Land Rover Defender 90 2021 Review – International

With pricing starting at $71,500 plus on-road costs for the entry-level Land Rover Defender 90 P300, the British car-maker is banking on Australians being prepared to pay a hefty $10,000 premium over an equivalent Jeep Wrangler.

The born-again ‘Shorty’ is also just $3000 less expensive than equivalent versions of the bigger Defender 110. This means you’ll have to really want the less practical 90 over its impressive full-length sibling, which is a 2020 carsales Car of the Year contender.

As part of the MY2021 updates to the Defender range, there’s been some important changes worth mentioning here. The biggest is that after only a few months on sale, the popular Ingenium four-cylinder diesel has been put out to pasture.

The good news is that in its place is a far smooth, more muscular 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder diesel that’s available with 147kW (D200), 183kW (D250) and a thumping 221kW (D300).

Like before, it’s combined with all-wheel drive, an eight-speed automatic and 48-volt mild-hybrid technology that cuts fuel use and boosts performance. Expect it to dominate Australian sales.

Helping offset its imposing price tag, the six trim levels are all well-equipped and have been further enhanced as part of the MY21 overhaul.

Standard equipment for Australia’s entry-level Defender 90 includes electronic air suspension, 18-inch wheels, a full-size spare, tyre pressure monitoring, 3D surround camera, driver condition monitor, lane keep assist, hill start assist, hill decent control, LED headlights and a 360-degree parking aid.

Extra driver-assist tech for 2021 includes blind spot assist, clear exit monitor, adaptive cruise control, rear collision monitor and rear traffic monitor.

If that’s not enough, the second-tier S variants gain 19-inch wheels, automatic high beam, interactive instrument cluster, front and rear centre armrests and a leather-clad steering wheel, while SE ups the ante with a powered steering column and ClearSight digital rear-view mirror.

Choose the flagship X trim and you get a Heather leather steering wheel, powerful premium sound system, an electrically deployable tow bar and the largest 20-inch alloy rims.

A further six option packs are also available, including a new X-Dynamic Pack ($7500) that aims to add more visual menace to the Defender. Tick the box and you get butch front and rear bash plates and a matching grille bar that paints the rear tow hooks black. This is combined with either dark grey or gloss black wheels and mirror caps – a colour also used on the lower sill and wheel-arch cladding.

Inside, there’s illuminated kick plates and a tough Robustek seat material that’s both hard-wearing and claimed to be almost impossible to tear.

Land Rover also invites you to make your Defender your own, with around 170 accessories developed for the 90 and 110, including a bull bar and side-mounted gear carriers, and equipment packs which accentuate its urban or explorer themes, among others.

All Defender variants are currently backed by a promotional five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty (up from the standard three-year/100,000km factory cover) and Land Rover Australia is hopeful this will continue into next year.

Ditto for the option of a five-year servicing plan, which costs $1950 for (four-cylinder) diesel variants and $2650 for the petrol, but expect pricing for the six-cylinder diesel to push up closer to the petrol once MY21 arrives.

The Defender range offers a 3500kg towing capacity with a maximum 350kg tow ball mass rating regardless of engine, making it one of the best SUV haulers money can buy.

Controversially, for dyed-in-the-wool off-roaders, the Land Rover Defender ditched its traditional ladder-frame chassis with the latest-generation underpinnings for the far more advanced, largely aluminium D7x monocoque architecture.

Those who regularly head off-road were concerned that this decision would jeopardise the Landie’s toughness but the migration to a more car-like platform has been key to rocketing the Defender nameplate into the 21st century.

Kicking off with safety, the new architecture should improve crash protection for vehicle occupants and pedestrians alike, while standard autonomous emergency braking (AEB), surround view monitor, cruise control with speed limiter, driver attention alert, lane keep assist, traffic sign recognition and wade sensing should all aid and assist Land Rover’s pursuit of a five-star crash test rating.

We’ve already mentioned the Defender’s mild-hybrid tech that’s available in both Ingenium inline six-cylinder petrol and diesels, but later on next year a full plug-in hybrid should also become available that combines a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine with a 105kW electric motor and 19.2kWh lithium-ion battery to produce 297kW and offer a 44km pure-electric range.

If that isn’t enough to convince you of the advances made over the last relic, the new Defender features a mind-blowing 85 ECUs that govern everything from the all-wheel drive, powertrain and, in some models, air suspension to the car-maker’s latest Pivi Pro infotainment system.

Speaking of the latter, the new infotainment unit is now among the best available and, it’s claimed, will only get better thanks to over-the-air updates that will ensure it should never become obsolete.

Chat to the Defender’s chief engineer and it’s the new Land Rover’s electric architecture that he’s most excited about. As well as offering a huge leap forward in sophistication, its ability to report faults and potential reliability issues will enable the British car-maker to fix and address issues far quicker than ever before.

We drove just two variants of the new Land Rover Defender 90: a top-of-the-range P400 on country roads, highways, an old airfield, plus some dirt roads; and later on we sampled a mid-spec P300 on Land Rover’s own off-road R&D hub based at Eastnor Castle in the west of England.

Sadly, the new six-cylinder diesel that we drove in the facelifted Range Rover Sport wasn’t available for our Defender drive.

On paper, the 2019 Land Rover Defender Works V8 is quicker but, in reality, we doubt it would see which way a P400 went on an average country road, such is the performance offered by the inline six-cylinder mild-hybrid.

Officially, against the clock the flagship new P400 takes 6.0 seconds (versus 5.7sec for the V8) to hit 100km/h, topping out at 219km/h (39km/h faster than the Defender Works).

Better still, while in the $280K Defender V8 anything above 150km/h is a white-knuckle adventure, we found on the airfield we visited that the new Shorty cruises comfortably and effortlessly at its tyre-limited 196km/h top speed.

More relevant is the fact that as well as producing 294kW, its 550Nm peak torque makes overtaking a breeze.

That said, we also found the entry-level petrol more than suffices in the performance department, with the 2.0-litre turbo-four pumping out 221kW and 400Nm at just 1500rpm.

That adds up to a 0-100km/h dash of just 6.7 seconds and an only slightly lower 191km/h top speed.

If you’re still seduced by the extra power in the six-cylinder, at least you won’t be punished at the fuel pumps; the P400 48-volt mild-hybrid tech means it should average 12L/100km, compared with the P300’s 12.5L/100km.

Of course, Australian buyers will also have the option of the new D200, D250 and D300 diesels with the electrified 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder that can officially return mileage as low as 9.3L/100km. This should hand you around 950km from a tankful of fuel, compared with 750km for the petrol.

Compared to the Discovery Sport or Range Rover Evoque, the 90 still rolls a little too much in bends, lacks steering precision and the general chassis polish a decent compact SUV delivers.

If adventure courses through your veins and you’re not afraid to ditch civilisation for a week or two, the new Defender is one of most capable all-rounders money can buy.

Even within the city where, let’s be honest, most Defender 90s will live, it no longer requires the sacrifices the last one demanded.

Measuring in at 4583mm long (including the spare wheel), the 90 is 435mm shorter than the 110, making it easier to park. Urbanites will also love its elevated driving position and decent turning circle.

Land Rover expects most Australian buyers will steer towards all-terrain tyres to reduce the risk of pinch cut punctures that are easy to pick up on dirt roads. But we suggest that if you rarely go off-road but still love the way the Defender 90 looks, you should give them a wide berth and go for road-biased rubber.

We suspect the all-terrain tyres’ combination of a stiff sidewall and soft tread pattern dull the P400’s steering response and, on track, that led to it pushing wide earlier than we might have expected.

On dirt, they came into their own and offered decent grip and surprising balance – not that it could disguise the Defender 90’s considerable 2300kg kerb weight, which is still around 120kg lighter than the longer 110.

Another area of complaint – still related to those tyres – concerns the ride quality that is only amplified by the Defender 90’s 2587mm (actually 102 inches) wheelbase.

On typical bumpy British roads that are not unlike Australia’s, the little Shorty struggled to settle – despite having air suspension. It didn’t help that our P400 X also rode on large 20-inch wheels, but one engineer we spoke to admitted the longer Defender 110 (3022mm wheelbase, or 119 inches) offers a calmer, less fidgety ride.

Something we can’t complain about is the Defender’s powerful brakes and smooth eight-speed automatic that is a fine match for either the P300 or P400.

Off-road, we switched to a coil-sprung Defender 90 as Land Rover wanted to demonstrate how capable the base suspension is that offers 225mm ground clearance, compared to the air-sprung Shorty’s superior 291mm.

This coiler version can also only wade into no more than 850mm of water (as standard) – 50mm less than the more expensive models and, on our test, after one of the UK’s wettest Septembers in history, every millimetre counted.

As we ventured onto the muddy tracks that had been used for the previous five days by journalists from around Europe, the conditions had clearly worsened. For the majority of our off-road drive we used the low-range gearbox with the Terrain Response 2 in Mud and Ruts mode.

Our test vehicle also had the optional active rear differential fitted that works in harmony with the centre diff to maximise traction when conditions get slippery.

Taking the effort out of serious off-roading, what the Defender’s new eight-speed auto takes away in ultimate engagement it repays in its ability to let the driver (and the on-board electronics) manage the available torque. It also proves far smoother when traversing the most technical sections where juggling a heavy clutch would have proven much more of a challenge.

Of course we get stuck, when we should have manually selected third to crawl up a muddy slope rather than using sheer momentum.

Others were not so lucky. While our Defender 90 was demonstrating mind-blowing off-road capability, impressing with the low-down torque of the turbo-petrol, two other vehicles were struggling with an unusual overheating issue.

Apparently, service staff neglected to power-wash the inside of the Defenders’ radiator and that’s a serious problem at Eastnor where the clay-based soil turns cement-like when it dries within the radiator’s core.

It’s an unfortunate hitch for the car-maker but one, incredibly, Land Rover was aware of before we were. Thanks to on-board telemetry provided by the new electrical architecture, the vehicles themselves had reported the problem direct to HQ and a diagnosis was easy on the data alone.

Engineers say that across 1.2 million kilometres of extensive testing around the world, including its own Eastnor facility, overheating has not been an issue with the new Defender.

One final note concerning comfort: for those hoping the Defender would once again become a compact alternative to a people-mover, prepare to be disappointed.

Despite the claim it can seat six, the centre seat up front is only really suitable for small kids and occasional use, while climbing up into the rear bench is an act of agility frustrated by a narrow aperture.

Once there, tall adults will moan about the lack of under-thigh support and absence of rear air vents on lower-grade models.

Truly replacing the iconic Defender was always going to be an impossible task but, as we’ve already revealed with our earlier drives of the 110 version, one we think Land Rover has achieved successfully.

Ditching the ladder-frame chassis was a huge gamble but it’s one that has allowed the car-maker to move forward into the 21st century and should ensure it performs far better than the three-star rating the Jeep Wrangler managed in ANCAP crash tests.

The Jeep remains the more cost-effective approach to off-roading, but after a day behind the wheel the Defender 90 is clearly the better choice.

It’s not perfect, but its blend of better on-road dynamics, greater refinement and powerful engine range makes it the more appealing option and one that could steal sales from the pricier Mercedes G-Class, which before too long will offer a high-output straight-six turbo-diesel.

The biggest threat to the new Defender 90 isn’t from Jeep but from Land Rover itself.

We think if you can sacrifice some style and cop the $3000 premium, the more spacious, practical, better-riding Defender 110 is a better bet.

It’s a good dilemma to face. If you need a tough, rugged off-roader with go-anywhere ability, the better-driving, more civilised, technologically advanced Land Rover Defender should be at the very top of your list, whatever the wheelbase.

How much does the 2021 Land Rover Defender 90 P400 X cost?
Price: $134,690 (plus on-road costs)
Available: February 2021
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 294kW/550Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 12.0/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 252g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested