The Land Rover Defender County Edition Wasn't Made for the City

My gut instinct whenever anything with a locker lands in my driveway is to take it deep into the woods. Anything less would be a dereliction of journalistic duty; If it has 4×4, I need to use it, right? But a sober evaluation of SUV buyers’ habits reveals a less-exciting truth. 

Most SUV shoppers—especially at the higher ends of the market—don’t really use all that rock-crawling ability. Or even four-low. Those features are nice to have on the yearly camping trip, but vastly more important is day-to-day livability. 

With that in mind, I used the Land Rover Defender 110 S as a housewife. I grocery shopped, I carted around friends, I sat in mind-numbing traffic jams on the 5 and slammed through potholes in the industrial district. A week in the Defender led me to understand the suburban desire for a Rover—although being the posh mom SUV de rigeur, it still has its downsides.

Let me state the obvious: the Defender 110 S is absolutely incredible off the pavement. On my test vehicle, with the Advanced Off-Road Capability Pack ($750), Off-Road Pack ($1,550), and Air Suspension Pack ($1,500) selected, the Defender has 11.5 inches of ground clearance, a 38.0-degree approach angle, and 35.5 inches of wading depth—numbers that can best a four-door Jeep Wrangler or an Ineos Grenadier. 

Despite its unibody construction, the Defender can handle a 10,000-pound winch installation in its front bumper. Off-road, this truck is virtually unrivaled. At an as-tested price of $81,103—more than a Lexus GX 550 Overtrail+ or a fully-loaded Jeep Grand Cherokee—it should be. 

But this week I was truly playing housewife, with guests in town and errands to run, which means that I did not care about rock-crawling. I cared about how well it handled the drive to WinCo. 

Pros: Airy & Well-Constructed Cabin, Comfortable Second Row, Incredible Off-Road Prowess

Luckily, the unibody construction helps the Defender feel very car-like on road, with sharp steering despite the all-terrain tires included in the Off-Road Pack. There’s very little vibration over hard bumps, and the interior remains pleasantly quiet, even on horrible pavement at highway speed. If I had one complaint, it’s that the air suspension is more clenched than I’d hope in road-going mode. While there’s no body-on-frame impact-and-reverberation from potholes, the ride is on the bracing side over rough roads. 

The cabin mitigates these woes with an extremely high level of comfort. It’s pleasantly luxurious, especially with the County package’s combination of durable, hard-wearing materials on high-wear areas combined with just enough soft touchpoints that it still feels premium. It doesn’t feel like it’s cosplaying durability; it feels like it is durable, while never verging on plasticky or cheap. 

The seats are comfortable, with easy-to-wipe-down leather and enough range of motion via powered adjustment switches. The electric tilt-telescope steering wheel allows the Defender’s driver to find an ergonomic, upright position. Visibility is also excellent, thanks to the drawn-forward windshield, squared-off mirrors, and relatively low beltline. My rear passengers reported that the second-row bench seat was comfortable and decently roomy, even when three-abreast. 

Cargo space is similarly excellent. I had a book signing to get to, and I found that the Defender 110’s 34.0 cubic feet of cargo space translated into boxes of hundreds of book copies with plenty of space to spare, thanks to the squared-off, easily loadable cargo area and wide cargo door. I deeply appreciated the trunk-positioned air suspension height adjustment button when loading boxes of heavy books.

Unfortunately, the side-hinged trunk door—one of the last in its class now that the Lexus GX has moved to a traditional overhead hinge—became a problem when I picked up friends from the airport. There wasn’t enough space to let my friends walk around the back of the truck with other cars behind us. It made a quick pickup into a headache, and since the Defender’s rear glass doesn’t open. The side-hinged door continually presented a problem in day-to-day life.

Cons: Obnoxious Side-hinge Trunk, Terrible Fuel Mileage, Frustrating Center Console

Once the Defender was loaded up and I was back behind the wheel, I found the 11.4-inch center screen easy to navigate. It’s straightforward to browse through common features and drive modes, and the system includes standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The screen is supplemented with a smattering of physical buttons that are welcome in theory, but frustrating in practice. 

Selecting seat heaters, for example, takes a minimum of three interactions (including presses and rotations), to turn off. Fan speed selection is similar. I found myself looking away from the road at the unembossed center panel far more often than I’d prefer to. I found the 400-watt 10-speaker Meridian sound system underwhelming for an $80,000 car; Even the less-luxe, less-expensive Grand Cherokee offers 19 speakers, 950 watts, and significantly more clarity. 

And this Rover is not a cheap car to run, even with the mild-hybrid 3.0-liter turbocharged/electrically-supercharged straight-six this test Defender is equipped with. It’s powerful for its class—395 horsepower, 406 pound-feet of torque—but its rated mileage is poor, at just 17 miles per gallon city and 20 highway. I never got even close to those numbers, either. Despite gingerly ferrying around a friend with an injured neck, using throttle sparingly, I managed around 15 mpg in several hundred miles of driving. 

The hybrid powertrain feels responsive, rather shockingly quick, and incredibly well-composed, and the eight-speed automatic confidently and smoothly puts down torque. Just expect to pay for the privilege. 

The Defender in the County pack—which added special graphics, steelie-style 20-inch alloys, two-tone paint, a rear-mounted spare, and some of that rugged-looking interior trim—looks ready for the trailhead, and makes the Defender even more handsome. 

If I actually took the Defender into the woods on a fox hunt, I’m sure it would have been unrivaled. But I didn’t. I did normal SUV things, like pick up friends from the airport and get groceries, and there, I just wish the Defender 110 had been a little more practical. 

Competitors

Jeep Grand Cherokee Lexus GX Porsche Cayenne

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