New vs used Land Rover Defender: What are the top 4 differences?
Its fans never allowed the Land Rover Defender to grow up, but after being on sale for 67 years, Land Rover retired the classic Defender design in 2016. It was mostly modern safety requirements that brought about its demise – 1940s design and 21st -century legislation simply couldn’t be made to mesh. But now there’s an all-new Defender, and it is very much a vehicle of our times. We detail the four main differences between the new Land Rover Defender and an old (used) one.
Charting new territory?
For all the affection the classic Defender earned through the decades, the reality is that the world has changed since it first arrived. We’re much more environmentally- and safety-conscious than before, and today’s stringent safety- and emissions requirements (as well as improving competition) keeps the pressure on manufacturers to continually refine their designs.
Land Rover really did their best to keep the old-timer going with many updates through the years, to the extent where a late Defender shared nothing but its general shape with an early “Series” Landy. But now, with the newly redesigned Defender (first revealed in 2019), the break with this tradition is final – this is an all-new Defender for the modern era. Some of the most significant differences include:
1. High-tech new all-aluminium construction
This is not new technology for Jaguar Land Rover, mind you, as they’ve been using it for many of their current offerings. The modern architecture is based on an aluminium unitary body construction, derived from the one used in the Discovery and the top-end Range Rovers. It is however the first time that a Defender uses this kind of construction, and it makes for a markedly different vehicle than before.
The old Defender relied on a ladder-frame chassis, which carried the drivetrain and suspension, with a separate body bolted on top. The new one discards this commercial-vehicle-type design, and integrates the load-bearing structures into the reinforced aluminium shell. Doing so saves weight, improves occupant safety, reduces the car’s fuel consumption, and sharpens the handling and performance, all of which finally allows the Defender to fit into the modern motoring scene.
What the new platform can’t do is encourage the kind of innovative conversions in which its forebear specialised. See, part of what made the old Defender such a successful vehicle around the world, was the fact that it could be turned into anything from a pick-up truck to a game viewing vehicle to a military gunship to an ambulance, thanks to that old-fashioned construction.
The new aluminium body is engineered to function as a unit, which means that re-working it into anything except a 3- or 5-door SUV would be extremely difficult (if not impossible). This tells you everything you need to know about the new Defender’s shift in focus, from a rough-and-ready go-anywhere tool to a svelte, refined family vehicle that can still go anywhere...
Related: Watch this video review to see the new Land Rover 110 P400 S in action!
2. All-independent suspension
Another major departure for the Defender nameplate involves the suspension system: instead of the old car’s solid-axle arrangement, which switched from leaf springs to coils in 1983, the new Defender employs fully-independent suspension at both ends, complete with air springs for the 110 models (optional on the 90).
Going independent and riding on air definitely brings great improvements in ride comfort and road-holding, banishing the old car’s abrupt choppiness and replacing it with an cushioned glide. To maintain off-road ability, the adaptive suspension can raise the new Defender’s body out of harm’s way, while a sophisticated traction management system, locking diffs and a two-speed transfer case ensures that motive power will always reach the ground underneath.
But yet again, there’s a downside – at least, as far as the traditionalists’ opinions go. For many hard-core off-road enthusiasts, there’s just no beating a beam axle at each end. This is how the original Land Rovers earned their off-road chops, after all: large axle articulation angles (flex) kept their tyres in contact with the ground, and that kind of flex is extremely difficult to replicate with an independent suspension. For this reason, some seasoned off-roaders might find it difficult to fall for the new Defender’s charms.
Related: Driving Defender at the Land Rover Mzansi Expedition.
3. All-turbo engine range
With the old Defender, you’d have to opt for diesel power if you wanted a turbo powerplant – in fact, it lived out its last years with turbodiesel power only. The new generation rectifies this oversight with a nice variety of turbo petrol- and diesel engines, all mated an 8-speed ZF automatic gearbox.
As in the old Defender’s early history, the entry-level engines are four-cylinder units, but this time they spawn from the same “Ingenium” modular engine family as the up-spec six-cylinder units. On the diesel menu are the D240 (2.0-litre 4-cylinder with 177 kW and 500 Nm) and D300 (3.0-litre inline-6 with 221 kW and 650 Nm) variants, with petrol coming in P300 (2.0-litre 4-cylinder with 221 kW and 400 Nm) or P400 (3.0-litre inline-6 with 294 kW and 550 Nm) guises.
These outputs are a far cry from the old Defender’s figures, and even the least-powerful modern Defender will run rings around the most-powerful old one. The downside is extra complexity, which might make long-term ownership and DIY projects a rather different proposition to that offered by the complex-as-a-brick old car.
Related: Which new Land Rover Defender is better – petrol or diesel?
4. Loads of high-tech features
Seeing as the new Defender is derived from the latest large Land Rover family, some cutting-edge tech is part of the package. While the old Defender only eventually had exotic things like ABS, electric windows, power steering and an air conditioner, the new one has every conceivable driver aid either fitted as standard, or available from the option sheet.
Up-to-date available equipment includes an array of surround- and “through the bonnet” (ClearSight Ground View in Land Rover-speak) cameras, lane-keeping assistant, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, touchscreen infotainment with off-road mapping, various audio systems, and a wide array of personalisation- and trim options. This is a far cry from the old model’s rudimentary appointments, but may again cost the new Defender some favour from those who appreciated the old car’s simplicity.
Related: The top 7 Land Rover Defender accessories you didn’t know you needed.
Recommended Next:
Shop for used classic Land Rover Defender cars for sale here.
Shop for new and used new-generation Land Rover Defender cars for sale here.
Find out more about the new Land Rover Defender in our launch report.