I have a confession. I have a soft spot for the Defender that borders on irrational.
A few years ago I took one into the Tankwa desert for my birthday — full family aboard — during the kind of biblical rainfall that turns that region into something resembling the floor of a lake. The Landy was completely unflustered. Just kept on trucking, rutted R355 be damned. Last birthday was almost as special: a fleet of Defenders, a team of Holgate explorers, the bush outside Mozambique’s coastal towns, and a mission to deliver mosquito nets and reading glasses to people who genuinely needed them. Humanitarian reasons aside, the sheer sense of go-anywhere, anywhere-at-all freedom that comes with piloting this thing is something few vehicles can replicate. And while other manufacturers have closed the capability gap considerably, none can challenge it for legacy and romance. Heritage, tradition — this brand has accumulated a great deal of both, over the better part of eight decades.
Downsides? Not many. There’s a reputation for unreliability that clung to the model during the period it shared components with Ford, though that’s arguably history now. And then there’s the price — at north of R2 million in current spec, these are not for the faint-hearted or the faint-walleted. But spend five minutes in one and the case becomes clear. The quality of materials, the purposeful ergonomics, the sheer sense of engineered confidence — you can see and feel where the money went.
For context, I recently tested the Jetour T2, a Chinese soft-roader whose aesthetic gestures vaguely in the Defender’s direction. If you squint. And take about ten steps backwards. And while the Jetour costs less than half the price, there are reasons for that — beginning, but certainly not ending, with the fact that there are places you can take a Defender that the T2 will simply have to admire from the car park. The Defender is larger, roomier, and brings a lineage it shares with its considerably posher sibling, the Range Rover. Pedigree, it turns out, isn’t just a marketing term.
Under the bonnet of our test unit: a 3.0-litre six-cylinder twin-turbocharged diesel producing 258kW and 650Nm, paired to an eight-speed automatic gearbox and permanent all-wheel drive with a twin-speed transfer case. A drive to Hout Bay — from the northern suburbs, which is essentially a small expedition — provided more than enough opportunity to appreciate it. First thought, despite this generation having been around for a while now: the cabin is still a tactile delight. The engine is flawless, its torque and power making the trip feel both effortless and engaging, the suspension and steering offering genuine feedback rather than the numbness you sometimes get in vehicles this size. The trip to Fish on the Rocks for hake and chips felt, if anything, too short.
Verdict
The Defender is no cheap thrill — none of them are. The 110 X-Dynamic HSE now starts at R2,033,000 in D350 specification, which is a significant ask. But there’s heft here, and not just in the vehicle’s considerable stature. There’s heft in what it represents, in what it can do, and in the confidence it loans you every time you point it somewhere interesting. It has earned its position at the top of the pile, and it continues to hold it without much argument from the competition.
