First Drive: 2021 Land Rover Defender

Indulging in restorative hardware

photo DW Burnett, courtesy of Land Rover

The Land Rover Defender teetered at a 45-degree angle on top on the mountainside —  and I forgot all about my real world worries. My focus was dead set on the instructor standing 10 feet in front of me and the two wheels that clung to the tip of a rigged rock bed. 

He pointed to the left, to the right, and then he put two hands up, the universal sign to stomp on the brakes. Ease up, I whispered to myself. I relaxed my grip on the wheel and breathed in.

I put one foot on the gas and the other on the brake, as one does, and prepared for my next move. I eased the Defender forward. Then the electronic alchemy of the gears went to work and the vehicle pushed on. Hence what I appreciate about the sophisticated tech involved : you can be a badass without having any expertise in physics to solve the problem. I exhaled and carried on.

Off-roading is about focus, taking your time, and breaking down complex movements in small paces. Go too fast and furious and you’ll end up spinning your wheels aimlessly, left dangling in space. Yes, it’s a lot like life. 

Telling customers to go off the actual road may seem at odds with how a car company would market its vehicles that are designed to mostly handle daily driving tasks. But Land Rover has spent the past several decades suggesting that its vehicles are best enjoyed in this manner, and investing heavily in the sport and environmental aspects of the hobby. 

I’ve been off roading dozens of times in Land Rover thanks to my two decades of testing vehicles for various publications. I survived an Icelandic blizzard, the Moroccan desert and the jungles of Belize inside of one Land Rover or another. But these trips were more about the allure of adventure than my own desire to get outdoors. This year of course, it’s all different.

In the history of the Land Rover lineup, Defender is about as rough and tumble as they come, harkening back to the company’s 1948 postwar beginnings. It was badged as the 90 and 110 in the 1980s before the UK company branded it Defender in 1990, as model options grew. Defender earned big pop culture visibility when Angelina Jolie zoomed around on a military-grade Defender in the 2000 film “Lara Croft” Tomb Raider.” People love to fix old ones up, and now with the reintroduction, the suggestion is that they don’t have to invest in those costly projects.

“Go off road. Off the clock. Off duty. ”

The modern day 2020 Defender is far less survivalist looking than Jolie’s metal machine. It’s retro-chic in vibe, boxy in form, and looks formidable on the outside, but inside its ultra “glamp” with luxe rich leather surfaces and lots of outlets, and why this vehicle will be a common site at school drop off points. From the driver’s seat, I could reach into various cubbies and find plenty of places to store everything, akin to how I feel about my favorite handbags, when they have perfectly placed pockets. It’s powerful too, and has a get-out-of-my way vibe when you crush the accelerator on the highway. 

I spent three September days driving a Defender from Land Rover’s U.S. headquarters in suburban New Jersey up to the Vermont woods through the Hudson Valley. I had no problems plugging in and fiddling with the 10-inch screen encasing the new UX system, Pivi Pro, which is capable of over-the-air updates. (Granted, my standard for all in-car entertainment is never too high. It’s never quite simple enough.) The camera views on Pivi Pro are impressive, especially when you want to get a sense of the vehicle’s relationship to the surface below.

The model I drove wasn’t the most souped-up offering, but I was in the higher-end version of the Defender 110. Most of the difference comes down to extra bits of features, lighting and performance. The options spread covers a big range that many customers will find daunting to sort through, a gripe I have on carmaker messaging. The shorter base Defender 90 starts at about $46,000 and on the high end the larger Defender 110 X starts at $83,000, a big leap in price and accoutrements.  

Before I get into the drive, I need to share a bit about where my state of mind was on that first day for context. Jessica Gross wrote in the New York Times that “mothers are the shock absorbers of our society.”  I identify with that sentiment.

When I set off to drive I was a stressed out mess. I had my first moments all alone in nearly six months, and I felt burned out and exhausted. My kids had just masked up and gone back to school in person, which worried me. Every task seemed to create a sense of anxiety, a frantic rush to get it done. We’d had some painful personal losses in recent days. I was grateful that most of my family had our health, but balancing it all was taking its toll on my mental state. 

So this test drive doubled as a small escape from reality, and I was grateful to be doing it in the confines of the big, comforting Defender. The Defender made me feel like I had the shield I wanted to escape for a moment, and breathe in the great outdoors. The power produced by the gasoline V6 engine wasn’t the best for the environment at about 20 MPG, but I certainly soaked in its prowess. 

The driving program was also my first time seeing people for any extended period of time. I was concerned about the exposure piece, too. In three days of driving and stopping and regrouping, I never felt unsafe or close to anyone, and I appreciated the company’s care in making me feel protected in the process.

After the second day of driving, we stopped at a gem called Gather Greene, where I had my own tiny cabin overlooking the woods. I slept deeply spent from driving, intoxicated by the tree’s oxygen blast. I  awoke the next morning in a bed of bliss overlooking tall trees, relaxed, rested, and revived. My stress melted away, as I prepared for the drive home, looking forward to the last hours of solitude before I returned home to my family to get through the rush of activity ahead of me. I grabbed the handle, hopped in the Defender feeling restored and set out on the road. I think that’s the look the company is going for: Go off road. Off the clock. Off duty. Get into nature.