Are Classic Land Rover Defenders Overrated?

Few vehicles summon up the sort of romance and nostalgia of the classic Land Rover Defender. The boxy, burly off-roader has stood for freedom and independence for decades, epitomizing the appeal of the outdoors even when trapped in the densest urban confines. Its rarity in the United States has pushed it even further into the realm of exclusivity; while most countries see them as farmland workhorses and stripped-down safari trucks, here in America, even high-mileage ones in mediocre condition often command price tags that could buy far newer, better-driving and more reliable vehicles.

Here’s the thing, though: the old Land Rover Defender kind of sucks.

There were much better off-roaders available in America than the old Defender

Subjectively, sure, it’s super cool. Objectively? It stinks. By the standards of modern vehicles, it’s crude, slow and unsafe. Hell, even by the standards of the 1990s, it was mediocre. Those final years of Defenders available in America were on sale alongside the storied likes of the third-gen Toyota 4Runner and 80-Series Land Cruiser, the XJ-gen Jeep Cherokee and the Mitsubishi Montero — all of which delivered more refinement and power than the Defender. Stacked against modern Land Rovers, Toyotas, Jeeps or other off-roaders, it’s even worse.

Old Defenders are irritating to drive on road

For the record, I’m not speaking out of a certain orifice like Ace Ventura here. Back in 2019, I was lucky enough to drive one of South Carolina-based Himalaya’s Defender by Himalaya models, which represents perhaps the best possible version of an original Defender. Off-road, traversing the deep wood trails of upstate New York at low speeds, it was delightful. But once back into the real world where there are, you know roads, it rapidly proved irritating.

The seating position, close enough to the controls, made every shift a long, deliberate process. The open flanks that seemed so inviting in the quiet woods stirred up the air to tinnitus-inducing levels. The slow steering that helped place the front end so carefully at 10 miles per hour felt painfully, almost unsafely cumbersome at the speed limit. Which, for the record, is about as fast as you’ll go on a highway, considering the brick-like aerodynamics and lack of power.

The new Land Rover Defender is a much nicer car

Newer Defenders have taken their fair share of heat for being, in effect, “too civilized.” But you who likes civilization? Humans.

Go ask the 2.5 billion people on Earth who lack modern sanitation what they’d think of a little more civilization. Or the 790 million without clean water at all. Civilization isn’t a bad word; it’s the reason for and the goal of mankind’s existence on the planet. Let’s not be so quick to pooh-pooh it.

Indeed, for the vast majority of people — in particular, those who actually buy new SUVs with $50,000-plus price tags — the new Defender is a far better fit. It’s still super-capable off-road, as always, but the latest version combines that with heretofor-unknown-for-a-Defender levels of on-road handling and performance.

Land Rover

Old Land Rover Defenders were unsafe by contemporary and modern standards

The original Land Rover Defender was pulled from the U.S. marketplace in 1997 because it no longer met safety regulations.

Admittedly, that’s a compromise made with many old cars, but it’s still worth repeating, as is the following: in 1997, there were 268 million people in America and 42,013 auto-related deaths. Some 25 years later, there were 58 million more Americans, yet nearly 5,000 fewer people died on the road. It ain’t because we drove less, and it sure as hell ain’t because we turned into better drivers; it’s because the cars became safer.

The Jeep Wrangler does everything the old Defender did for much cheaper

The chief substantive draws of the old Defender, of course, are its incredible off-road capability, compact proportions and open-air flexibility. All of which are indeed appealing, and seem like fine reasons to snap up a second vehicle. Or at least they would be, were it not for a little vehicle called … the Jeep Wrangler.

America’s homegrown off-road icon does just about everything the Defender does, and it does it on the cheap. The least expensive Defenders of yore with a lot of miles on Cars.com still tend to start around $50,000. Wranglers of a similar vintage go for $10,000 to $15,000. And those Wranglers are all but guaranteed to be cheaper and easier to maintain than trying to wrangle parts for a three-decade-old British ride.

So, no: you shouldn’t buy a classic Land Rover Defender. If you want a boxy, open-top off-roader from decades past, go pick up a Wrangler. Or, if you want a compact Land Rover for city driving and off-roading, snag a lease on a Discovery Sport. Neither may pack quite as much curb appeal as a Defender, but you won’t care; you’ll be sitting inside, driving the damn thing. Which is what you should be doing with it.

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