By Khulekani Dumisa

Legendary, charming and capable! Those are words that came in our minds when we spent time with the new Land Rover Defender 90 recently. Standard equipment includes LED headlights with auto high beam assist, keyless entry and a Pivi Pro 10-inch touch display infotainment with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Driver assistance features include Terrain Response, 3D surround cameras, emergency braking, lane keep assist, 360-degree parking aid, wade sensing and a driver condition monitor.

Tough exterior look

Our mid-spec X-Dynamic boasts a tough exterior look and unique interior fittings. It features gloss painted Narvik Black exterior door and wheel arch cladding with Silicon Satin skid pans. Highly durable Robustec material is found on the seat ribbons and Console Finisher. The Defender X-Dynamic is available with a choice of SE and HSE Specification Packs.

Interior

The interior is a great place to be in. It’s spacious, luxurious and full of tech. Digital odometer and crisp infotainment screen with Apple CarPlay are good to look at and simple to use. There are also plenty USB ports to keep everyones’ devices charged which is a must these days.

Some thoughts

This may raise a few eyebrows but the writer spent a few days with the Defender 90 struggling to find a better way to spend a million bucks if one is looking for an incredible lifestyle vehicle. Stay with us, please. We experienced the Defender 110 and thought the 90 would not move us much. We were wrong. Dead wrong.

The Defender 90 loses the rear doors but doesn’t sacrifice practicality that much. We must confess, the writer did not need the rear doors though. Only one passenger had to climb in the back. He did it with relative ease and had ample space back there. Two more people could have joined him and they would have been fine. The boot is actually not as small as you would think. More space needed? No worries. Get a trailer or roof rails and one of those cool Thule luggage boxes.

Drive

The little tank drives well and has minimal road noise from the off road biased tyres and big side mirrors. Comfort is great, both on and off road. Blind spots are aplenty though so get the 360 degree cameras. They come in handy in alleviating the blind spots. That said, the car is easy to manoeuvre being fairly compact and it is quite comfortable. You get the feeling that you could spend many hours in there without feeling fatigued. The 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine that produces 177kW and 430Nm seems more at home here than in the 110. It’s also more frugal, returning figures as low as 7,9l/100km in the highway. Prices start from R1,095,600.