Last Updated: 09/07/2009
Wagon rolls on
For many people, no matter what arguments you come up with, there will never be a vehicle to replace their trusty Land Rover Defender. Whether it is ultimate off-road capability, or that 3.5 tonne towing capacity, the Defender continues to have a place in the hearts and fleets, of farmers, construction firms, utility contractors, forestry workers and exhibition unit hire companies.There has always been plenty of choice available in the Defender line-up, whether you opt for the short wheelbase 90, the long wheelbase 110 or the extra long 130. You can have hard top vans, pick-ups or people carrying station wagons. But for a real combination of people and payload the choice has really come down to a double cab pick-up version of either the 110 or the 130 chassis.
Now however, Land Rover has come up with a third option. Dubbed the Defender 110 Utility Wagon, it is basically a hard top van with a second row of seats and windows, or a station wagon with the rearmost windows blanked out, depending on your point of view.
Traditionally this combination has been classed as an M1 passenger carrying vehicle, as it couldn’t carry the full tonne on board. But recently Land Rover reclassified the Utility Wagon, re-rating payload to more than 1 tonne, and it now comes as an N1 light commercial vehicle.
What that means to companies is that you can now reclaim the VAT, a not insubstantial £3,000 or so, while road fund tax will be fixed at £185 and drivers will have their Benefit in Kind tax capped at £3,000.
Land Rover doesn’t yet have a 110 Utility Wagon on its press fleet, so we grabbed a double cab 110 pick-up with a hard top over the bed for a driving impression, as it shares its rear seating position and load bed dimensions with the double cab van.
There is always something of a culture shock when you climb back into a Defender after any other form of van or 4x4. Firstly the seating position, which is a carry over to the original three-seat design, puts the driver right up against the door. Indeed some would say that the only way to be really comfortable is with the window open so that you can move your right arm fully.
It’s also pretty cramped if you have long legs, though you do get used to it fairly quickly. That’s not because there’s lots of room in the back either, where the situation is even worse.
Despite power assistance the Defender has a large diameter steering wheel, though on the 110 wheelbase the turning circle is fairly dire. Getting in and out of car park spaces can be a three or five point turn exercise.
Since its days as part of the Ford empire, Land Rover’s Defender has made use of a modified version of the Transit’s 2.4 litre engine. It puts out a reasonable 122hp with a strong 360Nm of torque available at just 2,000rpm.
This drives through a six-speed manual gearbox that offers a wide spread of ratios, from barely moving in first to a relatively high speed cruise in sixth. Of course like all Land Rovers the 110 Defender is full time four wheel drive. That means a second lever in the cab which changes down to low ratio, primarily for off-road work. Move the lever sideways and you can also engage a central differential lock, to ensure that all four wheels keep pulling when in tough off-road terrain, or when one wheel leaves the ground.
The result of all that is fairly rapid acceleration around town, though you will go through the lower gears pretty rapidly to keep pace with traffic. As we found with the shorter Defender 90 last year, the Land Rover is a surprisingly capable long distance cruiser though, no doubt one of the reasons for its popularity with those who tow.
Over two days I went on a round trip to jobs in Northallerton, central Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Motherwell, then back down to Suffolk in the Defender and, apart from the six hour slog back from Scotland on the second day, the Land Rover was good company.
Admittedly you have to accept that you are not going to be the fastest vehicle on the road, but plan your moves well ahead and it’s possible to make good progress with the big Landie. However, while Land Rover claims up to 29mpg on a run, be prepared for a less than that if you want to keep pace with the traffic.
As a working tool the double cab pick-up offers a pretty meagre load bed, at just 1,020mm long by 800mm between the wheel arches. However, with the spare wheel mounted in there as on our test vehicle, the biggest box you’ll get in the back is just 690mm long. The rear loading gap is pretty thin too, making it a difficult space to access with the hard top in place.
Certainly the new Utility Wagon should have the advantage here, as it will provide secure storage and allow for the rear seats to be dropped to extend the load area when necessary. A swing out rear door will also ease the loading situation.
So what of prices? In top of the range XS trim, which includes air-con, heated screen and heated seats, our 110 double cab sells for £22,567 plus the VAT. On top of that our test vehicle had a towbar and electrics (£260), under ride protection bar (£80), chequer plate protection (£278) and that Zermatt Silver paint (£446).
Prices for the 110 Utility Wagon start at £20,874 plus the VAT, and, like the pick-up, you can choose between base, County and XS trim levels.
During our time with the Defender a number of parents at my son’s school professed an undying desire to drive the Land Rover, a desire that soon disappeared when given the chance. This is not a casual purchase, but a tool that is designed to carry out a specific task.
If that task requires the movement of both people and payload, Land Rover now has a second string to this very individual bow.
