This is the one; the one you’ve been waiting for that’s just a little special. Not only are we reviewing a ‘Bond car’, but we’re also reviewing a revived icon; the first all-new Defender since the early 80s, the Land Rover Defender P400 MHEV. It’s now in Malaysia for a cool RM1 million.
The model you’re looking at is the Defender 110 with four doors while the shorter, two-door version is known as the Defender 90. Recently, Land Rover introduced an even longer version, the Defender 130. It headlined the news with its ability to fit three adults in the third row.
In Malaysia, there are two variants of the Defender 110 in Malaysia; a 300 hp P300 variant, with 2.0-litre turbocharged engine while the one you see here is the more powerful P400 variant, with (as you’d expect 400 hp) from a 3.0-litre straight-six engine coupled with a mild hybrid system.
It’s everything you’d expect of a Defender; from the boxy looks, rugged edges and sheer size – it takes a week to complete a walk around the car. It may still appear to be inspired by its iconic predecessor, especially with glass panels on the headlining, there’s plenty of new kit to usher the future with.
For starters, you get a completely new aluminium body structure that allows the Defender to be more like an SUV than pick-up, but with all the capabilities of an off-roader. Being the modern defender, it may have adopted a friendlier look but it still has all the tricks for when the tarmac runs out, like the air suspension system for example that can raise the car up 2.2 metres tall – with a ground clearance of nearly 300 mm! That’s 100 mm more than what most pick-ups offer today.
There’s even more cool stuff inside but instead of rambling on with words on the Defender 110, why don’t we let the visuals do the talking?
GALLERY
