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By
EWAN KENNEDY
25 February 2008
The new Land Rover Defender is a real blast from the past, but
under that old-fashioned aluminium skin there are some quite
futuristic features. Not that they are there to be high-tech, of
course, the Defender isn’t that sort of vehicle. No, the
electronics exist purely for practical reasons, to make it even
better off road than the original vehicle.
Because the Land Rover Defender is intended to work hard for
its living. It was designed in the late 1940s (that’s right, the
‘40s!) to provide transport for farmers, vets, miners, builders,
anyone who wanted to traverse harsh conditions in pursuit of their
living. It has been updated in the meantime, but not to any
unnecessary extent.
Defender’s simply brilliant in off-road driving and we did
plenty of that a few months ago during a press launch that
encompassed a two-day camping trip and some operation in harsh
off-road conditions.
But now we had to use the Defender as a passenger car in our home
area on motorways and suburbs in south-east Queensland and were
interested in finding out how well it coped.
Bear in mind that this is a working truck and it’s
acceptable, but the Defender is susceptible to cross winds and
somewhat light in the steering at the straight ahead position, so
is not all that relaxing to drive.
Changes to the chassis, steering and suspension are relatively
minor compared to the previous models, but do give the new
Defender a slightly better feel from behind the wheel in most
other conditions. The big turning circle was a pain at times when
negotiating tight carparks.
The dashboard is now virtually a carryover from the Land Rover
Discovery 3 and is much better engineered and provides improved
ergonomics.
Defender continues to have too-small windscreen wipers, a
feature of many vehicles designed in the 1940s, but they clear the
screen reasonably well and we never felt there was any danger in
the smallish viewing area they offered.
Defender now comes with as many as seven seats in the 110
wagon. The front seats are too short, flat and don’t support
well. They continue to be wedged against the door, so restrict
elbow room for the driver.
The rearmost seats fold up to the side of the body. They are
mainly for kids but adults can be squeezed in for emergency
travel. When not in use there's good luggage space between them,
when they are up things get a bit tight, but Defender is hardly
alone in this.
Centre-row seats have good legroom and headroom and their width
can cope with three adults, though two will certainly feel more
comfortable.
A fair bit of dust had been deposited in the rear luggage area,
suggesting that dust sealing isn’t to the high standard of
modern 4WDs.
Land Rover Defender’s new engine, a 2.4-litre four-cylinder,
is built by Ford. It has a handy 315 Newton metres all the way
from 1500 rpm to 2700 rpm so we found we were driving with the
engine at its torque peak virtually all the time. All that grunt
is useful and the engine is moderately quiet at cruising speeds,
though somewhat noisy under acceleration.
This engine is taller than the previous unit, so a bonnet bulge
had to be incorporated in the frontal design. Meaning you can no
longer carry a spare tyre on the bonnet. Another change is the
deletion of the traditional vents at the base of the windscreen.
Air conditioning is now standard because of the deletion of the
vents. Good news is that the air-conditioning unit is now behind
the dashboard instead of taking up room in the passenger’s
footwell.
Sitting behind the new engine is a six-speed manual gearbox.
Adding the extra ratio over the five-speed in the previous
Defender has enabled the use of an extra-low first gear for
off-road use, and a highway cruising sixth gear. Second is too
high to take off from a standstill without slipping the clutch
over much, so it’s necessary to start in first then change gear
only a few seconds later. Fifth can’t really be used around
town, but that’s only to be expected and the engine is happy to
work in fifth down to pretty low revs.
All-in-all the Defender is a thoroughly acceptable vehicle for
those looking for a genuine off-road 4WD at a pretty reasonable
price. But keep in mind that the Land Rover Defender is a truck
and doesn’t pretend to be anything else.
Here’s a challenge for those who buy a 4WD because they feel
it gives them a macho appearance: If you really do want to look
tough enough to tackle the harshest of Aussie terrain, why not
forget about buying one of the ‘pretend’ 4WDs and buy one of
the original vehicles in the passenger 4WD market – the Land
Rover Defender?
AT A GLANCE
MODEL RANGE
Defender 110 2.4-litre diesel four-door wagon - $48,990
Defender 130 Crew Cab 2.4-litre diesel cab chassis - $50,990
FEATURES
ABS Brakes: Standard in 110, not offered in 130
Air Conditioning: Standard in both models
Automatic Transmission: Not offered
CD Player: Standard in both models
Central Locking: Standard in both models
Cruise Control: Not offered
Dual Front Airbags: Not offered
Front Side Airbags: Not offered
Stability Control: Not offered
Traction Control: Standard in 110, not offered in 130
SPECIFICATIONS (Defender 130 Crew Cab 2.4-litre diesel cab
chassis)
ENGINE:
Capacity: 2.402 litres
Configuration: Longitudinal, four cylinders in line
Head Design: DOHC, four valves per cylinder
Compression Ratio: 17.5:1
Bore/Stroke: 89.9 x 94.6 mm
Maximum Power: 90 kW @ 3500 rpm
Maximum Torque: 360 Nm @ 2000 rpm
DRIVELINE:
4WD Type: Full-time
Manual Transmission: Six-speed
Automatic Transmission: Not offered
Final Drive Ratio: 3.54:1
DIMENSIONS, WEIGHT AND CAPACITIES:
Length: 5170 mm
Wheelbase: 3225 mm
Width: 1790 mm
Height: 2021 mm
Turning Circle: 15.1 metres
Kerb Mass: 2120 kg
Fuel Tank Capacity: 75 litres
Towing Ability: 750 kg (3500 kg with braked trailer)
SUSPENSION AND BRAKES:
Front Suspension: Live axle, coil springs
Rear Suspension: Live axle, coil springs
Front Brakes: Ventilated disc
Rear Brakes: Disc
FUEL CONSUMPTION/EMISSION RATINGS:
Fuel Type: Diesel
Green Vehicle Guide Greenhouse Rating: 4/10
Green Vehicle Guide Air Pollution Rating: 3/10
Fuel Consumption - Combined Cycle (ADR 81/01): 11.1 L/100 km
STANDARD WARRANTY:
Three years/100,000 km
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Marque Publishing Company
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