Faith in Defender

Land Rover adds six new variants to its Defender lineup this month, bringing a shot in the arm to what is unquestionably the most iconic vehicle in a range not short of segment-defining models.

The expanded Defender range brings new short-wheelbase (110) crew cab pickup, hardtop, single cab-chassis and high capacity pickup models, as well as long-wheelbase (130) single cab-chassis and high-capacity crew cab pickup models to the lineup.

These supplement the existing Defender 110 station wagon (with a seven-seat option) and long-wheelbase 130 crew cab-chassis models and take the total roll call to eight.

The new crew cab pickup is similarly specified to the Defender wagon with alloy wheels, power front wheels and a few external titillations including "Brunell" grille. It also comes with a rear canopy and hood bows. 

The 110 hardtop is essentially a load-carrier and is based on the Defender station wagon. It comes with air-conditioning, CD player, power front windows and sliding windows in the back.

It boasts a GVM of 3050kg that can be upgraded to 3500kg with the optional Heavy Duty suspension pack.

The new 110 single cab-chassis version shares specifications with the 110 hardtop and also offers the Heavy Duty pack (suspension, wheels and tyres, GVM increase to 3500kg, chassis reinforcements) or Boost pack (alloy wheels with locking wheel nuts, anti-lock braking, traction control) as an option. The also-new high-capacity 110 single cab pickup shares spec with the hardtop.

Sharing its specifications with the 130 crew cab chassis, the long-wheelbase 130 single cab-chassis offers heavy duty suspension as standard, for a GVM of 3500kg. The new 130 crew cab pickup version also shares specifications with the 130 single cab-chassis.

All models in the Land Rover workhorse lineup feature a 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel engine inherited from Ford's Transit commercial vehicle, driving through a six-speed manual transmission (more here).

The Defender has been a steady seller for Land Rover, although sales declined from 2005 before picking up to just under 400 in 2008, with the updated model powered by the Ford Transit engine.

An interesting aberration is that, in year to date sales for 2009, the Defender station wagon was the only Land Rover model to improve on 2008 figures, with 142 vehicles sold. This compares with 136 sales for the same period last year. It is admittedly off a small base well below Discovery (695), Freelander (439) and Range Rover Sport (455). In all, Land Rover was down 27.9 per cent on year to date figures as of June this year.

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