2021 Land Rover Defender

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The iconic Defender is Land Rover's most off-roadable model, and one of our favorite SUVs overall. Positioned above the Evoque and Discovery Sport in price, the new Defender fits below the Discovery, Velar, and Range Rover models. Land Rover fully redesigned the Defender last year for the first time in decades. Although offerings were at first limited to four-door 110s and six-seat two-row 90s, the 90 lineup has been fully fleshed out for 2021. The Defender competes with other off-road SUVs including the Jeep Wrangler, new Ford Bronco, and Lexus GX—but we expect many consumers will match the Land Rover against more mainstream luxury SUVs, as well. Less is more. Well, maybe. In the case of the 2021 Land Rover Defender 90, less is most definitely less—17.1 inches less, to be precise. Make no mistake, the short-wheelbase version of our 2021 SUV of the Year winner is still a good thing, offering, like its longer sibling, a truly unique combination of luxurious refinement on-road and Jeep-like capability off-road. But whether less of a good thing is actually … a good thing … depends on what you're going to do with it. The Land Rover Defender 90 is built on the same high-strength, heavy-duty D7x aluminum architecture as the Defender 110. It shares the same powertrains, transmission, suspension, brakes, wheel and tire combinations, many trim items, and a number of body panels with the 110. The family resemblance is obvious, inside and out. But the 90 is very much its own device: Only 60 percent of its parts are shared with the 110. In simple terms Jaguar Land Rover body engineers chopped 17.1 inches out of the central floor section of the Defender 110's D7x platform and joined together what was left to create the 90. ""Both front and rear crash structures are the same for 90 and 110,"" Defender chief engineer Stuart Frith confirms. Other unique architectural elements under the 90's skin include the fuel tank, the second-row seat structure and mounting, the rear subframe forward mounting structure, the springs and stabilizer bars, the exhaust, and the electrical wiring. Externally, the Defender 90 shares everything ahead of the windshield with the 110. The vertical panel at the rear, the rear lights, and the rear door are shared, as well. The B-pillar has been pushed back, and the front doors are longer to allow access to the rear seats, and the rear quarter panels and the roof are unique to the short-wheelbase version. The roomy Defender 110 looks suavely practical. The stubby Defender 90 looks ready to party. Our Defender 90 X P400, with its blacked out hood, dark wheels, privacy glass, and leather-trimmed interior with high-end audio system, seemed more suited to the urban jungle than the real thing, more ready for a primo parking spot outside a trendy nightclub than grinding up a muddy, rock-strewn slope in low range. So is the Defender 90 a purposeful tool or playful toy? Chief engineer Frith is in no doubt. ""We wanted to reduce the wheelbase as much as possible to optimize the ramp break-over angle for off-road capability,"" he says. With the air suspension raised from its normal ride height of 8.7 inches to the off-road setting of 11.5 inches, the Defender 90 thus has a 31-degree breakover angle compared with the Defender 110's 28 degrees. Approach and departure angles—38 and 40 degrees, respectively—are identical to the 110's, but the better breakover and tightened turn-circle make the 90 just that much more maneuverable when the going really gets tough. The Defender 90 feels more agile on the road, too. With the smooth 3.0-liter straight-six under the hood, JLR estimates the 90 will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds (we measured 6.5 seconds for a 110 with this engine). Turn-in is noticeably sharper than in the 110; the steering ratio was kept the same as that of the longer-wheelbase Defender to enhance response, Firth says, though the steering assistance and stability control algorithm calibrations are unique to the 90. And the Defender 90's rear stabilizer bar is about 20 percent smaller to compensate for the difference in weight transfer under cornering and braking.