2020 Land Rover Defender Review

G'day guys, Ronnie Dale, 4-Wheeling Australia. Check out what we have right here to play with today. The 110 Land Rover Defender, the 2020 version. It's only been in Australia for a short period of time. I could always just pull out the spec sheet and read all the boring stats on it. I'm not going to do that in this video. In this video, you are going to see my experience and my thoughts on the Land Rover Defender. I can already tell you, just by driving this vehicle from the service station to here, which is about 5km, this is not going to be your average review. There is so much tech in this vehicle that is 4WD related, there's a lot to show you guys. So let's just get straight into this. Now we're only going to go down to about 30psi, because we have 20 inch rims. That's one thing I'm a little bit sceptical on this vehicle, it has these massive rims, we don't have a lot of sidewall to play with for an off-road vehicle, but we'll see how we go. This particular Defender we have out for today was fitted with an on-board compressor. They don't come standard with this, but it is a pretty cool option to have, and it has a specific mounting point. We are now going to raise the height of the vehicle, we can do that by pressing a button here. So if we press this button here, we're now raising the vehicle up in height. As we raise the suspension on the 110 Defender, it shows us the approach, departure and ramp over angle changing, indicating that we are now at full height and we have more clearance. With our gain height from the airbag suspension, we now need to select 4WD low range. To do that, you need to be in neutral, then you can select low range. Low range selected, we are ready to go. What I just noticed, when you put it in low traction mode, which is also low range, the downhill assist is automatically activated, and I think we can adjust the speed that we travel at here too. Unfortunately, we didn't have a user manual with the vehicle, and it's a very complicated system. Will the camera show me what's in front of me? So that's my wheel track, and that's what's in front of me. That's pretty cool. You'll notice that the new Land Rover has a very reactive traction control system. It needs to sense the wheels spinning before it reacts, so climbing is a little bit slow going. I'm making a lot of noises. I'm hearing a lot of clicking and ticking, and I think it's applying brakes and power to different wheels. I do feel a little bit uneasy, though, because I'm not used to wheels slipping. So this thing is doing its own thing, so I just have to get used to it. So far, it hasn't let me down. It's definitely slipping wheels and lifting a lot of wheels, but nothing is actually stopping it. It keeps going. That front was majorly off the ground, then. Now, I do find this auto, though, it kind of sends you backwards a little bit as you're trying to drive forward. So if you slow down, it sends you back a little bit, like this. See? Now I'm going backwards a bit. So the old Defender used to rely on flex. The new Defender relies on tech. What I've got is ascent control or assist and low-range gearing, and it just does its own thing. Like, all I have to do is point and shoot, make sure I don't bottom out or anything, and if the wheels slip, the Defender sorts it out for me. This is the Land Rover 110 Clearance. It's actually pretty good. So because it is IFS front and IRS rear, independent suspension, front and rear, we have so much clearance because of that. There's no diff pumpkin hanging down. Having high-tech airbag suspension that can raise the vehicle up and down does come at a cost, and the cost is flex. This vehicle flexes about as much as an ironing board or a surfboard. However, it doesn't seem to matter because the four-wheel drive system keeps it going. I'll sort of touch on the interior of this vehicle. The interior is, it's pretty damn cool. I like all the trims. I like the inside of this vehicle more than the outside. That's for sure. They kind of try to keep with the Land Rover sort of look, with all these little bolts and stuff. There is checker plate on the hood, or the bonnet, I should say, but it's plastic. I reckon they could have made that aluminium or something. But look, the cameras and everything, the steering wheel is awesome. There's not much in here that anyone would dislike. It is so cool. Really futuristic as well. I might gear up here. I'm going a bit slow. Oh, we've got a water puddle. Let's get this thing wet. Now I'm excited. The new Land Rover Defender can also tell you how deep the water is with its wade sensing technology. Two things though. One, it's a little bit distracting. You should be looking at where you're going. And two, if you're already in deep water, you don't need an assistant to tell you that it's deep. You're already in it. I'm trusting downhill assist now, seeing what it does.