Land Rover Defender 130 2022 first drive

Still, for bigger families with older kids, the Defender should offer plenty. The outer seats in rows two and three have Isofix child seat points, as does the front passenger seat; both second and third rows fold down 40:20:40, for optimal carrying versatility; and with all the back seats flat, the Defender offers more than 2500 litres of outright storage. It’s not quite a van-sized carrying space, but it’s not far off.

Our first drive in this new Defender derivative was at and around Land Rover’s UK experience centre at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. We were driving in a D300 mild-hybrid diesel version of the car in higher-end X-Dynamic HSE trim and took in both on- and off-road test routes. 

Off road, the 130 handles and performs much as a Defender 110 does. Although the 110 was already a big car anyway, the common wheelbase means there’s no marginal trade-off on agility or manoeuvrability for the extended version. It can feel wide on narrower forest tracks, but visibility is good and the car’s extremities are easy enough to gauge; and you can rely on Land Rover’s low-range transfer gearing, ground-clearance-boosting air suspension, standard-fit Pirelli mud and sand tyres, and excellent electronic traction, stability and hill descent control systems to make the car haul itself through deep ruts and puddles, up muddy slopes and down steep drops safely - and without troubling its driver to do much more than keep a steady hand on the wheel, and a sensible toe on the accelerator pedal.

That stretched rear end does oblige you to take more care when judging the kinds of deeper holes and obstacles that the Defender 130 might tackle – and even Land Rover’s own instructors estimate that, when it comes to the toughest terrain, there are tracks that a Defender 90 could deal with that a 130 couldn’t. But, by and large, they reckon that anywhere a Defender 110 would go, a 130 could probably follow.

On the road, Land Rover’s well-tuned air suspension reins in the Defender 130’s greater size and mass well, and its D300 Ingenium diesel engine also has the torque and refinement to make performance assured and pleasant. We didn’t have the opportunity to test the car fully loaded with occupants, in which condition you would doubtless be aware of the extra weight being carried. But, in pretty light-loaded condition at least, it showed little distinguishable compromise to body control or drivability relative to a 110. 

The modern Defender drives and handles like a big car with an unusually wide-reaching dual-purpose brief rather than like any remotely ‘sporty’ utility vehicle. But it handles tidily, intuitively and fairly precisely - and that’s true of any version of it, the 130 included. The car’s outright size will no doubt be the greatest and most persistent hurdle to its usability. It’s only just under two metres in overall height without any roof apparatus (so watch those city centre car park height restrictors, folks) - but more importantly, at nearly 5.4m long, it would be a tough car to fit into most marked parking spaces. This car is longer, even, than some double-cab pick-up trucks.