If the regular Land Rover Defender doesn’t take up enough space in the landscape for your taste, the extra-long Defender 130 is now available, stretching to 5.4 meters and housing as many as eight people.
Even a Bond villain can go rogue and spawn out of a regular-sized bandit car. That’s why Land Rover dishes up a Defender that is longer than the already long Defender 110.
The extra long Land Rover is called the Defender 130, and it measures just under 5.4 meters in length. It is 60 cm longer than the Defender 110 and 15 cm longer than a monstrous Mercedes GLS.
In other words, the Land Rover Defender 130 takes up more space in the landscape than average, and so the question is, does it suit it?
Eight-seater off-roader
A third row of seats is nothing new for the Defender, and the Defender 110, which was launched in 2020, has been available with the extra seats from the start. However, the waxwork in the long Defender 130 means that the third row of seats can now actually be used by people with legs.
There is an extra 30 cm to do with behind the second row of seats and back. In addition, you also get three seats instead of two on the third row of seats, which makes the Defender 130 an off-roader with room for eight people.
As an adult, the third row of seats is still not a place you want to sit from Solrød to Sicily, but it works to and from the summer house. However, children and the vertically challenged can easily settle comfortably with their own cup holders, USB-C chargers and ventilation ducts.
Naturally, if the Bond villain’s family numbers eight malevolent souls, they should prepare to pack a little light. With all seats upright, there is room for 400 liters in the boot. It is still more than a VW ID.3 can pack and therefore quite respectable with eight seats.
When the rear seats are folded, you get a whopping 1,232 liters with the rear seats in their most comfortable position. On the second row of seats, you have oceans of legroom, while the car’s width of two meters means that you can easily sit three adults.
Parking problems
The Land Rover Defender 130 takes up parking spaces equivalent to two Smart Fortwos, which naturally presents its challenges. Especially in Nørrebro in Copenhagen, where I myself live. And it’s not the only place that the extra length is a challenge.
In fact, it is in most places where there is the hint of a narrowing. Because even though the wheelbase is the same as in the Defender 110, and the turning radius the same, there is 60 cm more at the back with a spare wheel, which makes the length particularly difficult to assess.
The Defender does not drive with four-wheel steering like the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, which is why it quickly feels like the Oslo Boat in the big city and parking garages. In the latter, you also have to be careful at the maximum height. In other words, it is not in the urban terrain that the Defender 130 excels in manoeuvrability – but no one really expects that either.
Weight and potency
In addition to the Bond bandit, it is probably the landowner who is the target group for the Land Rover Defender 130. Here, the only narrowing in the road is the gate that leads up to the property. If there are open spaces on both sides of the gate, the Defender gets it like the yolk in an egg.
Whether it’s a grass field, dirt road or just a soft back road, the Land Rover Defender stands with an unmistakable heft and power. Like a British manor house on four wheels. It is the combat weight of 2.6 tonnes, the air undercarriage and the significant track width that ensure stability.
The off-road characteristics are many and significantly more than a borrowed gravel pit in Roskilde can help to illustrate. For the average Land Rover buyer, I don’t think it matters that much what the car can do, as long as it can! And with the Defender you have to make a serious effort if you want to get stuck.
The test car is the largest diesel variant D400, which runs with a six-cylinder case of 3 liters with 300 hp and 650 Nm. There is something BMW about the well-orchestrated inline six under the hood, although it is in fact an engine of its own breeding from the Jaguar Land Rover group.
BMW supplies V8s to individual Land Rover models, while the Defender can be ordered with a home-developed V8 of 5 liters with 500 hp. Although I haven’t driven the latter, I’m happy to put my head on the block and say that this D400 is the one to choose. It just fits well with an uncompromising diesel engine in a car that already looks like a freight train.
Too coarse for the fart classy?
The comparison with the Mercedes GLS in my introduction was not entirely accidental. In addition to being a notch more voluminous than the German luxury SUV, the Land Rover Defender 130 also matches it in price. It starts at DKK 1,719,900, while the test car, a Defender X-Dynamic HSE with the big diesel engine, starts at DKK 2,024,900.
The price alone means that the Defender 130 is aimed at the upper class. Here, as an ordinary wage slave, I can ask rhetorically if the Brit will be the tooth for the coarse grain for the lotion-soft and fart-classy hands? Because even though there are nice screens, plenty of leather and massage in the front seats, it is coarse-grained.
Entry handle, steering wheel and instrument panel have throughout details in raw metal. The screws are exposed in the door sides for a rugged effect, and the cabin generally feels like one assembled with a murk. It’s rock solid, but it’s also raw enough to scare a businessman switching from a Maybach.
No news
With its launch in 2020, the ‘new’ Land Rover Defender is no longer a novelty model, and even the long newly launched 130 variant has been long anticipated. It completes the range of Defenders as history dictates: the short 90, the regular 110 and now the long 130. In the previous models, these numbers referred to the wheelbases of the models.
Today, the numbers function more as a marketing-friendly tip of the hat to the historical origins of the Defender model, which can be traced back to 1948. There has always been a short, a medium and a long Defender, and there still is.
To the question of whether the extra length suits the Defender, I can flatly answer yes. At least in terms of volume. Because if you absolutely have to drive a large, heavy and off-road capable SUV, why not drive the very largest there is? Why not choose the one designed to take the heaviest load?
Whether the angular extension box on the rear suits the Defender purely aesthetically, I will leave it up to the individual. Historically and in terms of style, however, it suits the Defender perfectly to be a scrum, which in this latest guise also has off-road characteristics, comfort and luxury to offer.
SPECIFICATIONS
Land Rover Defender 130″ D300 X-Dynamic HSE
Engine: R6 diesel, 2,997 cm3
Performance: 300 hp/650 Nm
0-100 km/h: 7.5 seconds
Top speed: 191 km/h
Spending: 11.5 km/l
CO2 emissions: 227 g/km
Dimensions (L/W/H): 535/200/197 cm
Curb weight: 2,666 kilos
Draw weight: 3,000 kilos
Trunk volume: 1,232-2,291 litres
Price: DKK 2,024,900 (Defender 130 available from DKK 1,719,900)
Private leasing (one-off payment/monthly payment): Contact dealer
Tax basis, company car: Contact dealer
