Land Rover Defender 110 long-term test
The Land Rover Defender 110 has been around a while now, so is it still a great buy? We're living with one to find out...
The car Land Rover Defender 110 Sedona Edition Run by Will Nightingale, reviews editor
Why it's here To find out if the 'new' Defender is still a compelling choice five years after its launch
Needs to Combine a comfortable and relaxing drive with family-friendly convenience. Oh, and be great off road
Mileage 6447 List price £84,470 Target Price £82,477 Price as tested £96,033 Official economy 32.5mpg Test economy 28.6mpg Private price now £83,500 Dealer price now £87,124 Running costs (excluding depreciation) Fuel £1461
23 August 2025 – Still at the top of its game
Leaning on your heritage doesn’t guarantee success in the automotive world. Sure, the ‘new’ Fiat 500 and Mini hatch have been massive hits, but the reimagined Volkswagen Beetle never really took off in the UK and, despite its undoubted brilliance, the Alpine A110 hasn’t sold very well, either.
So, while launching a reinvented Land Rover Defender might seem like a no-brainer with the benefit of hindsight, it didn’t seem a fait accompli when we first tested it during the early days of the Covid pandemic – especially considering that the latest model is a very different SUV from its predecessor.
It’s much bigger, for starters, it sits on car-like ‘monocoque’ underpinnings (rather than an old-school ladder frame chassis) and it’s vastly more expensive. My 110 D350 Sedona Edition, which is no longer available to order from the factory, had a list price of £84,470 – and cost £96,033 when you factored in the options I added.
Still, after running my car, I can absolutely understand why many of the 17,518 Brits who bought a Defender last year were happy to spend this sort of cash, or perhaps even more. And, of course, while no Defender is cheap, there are more affordable versions.
Whether you decide to make the sensible choice or push the boat out for a more powerful engine and a higher trim level, there is one feature I’d strongly recommend adding: air suspension. I’d driven Defenders without this £1615 option before speccing my Sedona Edition with it, and they tend to feel a bit wallowy and unsophisticated.
With air suspension, however, the handling is transformed. No, I don’t mean the Defender becomes a sporty Porsche Cayenne rival, but air-equipped versions feel far more composed along fast country roads, plus ride comfort is improved. In fact, I found my Defender to be a fabulous long-distance cruiser, with the only slight gripe being some wind noise around the windscreen pillars at motorway speeds.
Unfortunately, air suspension didn’t do anything to improve fuel economy. During my time with the car, it averaged 28.6mpg, which isn’t exactly brilliant for a modern diesel with mild hybrid technology. True, I opted for the range-topping D350 diesel engine (which is absolutely brilliant, by the way), but I don’t believe the less powerful D250 would have proved much more frugal. Officially, there’s less than 1mpg between them – although the D250 is around £4000 cheaper to buy in the first place.
But what about reliability, a concern that lingers over Land Rover models like a bad smell? Well, in the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, the Defender was found to be the second most dependable model in its class, behind only the Hyundai Santa Fe.
Admittedly, Land Rover’s performance as a whole was still a bit of a concern (it ranked 26th out of 30 brands), but during my 6447 miles with the Defender, it didn’t put a foot wrong. No warning lights, visits to the dealer or even wobbly bits of trim.
One thing that did annoy me, though, was the side-hinged tailgate. Yes, it allows the spare wheel to hang on the back of the car to ape the original Defender, but it meant I always needed to think about where I parked, nosing in whenever several feet of space behind the car wouldn’t be guaranteed when I returned to it.
You’re supposed to be able to lock the tailgate open at 90deg to stop gravity from closing it on you when you aren’t parked on level ground. However, I didn’t find this feature particularly effective when parking outside my house with the driver’s side wheels on the kerb.
I also found the storage box on the side of my car of limited use, although I did manage to squeeze in seven bottles of wine on the way back from a holiday in France.
Overall, then, the Defender remains a fantastic SUV more than five years after its launch. Even if you never plan to venture off road, it backs up its seemingly ageless retro looks with real all-round substance. And if you do, you’ll discover – as I did – that the Defender is ridiculously capable in the rough stuff.
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