Land Rover Defender 2007 Review

What we liked
>> Unstoppable cross-country resolve
>> Relatively good fuel economy
>> Adult-size third-row seat

Not so much
>> Off-road ability is at the expense of on-road dynamics
>> Compromised packaging and ergonomics
>> No traction control or ABS for 130

Overall rating: 2.5/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 2.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 2.5/5.0
Safety: 2.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 2.0/5.0
X-factor: 3.5/5.0

OVERVIEW
Out in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, they've discovered the Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) -- a small stand of pine trees thought to be long extinct. The tree was only known previously to modern man through fossil records dating back about 90 million years.

It's sort of appropriate then, that Land Rover chose to launch the upgraded Defender in the Blue Mountains, not far -- we believe -- from the secret location of the Wollemi pine plantation, which is surrounded by electric fencing to keep feral pests and 'eco-terrorists' at bay.

Like the pine, the Defender defies extinction - in the 4x4's case via the work of a small band of conservationists employed by Land Rover. The dedicated few's most recent nurturing of the automotive world's own living fossil comprises replacing the 2.5-litre five-cylinder diesel with a Euro IV-compliant four-cylinder turbodiesel from Ford's Transit light commercial range.

Land Rover has a long history, first of all as part of Rover, which subsequently became part of BMC, then British Leyland and latterly MG-Rover and the Rover Group. At this point, BMW stepped in and purchased the company -- specifically for the Land Rover product lines. Land Rover yielded a lot of offroad smarts which BMW incorporated in the X5 and the X3 models, but the symbiosis was a two-way street, with Land Rover picking up BMW engines and electronic control systems.

Stung by on-going problems with profitability and an intransigent workforce at Land Rover's HQ in Solihull -- and other parts of the new British conquests too -- BMW abandoned the Rover Group, retained the MINI brand and sold off the assets which were still worth something, like Land Rover.

In the wash-up, Ford picked up Land Rover and now the cycle of cross-pollination continues, but this time with Ford parts.

That's why the updated Defender is now getting around with an engine originally intended for the Transit van. Often, car companies will avoid dumping a commercial vehicle-derived diesel engine into an SUV, since the SUV -- being a passenger-carrying device -- demands a drivetrain boasting a higher level of refinement than you would normally experience in a van. It says a lot about the Defender's archaic design philosophy that the Transit engine with the new six-speed transmission registers a marked improvement on the previous TD5 five-cylinder engine and five-speed manual transmission.

The Defender is one of the most capable of offroad vehicles around, but its capability stems from well-trodden design and engineering solutions that would represent too much of a compromise for other SUV manufacturers. Even Land Rover itself, if one compares the Defender with the Discovery, Freelander or Range Rover models…

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
Pricing for the Defender is as simple as it gets. The two variants comprise the 110 Station Wagon ($48,990) and the 130 Crew Cab Chassis ($50,990), which is delivered without a tray body, to leave the buyer the option of choosing whatever body is required. Options available are metallic paint ($900) and the third row seat option for the wagon at $2000 (N/A for the 130 Crew Cab Chassis).

There's no automatic transmission option, no alternate engine options, no multi-grade model range structure. The one significant feature that separates the 110 from the 130 is the wagon's standard traction control, which is not fitted to the crew cab model.

Air conditioning is now standard across the range. Other standard features include a CD audio system and front electric windows.

MECHANICAL
As with all of its predecessors, the Defender comprises aluminium body panels fastened to a full chassis. Coil springs front and rear suspend the live axles, which are driven from a two-speed transfer and lockable centre differential for full-time 4WD capability. Open diffs are fitted at front and rear, but operate like limited slip differentials when the traction control brakes one side or the other.

Only the 110 employs this ABS-based traction control to keep wheelspin in check. The 130 is not fitted with either ABS or the traction control system, relying entirely on the lockable centre diff and the vehicle's native grip to drag through the tough stuff. Traction control for the 110 wagon only works through the brakes and does not reduce torque through the engine management system as in some vehicles.

The new 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel from the Transit is a cleaner-running engine than the 'old' TD5 five-cylinder engine fitted previously. It features an alloy head and a variable geometry turbocharger to reduce turbo lag.

Land Rover has modified the engine for greater durability in offroad conditions. Basically, that boils down to revised lubrication and sealing. The engine management system has also been fettled to reduce the propensity of the engine stalling under high load at low engine speeds.

Despite the Defender's 'olde worlde' looks, fuel consumption in ADR81/01 combined testing is a respectable 11.0lt/100km for the 110 wagon or 11.1lt/100km for the 130 crew cab. The engine is Euro IV-compliant running on low sulphur fuel and will also run on lower-grade diesel fuels, but the emissions suffer as a consequence.

With an undersquare ('long-stroke') design, the engine develops strong torque (360Nm), outgunning the TD5 engine by 60Nm and developing 15Nm more torque than the older engine's maximum across a rev range from 1500 to 2700rpm. Peak power is 90kW, which is the same figure as for the TD5 engine, occurring at 3500rpm.

A new six-speed manual transmission improves on the previous model's five-speed box for reduced fuel consumption and lower engine noise at touring speeds. It's a modification of the six-speed manual transmission used in the Discovery 3. Performance has been improved by virtue of the new transmission's lower first gear ratio, aiding acceleration, tractability and gradeability.

PACKAGING
The Defender is as upright and imposing as the Cenotaph, but when you actually look at the dimensions, it's not as big as expected. With a length of 4639mm, the 110 Station Wagon is shorter than both the Hummer H3 and the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon. Toyota's 76 Series Troopy GXL is over 400mm longer than the Rover.

In width too, the Defender is narrower than the other three. It's only in height (2021mm) that the Defender towers over the Jeep and the Hummer. Even then, it's still a little short of the Toyota. The Defender does have the best ground clearance of the four vehicles, so it's not as if that height is wasted, either.

If there's one particular way in which the Defender's external dimensions really make an impact, it's in the vehicle's ability to cross rough terrain. Its approach angle is 49 degrees -- that's a whopping 11 degrees better than the Toyota and better again than the two American offroaders.  The departure angle, at 36 degrees, is marginally better than the Hummer's, which is better than the Jeep's and way better than the Toyota's.

Combine the shortest wheelbase with a ground clearance that is over 50mm better than the Jeep's and you come up with a breakover angle of 30.3 degrees, three degrees better than the Toyota's and better still than the two Americans.

Taking into account the Defender's generally more compact dimensions and very well developed underbody protection -- even the front Panhard rod is protected by a sturdy cross-bar ahead of the live axle -- and you have a vehicle that can fair tip-toe over peaks and troughs that would be gouging the hell out of the other three vehicles.

All of this is a long way around saying the Defender is extremely well packaged for offroad work -- which is not to say that the packaging is not compromised.

All the short overhangs, compact dimensions, high ground clearance, stadium seating and ancient design ergonomics result in a cabin that is downright claustrophobic in the front seats.

To give a further example of the way in which the Defender's offroad strengths have diminished its utility as a means of conveying people from point to point, consider the two front seats. They're actually mounted well outboard of the vehicle's centreline. This, we're told, is to allow the driver (on either side of the cabin, whether the car is RHD or not) to be able to see the very front corner of the vehicle with head out the window, while negotiating rugged terrain.

This is contrary to modern passive safety design, which tries to place as much crumple zone between the occupants and a side impact as possible. For the Perentie project, the Australian Army insisted that the seats be moved inboard by an inch. There's plenty of room to do that too.

So the interior of the vehicle is cramped for the front seat occupants. There's adequate head and leg-room, but the new centre fascia is as horizontally integrated as a Mayan temple and seems to dominate the forward section of the cabin.

Second row seat occupants will generally feel a little more free to move, but the stadium seating -- which is a function of Land Rover sitting the passengers upright to compel an illusion of roominess -- places adult passengers in that row at eye level with the cant rails. Through the panoramic sections above the door tops, the passengers can see sky, tree tops and the upper reaches of high rise buildings. Through the side windows, they can watch small children playing on footpaths and nature strips. But they can't watch much else happening.

Still, it must be said that the second row seat is fantastic for kids who are at least ten centimetres shorter in the trunk than average adults.

The third-row seating comprises two fold-up buckets and will accommodate two adults. Unfortunately -- and again a product of the stadium seating -- the third row seats are not only mounted too high for the occupants' field of vision, they're also too high for adequate adult headroom.

Luggage capacity, even with the optional third row seat deployed, is pretty decent. There's even space between the two third row seats for an extra suitcase to snuggle in between.

SAFETY
No airbags, no ESP, no NCAP rating. As far as safety is concerned, the Defender is as almost as basic as you can get on the road these days. Braking is by four-wheel discs and at least the 110 wagon comes with ABS, (unlike the Toyota 70s).

The Defender -- in 110 wagon form -- also comes with traction control. The 130 crew cab is not so blessed, since the 130 also lacks the ABS which is fundamental to the braking-based traction control developed for the 110.

The Defender is built on a full chassis and there's precious little interior padding, so hit something else as unyielding as the Land Rover -- admittedly not an easy feat to find another unyielding object like that -- and there's a chance you'll end up looking like a cameo role in 'CSI'.

COMPETITORS
We've already covered the vehicles we consider would be representative competitors to the Defender under the PACKAGING section above. It's not necessarily exhaustive and you might think of other vehicles you would cross-shop against the Defender.

Some would suggest the Nissan Patrol for example. The Patrol is certainly closer to the Defender in specification, particularly with the 3.0-litre turbodiesel engine -- and there's no doubt the Patrol's live front axle and more competitive pricing would lead to it being compared with the Defender in some people's minds.

In fact though, neither the Patrol, nor any of the other vehicles mentioned (H3, Wrangler and LandCruiser Troopcarrier) would necessarily appeal to those attracted to the Defender. Defender buyers are a breed apart, we suspect. It's not good form to pigeon-hole people, so we'll refrain -- but let's just say that buyers potentially attracted to the Defender are not necessarily going to be convinced by an argument counterpointing creature comforts against ultimate offroad adventure.

Some will argue that Jeeps and Toyotas are perhaps 90 per cent as effective offroad (and at times, may actually acquit themselves better in certain conditions) with the added bonus of being more comfortable, but one gets the impression that finding offroading too easy takes all the fun out of the task at hand -- and that's why Defender buyers keep buying Defenders.

There are almost no electronic devices to interfere with the thrill of being at one with nature in an offroad environment. Even the Jeep and the Hummer seem pretty soft by comparison.

ON THE ROAD
'Hard-bitten' 4WD journalists love the Defender. We wonder what has bitten them so hard for this strange syndrome of Defenderphilia to take hold, as it does. Malaria-infected mosquitoes, rabid dogs or mad cows perhaps?

In defence of those 4WD journalists, the Defender is a back-to-basics way of covering rocky, muddy, rutted, rooted terrain without the 'security' of all those electronic gizmos (although the Defender does have an electronic traction control system in the 110 models). And as such, it's hard to mount objective criticism in that area.

Off road tenderfoots might, it must be said, be happy to let some electronics do the work. Take note, the Defender is an old school 4x4 that requires old school 4x4 skills to extract the best from it. Hill Descent's for whimps!

On the road, all that hard terrain ability goes out the window. The worm-and-roller steering can best be described as atrocious. The front wheels follow undulations and imperfections in the road surface with alacrity, but are slow to respond to corrections from the driver. There's rear axle-steer prevalent from the first corner.

Land Rover claims that the gearshift and clutch have been improved, but the clutch is still a little heavy and no matter how much finesse the driver effects, the gearchange is never as smooth as one would like -- and it's a ponderous affair at the best of times. You have two options, take it very slowly or employ sheer brute force and passenger comfort be damned.

Overall, the engine works well for its displacement and the vehicle's weight. The ratios in the transmission are generally fairly well chosen -- although with six on hand, it's not that hard.

We did successfully pass a slower moving vehicle on a long stretch of road, so the new engine certainly has torque that is up to the job, but overtaking is still an exercise best left to the patient. Touring is actually easier with the extra (overdrive) ratio in the box.

In respect of comfort, we've already covered some of the basic flaws in the PACKAGING section above, but in addition, we miss outboard eyeball vents for the new HVAC system.

Window switches and wiper buttons are located in the centre fascia instead of, respectively, on door armrests or a stalk on the steering column. The temperature setting rotary dial works clockwise from hot to cold -- flouting ergonomic convention. Reflections in the side glass can be disconcerting on occasion.

Glare from direct sunlight is reflected in the instrument binnacle cover, making the major instruments all but unreadable and, in operation, the indicator/horn stalk is literally akin to the same feature in the Mk. II Escort from the 1970s..

The seats are too short in the base and too small overall. The cushioning is good for offroad work, but too long seated in them on a trip would quickly become fatiguing.

The Defender is, then, ergonomic anarchy on wheels and it channels all the on-road dynamic prowess of an FB Holden.

And yet, for all that, there's something about the Defender. Before you know it, you're suffering the four-wheel drive equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome. It takes hold of you as the Defender is climbing a tough grade, with a front wheel a foot off the deck and the vehicle still moving forward under its own steam -- and no loss of momentum.

In our rating system there's an 'X-factor' scale. On road, you'd be unwilling to give the Defender an 'X-factor' rating of '2' -- but offroad, who knows? Maybe a '4'?