The Challengers Keep Challenging!

It seems that almost every day there is a new contender to challenge Jeeps’ marketshare. Manufacturers that have been building vehicles for years are now trying to figure out how to achieve their own slice of the Jeep Lifestyle. This time it’s long time UK focused builder, Land Rover. While we still see quite a few Land Rover’s (mostly older models) out on trails, we rarely see new models doing Jeep things.

Maybe this newest release of the popular Defender will be the next true competitor. We will let you decide that! While the specifications look good on paper, only its real world performance will matter. With a 2.0L P300 i4 gas engine producing 296 hp, an available air suspension with 11.5″ of ground clearance, 38 and 40 degrees of approach and departure angle, and a 102″ wheelbase…it “looks” like it could work well.

Vehicle line director Nick Collins says “We think the Defender is in a class of its own, but clearly it will get driven against the Wrangler, and also the G-Wagen and in some parts of the world the Toyota Prado [the biggest of the Land Cruiser clan], he said, “We had all those competitors here and we drove them all, to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Clearly in the U.S. we have a degree of overlap with the Wrangler, it starts with an aggressive entry price but when you add spec it soon gets into the same territory (a Defender starts at $46,100 and a Wrangler at $28,295). But spec-for-spec the Defender is an incredibly high value proposition.”

Land Rover is mostly known to be the “expensive” SUV, with creature comforts and technologies similar to a Mercedes, but with prices of the new Jeeps approaching luxury prices, maybe buyers will start to take a closer look.

What are your thoughts? Would you look at one? Drive one? Own one? Should we change the name of the site to Modern LandRover?

https://www.landroverusa.com/vehicles/defender/index.html

####