retains all its offroad skills. But it's also comfortable, fun to drive, hugely capable on all terrain — and all while being connected. The plug-in version gives you 30 miles of range, boosts efficiency, but there's no avoiding that this is still a big thirsty car.
We're not saying that the Discovery is bad — far from it — but the Defender brings with it a spirit of adventure. It's a projection of one's own self-image, the ultimate accessory that says «I'm pretty hardcore actually». Will these incredibly capable offroaders actually be used offroad? Probably not. In many cases, we suspect that the furthest it will get from the Tarmac is a National Trust car park.
Some of that boxy design from the old Defender remains, but it looks a lot more like a reworking of the old Discovery (before the Discovery moved to look more like the Range Rover). It's really a step and repeat pattern of Land Rover moving everything up the scale, with each model more comfortable and more capable than the last.
Unlike the old, however, this isn't a thin metal body bolted to a
Read more on pocket-lint.com
