Land Rover Defender. Urban discharge
The car in question can rightly be called legendary. It is precisely this word — "iconic" — that fellow journalists most often use to describe the Land Rover Defender. This vehicle has been produced virtually unchanged since 1947.
It is a pure-blooded off-roader with no equal on any surface: snow, desert sand, clay, or black soil — none are obstacles for it. Five million units sold, and three-quarters of them are still on the road. In terms of off-road capability, it is often compared only to the UAZ. For many years, the Defender was the favorite vehicle of Winston Churchill, farmers, archaeologists, rescue workers, military personnel, and adventurers. It has helped people where the road ended and, it seemed, hope was lost. Where it was hard to find not only fuel but even water. In short, the ideal car for an apocalypse.
A lifesaver for real men
Many wealthy Russians who can afford any car keep a Defender in their garage as a backup option — for hunting or fishing trips. This is a car for men who are not bothered by details such as brick-like aerodynamics, the lack of an onboard computer, primitive air vent controls, a weak radio (which is unclear why it is installed at all), cabin noise, the absence of door pockets on the front doors, and no glove box in front of the passenger.
And the main thing you will have to come to terms with, having paid $42,000 for this car, is that you will rarely see it clean. A brutal SUV should not shine. If the sides are polished to a shine, it means the car has fallen into the wrong hands, and the owner is just showing off. The Defender should be slightly dirty all year round, just as its owner should be unshaven. You will have to wash your clothes after every trip, and the bruises you get when getting in, as is known, only adorn a man. Women should not approach this car. Climbing into a jeep that is slightly taller than a Hummer is extremely inconvenient. Handles under the roof or on the pillars to ease entry were, for some reason, not provided. They would also be useful off-road.
Brutality in every rivet
The Defender also lacks lacquer on its fully aluminum body, many parts of which are joined by spot welding and bolts with nuts. You can safely climb onto the metal bumpers with dirty boots, and the fenders even have a special place where you can stand. It is better to wash the car with a bucket. A Karcher car wash is contraindicated — water seeps into the cabin through weak seals (hence the poor sound insulation).
Colleagues, upon learning that I was to test the Defender, ironically asked whether I had ever driven a truck, tractor, or military vehicle. I honestly replied that I had not. And I added that my worst experience was a Zaporozhets Lanos, whose steering wheel I could barely turn even in the yard, and some diesel pickup of a little-known Chinese brand, behind the wheel of which I felt like a tractor driver due to the engine roar, stench, and poor handling. "Well, then get ready," they warned me.
Theoretically, I was ready for serious trials. About ten years ago, I tried driving a Def of the previous generation. I admit, I did not like it at all. I had to press the clutch with all my might with my left foot and strain my right arm to shift gears. Not a car, but a strength trainer!
Be careful when making U-turns!
The new generation is a bit more civilized. Despite the stiff clutch and unusual pedal placement (they are spaced too far apart to allow a boot or even felt boots to fit freely on the pedal), I managed to get moving. The devil was not as scary as he is painted. True, I had to fiddle with the side mirrors for a long time — everything here is army-style, manual, and the small central one could be left alone — you could not see anything anyway. I also had to get used to the steering wheel, which was almost the size of a KamAZ one. The turns did not please — it felt like the Defender simply forgot to install power steering. And the warning at the dealership: "Be more careful when making U-turns and maneuvers in yards!" — turned out to be not superfluous at all. The turning circle is huge — it seems the car was designed only for driving straight. And do not dream that the huge steering wheel adjusts in reach or height — this also applies to the seats. However, is this needed by hunting and fishing fans? For them, the main thing is not comfort on the way, but the ability to reach the final point. Not everyone will like the huge gearshift lever either. Its throws are short, but the precision is such that each gear seems to have been pumped with whiskey.
A car is not a subway
If you have seen the front console of the previous generation Defender, the new one differs little from it. That one looked outdated by 20 years; the current one is slightly better, with more modern air vents, but with the same climate mode sliders. And the entire Defender differs little from the previous version. The shape of the hood has changed, the front panel is new, and rear passengers no longer sit facing each other like in the subway but are placed as in a regular sedan, looking forward. The number of seats has not increased — 2 in front, 2 in the back.
Moreover, you can only get into the rear seats through the rear door using a step near the tow hitch. The gearshift lever is also new. But the heater, like in the previous model, only works when moving. At idle, it blows cold air. So you cannot warm up while parked, and you will have to freeze in traffic jams as well. It is good that the "newcomer" has lost the forced air vents-embrasures under the windshield, which caused constant drafts (it was impossible to close them tightly). Another "minus" — the windshield washer fluid still flows not onto the hood but into a narrow channel under the wipers. From there, it flows onto the hinges of both doors. The car is primarily intended for driving in mud, and I fear that this dirt flowing from the windshield will eventually clog the door hinges. Not respectable.
The mystery of the Belarus tractor
Let us return to the engine and on-road behavior. Before the trip, you will have to find the place to insert the ignition key (a narrow slot to the left of the steering wheel) and turn on the headlights (a tiny handle to the left in front of the key). If you want to open the hood, you will also spend time finding the handle out of habit. It is not under your left foot, as usual, but on the right, under where the glove box is in normal cars.
The 2.4-liter engine with 122 hp works as befits a car with such a brick-like appearance. That is, the car rattles like a Belarus tractor. Vibrations are felt not only on the gearshift lever but also on the steering wheel. At first, driving through puddles and mud, I constantly fought the urge to check the doors and windows — it seemed I had forgotten to close something.
The car drives like a true retro vehicle, typical of a car invented in 1947. On first gear (the shortest), you are unlikely to accelerate beyond 8–10 km/h. However, this is justified — with all differential locks engaged, driving faster is simply prohibited (a sign above the gearshift lever reminds you of this).
Neither on the internet nor in the manual will you find information on how many seconds the Defender takes to reach 100 km/h. For the Mitsubishi L200 and Ford Ranger, this figure exceeds 20 seconds. The Defender is beyond competition here — it is unrealistic to accelerate it to that speed even in half a minute. And do not be surprised if you are last at a traffic light in the city and crawl in the right lane. Let them overtake. But when the asphalt ends, you will feel like the king of the road and see where all those "racers" get stuck.
The speedometer is marked up to 200 km/h. But that is clearly overkill. My record, with a claimed top speed of 122 km/h, was exactly 100. Further pressing the gas is simply useless. Born to crawl cannot fly. If you want to move around the city at this speed and are not afraid of the jeep bucking on bumps and small irregularities, if your left leg is not yet tired from constantly pressing the clutch, then remember the song "Hold the steering wheel tighter, driver." Above 70 km/h, you should hold the steering wheel firmly with both hands and especially not maneuver. Any sharp lane changes can put the driver into a stupor. This is not a parket SUV — the center of gravity of this English brick is at the level of the roof of a golf-class hatchback. But it can easily climb an obstacle the size of a Nissan Micra or Daewoo Matiz.
Anyone accustomed to regular passenger cars is unlikely to understand a person who struggles to get out of the Defender's doors. They will not understand why buy a car with a bunch of iron bars inside the body, manual side mirror adjustments, a confusing heater operation mode, tiny wipers on a completely flat windshield, two airbags, and a bunch of other specific features not found in any modern car. Any driver who values comfort and high driving qualities in a car will ask — why is such a car needed at all, if even professional test drivers say it is not easy to find a common language with the car, that you need to get used to it for a long time, and it is quite heavy to handle?
Off-city kilometers
The secret is that all the "minuses" noted above are simultaneously the main pluses and advantages of the "Defender." Let us repeat — this English UAZ is not bought to comfortably rack up kilometers on city highways. Get off-road, and you will truly appreciate the car. You will have no equal. The torque of 360 Nm may even allow you not to engage low range. It will go even where the UAZ 469 and GAZ 66 might falter, despite their mud-terrain tires. And the Englishman will suffice with the General Graber TR 235/85 R 16 tires, used for many decades, created specifically for Land Rover.
The new Def has changed its color palette. It has never been glossy black, and this suits it — it looks younger and fresher. The body is aluminum, so you will not see rust marks on it. The weight is less than 2 tons, and even if you get stuck in the mud without equipping the car with a winch, any truck will easily pull you out. Defender fans know — no other car in the world has such off-road capability — it is one of the wonders of modern automotive engineering. This is what hunting, fishing, and extreme tourism enthusiasts value so much.
Your own master
The car is deliberately careless towards you, towards city streets, and does not seek to provide comfort for you and everyone moving next to it, muffling the engine roar. But it does its job as honestly as possible, and for that, you feel respect for it. It grins maliciously at all modern station wagons, the so-called "increased cross-country ability," and is ready to turn every trip behind the wheel into an event. Just please, have fun with it away from the city; here it is cramped and simply has nothing to do.
In conclusion, after all the praises, a little about the sad. About the prices for this island UAZ. The 90-inch version (Defender 90) with three doors and a 4-seat cabin costs from $32,800 to $36,800. The 110, which is almost a meter longer, costs from $36,000 to $44,000. For a purely male toy that you are unlikely to use as a family car or a regular means of city transportation — it is a bit expensive. But the car has many fans. In my presence, guys from Sakhalin were placing an order for three cars at once in the showroom.
And at one time, there was a Defender of Kaliningrad assembly, and it cost only $23,500. And the price for the original 110 did not exceed $33,800. However, even the current price does not scare buyers much. The special feature of this car is that, unlike 99% of all cars, the price of even a 2-3-year-old Defender practically does not drop compared to the original.
Technical specifications:
Dimensions (mm)
3920x1790x1980
Wheelbase (mm)
2350
Weight (kg)
1640
Payload (kg)
690
Ground clearance (mm)
220
Engine displacement (cm3)
2401
Power (hp)
122
Maximum torque (Nm/rpm)
360/1800
Maximum speed (km/h)
122
Acceleration 0-100 km/h (s)
>25
Fuel consumption (l/100km)
10.5
Price (rubles)
from 820,000 to 920,000
Dmitry Shavyrin
Source – AUTOMANIA.RU
