This off the leash Land Rover Defender 90 P525 has a supercharged V8 engine shoehorned under its square bonnet and the result is totally tubular dude.
But seriously, the rumble of the V8 on startup brings a smile to my face every time, as does the 386kW of power between 6,000 – 6,500rpm and 625Nm of torque between 2,500 – 5,500rpm. The official combined fuel economy is 12.8L/100km and for my almost 1,000km road trip in the Defender, I used 13.4L/100km driving on a combination of highways and fun winding roads. The Defender 90 is no light weight, coming in at over 2.5 tonnes, so it is even more impressive that the 5.0 litre, supercharged V8 engine can accelerate the Defender 90 from 0-100km/h in just 5.2 seconds. It’s quite comical when you do this as nose pitches up even in Dynamic mode.
The other drive modes available on the all-wheel drive Defender 90 are Eco, Comfort, Gravel/Snow, Mud Ruts, Sand, Wade (maximum depth 900mm), and Rock Crawl that you need to select low range to engage. I didn’t try the Rock Crawl mode out, but it I did my Defender was fitted with the optional ($1,037) front under shield for extra protection. There are also four configurable modes that allow you to adjust the Differentials, Powertrain, Steering, Traction Control and Ride Control and then name and store them for future use. The Defender is a dream on rough country roads as it rides over bumps like they are not even there making for a comfortable driving experience for all passengers. I was a little nervous though in a carparking garage thinking that I would hit some of the low hanging pipes on the roof due to its height.
If you happen to get sand in the Defender it would be easy to clean thanks to the hard plastic floors that are under the carpet mats. The Ebony Windsor leather, Dinamica suedecloth and Robustec seats would also vacuum and wipe clean easily. Both front seats have power adjustment for recline, forward/back, seat height front and rear, side bolstering on the seat back and 4-way lumbar support with three memory positions. They also come standard with heating and cooling, both of which work well. The cooled seats are also quiet when operating, which is not always the case on vehicles that have them.
This Defender 90 also comes standard with centre console fridge compartment that really does chill your drinks well with the coolest temperature I saw on my thermometer being 2.6o Celsius. The compartment under the arm rest fits four 600ml bottles of soft drink or one short full-size bottle of French Rosé that we enjoyed at the end of our long drive. An annoying thing with the fridge was even though I selected the coolest temp setting it automatically backed it off after a certain amount time so I had to keep checking it to make sure it stayed very cold. The two cup holders in the centre console have grippy sides to reduce the risk of your cooled drink spilling, but the drink bottle storage in front doors in not moulded to shape so bottles can move around and it does not suit larger bottles.
The Defender may have rustic styling on the interior, but it has plenty of tech including wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto that worked well and connected immediately. The wireless charge pad is located front of arm rest and the ledge below centre console has one USB-C port, one USB-A port and one 12V socket. The ledge has a grippy base with a lip to stop items from sliding off, as does the ledge in front of the passenger where there is a place for their phone and one USB-C port.
The heated Suedecloth steering wheel is lovely to touch and it has beautiful metal wheel-mounted paddle shifters behind it for ‘manually’ changing gears on the 8-speed automatic transmission. There’s a full digital driver’s dash that you can configure and the head-up display that I somehow managed to show some off-roading information on. Voice control can be used on the Pivi Pro infotainment system and is activated by pressing the button on the steering wheel with feminine looking silhouette on it. The voice control worked well for me for making phone calls, changing the radio station and setting a destination on the sat nav. This is an improvement over the previous Defender 90 that I drove as it did not allow me to set a destination.
To access the rear seats, you press a button on the shoulder of the front seat and manually slide it forward. The gap was large enough for me to step in and out easily and there is a handle on the B-pillar if you need help to pull yourself up. The rear seats have enough head and leg room for me, but my knees feel like they are sitting up high. The Defender 90 has two ISOFix/three rear tether child seat restraint points, but at the rear of the centre seat it is not labelled as a rear tether point and I find this confusing.
The centre seat folds down as an arm rest with two shallow cup holders at the front and on each side of the floor is a grippy drink holder. Rear passengers get two central air vents with individual direction and on/off control and even though it has two temperature control dials in the rear it only has a single temperature setting for here. These dials are needed because you push them for the rear heated seat controls. The most annoying feature though is the rear air speed also controls the front air speed, which is one of my pet hates in cars. There are also two USB-A ports below vents for charging devices.
A full-size sliding panoramic tinted glass roof with an electric sunblind and the side windows in the roof provide abundant light and space, making the rear seats feel less claustrophobic as the rear windows do not open.
The tailgate swings out to the right and can be a bit hard to get it to stay open while you are loading items into the boot. This would not be much though as the boot only fits a small shop, but we did manage to carry our luggage without any issue. There are two substantial tie down points and one 12V socket and a 3 pin 230V 180W electrical plug in the boot area. The rear seats have a 40:20:40 split folding mechanism, but when lowered they do not create a flat space. This Defender 90 has two rear tow hooks and a tow bar with the full-size spare tyre is mounted on the back under the optional Body Coloured Spare Wheel Cover ($758). The Defender 90 has a 750 kgs unbraked/3,500 kgs braked towing capacity with a maximum tow ball weight of 350kg.
The Land Rover Defender 90 does not an ANCAP safety rating, but does have dual frontal, side chest-protecting for the first row and side head-protecting (curtain) airbags for both the first and second rows. Adaptive cruise control is standard on this Defender 90, as is Autonomous Emergency Braking, lane keep assist, blind spot assist, and wade sensing to prevent a wipe out. This Defender 90 also comes standard with the ClearSight interior rear-view mirror, which projects the rear-view camera into the rear-view mirror so the driver has a better view of what is going on behind them. The reversing camera has both standard rear view camera with a 360o/3D view camera and front and rear sensors and you also get auto lights and auto rain sensing wipers.
The Land Rover Defender 90 comes with a 5 years/Unlimited kilometres warranty with 5 years Roadside Assistance. A 5 years/130,000 kms (whichever occurs first) service plan can be purchased up front for $3,750.
The starting price for this rad 23MY Land Rover Defender 90 P525 is $221,550 excluding on-road costs and as tested the Yulong White Defender with Extended Black Exterior Pack ($1,707) was $225,052 plus on-road costs. You can Build you Own Defender 90 online or visit your preferred Land Rover retailer for more information.
| Pros | Cons |
| The comfortable ride | Rear air speed controlled front air speed |
| The centre console fridge compartment | Fridge compartment defaults to less cool temperature |
| Cooed seats worked well and operated quietly | The central rear tether mount is not labelled |
Photograph by Driven Women Magazine.