It has the same Defender capability, but with a more civilized third-row seat.

We love the Land Rover Defender—it was named our 2021 SUV of the Year upon its return to the U.S. market after leaving way back in the mid-1990s. The icon was resurrected as the 2020 Land Rover Defender 110, a perfectly sized midsize SUV with an optional third row no one should spend much time in. The following year, Defender aficionados eagerly greeted the arrival of the Defender 90, the shorter-wheelbase, two-door SUV fashioned after the original 4×4’s basic format (even if it’s much larger and more luxurious today). A rarity at this price point and size category, the 90 appeals to about 10 percent of Defender buyers; the V-8 that Land Rover later added to the Defender’s roster of four- and six-cylinder engines has even narrower appeal.

The newest Defender family addition should have longer appeal—literally. The 2023 Land Rover Defender 130 extends the SUV to address a crucial pinch point: the 110’s available third-row seat. The 130 has the same wheelbase as the 110 but cantilevers an extra 13.4 inches of body length behind its rear wheels, making the third row a far nicer place to occupy with more room, a window, and a glass roof to stave off claustrophobia.

Groomed For More Room

We lined up three men, all over 6 feet tall, and had them sit behind each other. All three had ample headroom and enough legroom that no one’s knees hit the seat in front of them. Although it’s infinitely better, the third row isn’t perfect. It is easier to clamber into than the 110’s, but that’s not a high bar. The nimble will have no problem, but the less coordinated or larger passengers might still find the opening a bit tight. And while the third row is definitely more spacious, the wheel wells intrude into the cabin enough that passengers have to bend their feet around it.

The biggest surprise (and letdown) is that the 130’s second- and third-row seats don’t fold completely flat. Tilt those seatbacks forward, and you create a tiered cargo area. Viewed from behind the vehicle, with the tailgate open, you see a bump, then an uneven level for the folded-down third row, another bump, and yet another level for the second row, which rests on a bit of an incline. The result is there’s more overall cargo room in the 130—88.9 cubic feet—but it’s not arranged on a perfectly flat floor, so sliding stuff in will prove challenging.

Another bummer? The Defender 130 isn’t offered with the V-8 engine like the smaller 110 and 90 models are. Its two mild hybrid engine choices are shared with other Defenders. The Defender 130 P300 has the lower-output 3.0-liter Ingenium I-6 engine that produces 296 horsepower and 295 lb-ft, while the P400 gets the high-output 395-hp, 406-lb-ft I-6. Both are paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Defender Is As Defender Does

We drove an $87,375 Sedona Red (new exclusive color) Defender 130 P400 SE with the high-output engine and an ebony interior. Given that it has the same wheelbase, unibody structure, suspension, and powertrain as the shorter Defender 110, the 130 drives much the same.

You can feel the extra size of the vehicle at slower speeds. There’s a bit of a lag when you step on the accelerator, though once up at cruising and highway speeds, engine response perks up noticeably. The SUV’s extra length and weight are otherwise barely noticeable on paved roads, especially the predominantly on-road driving we did from North Carolina to Meadows of Dan in Virginia and then to a third destination back in North Carolina. Slowing to a stop, you are reminded again of the 130’s additional mass.

We’re not fans of the stubby gearshift lever, which is a bit finicky and makes it harder than necessary to find the right gear, especially when seeking neutral on the fly in order to switch into four low. And you may find yourself in that predicament often, because the Defender really shines off-road. We spent a day at one of three Land Rover Experience Centers in the U.S., in this case on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, exercising its permanent four-wheel drive, two-speed transfer case, locking rear and center differentials, and standard air suspension.

The 130’s 38-degree approach angle is the same as the 110‘s; it’s the departure angle with the longer back end you must be mindful of, as the loaded-diaper tail limits this dimension to 28.5 degrees. It was never an issue on a course with some gnarly obstacles, deep water fording—the SUV can wade through 35 inches of water—and great off-camber sections designed to twist the frame and send wheels high into the air. All the good stuff. The course’s ground froze overnight, but rapidly rising daytime temperatures quickly thawed the hard clay, which became greasy mud; but it was no match for the Defender. No winches were needed all day, though a few times we tested the underbody protection without ever being in danger of teeter-tottering. On narrower portions of the trail, we noticed the mirrors don’t fold in as close to the body as we’d hoped; in fact, they barely fold in at all, almost making it not worth it to even bother.

Tricky climbs and descents were dispatched without issue in four low, activated by putting the SUV in neutral and hitting a button. Press the Terrain Response button, and the mode menu appears on the center screen. Mud was the best choice for most of the terrain we covered, though in one climb up a series of rock faces and boulders, we started in Drive and Auto and then switched to Rock Crawl halfway up for an aggressive mix of braking and traction. It worked, but it felt like we had to push through a force field of brakes, making travel more jerky; we eventually switched back to Auto. Throw the transmission into manual, select S1, and lift your foot off the brake for hill descent control.

The independent multilink front and rear suspension with height-adjustable air springs can elevate the 8.5-inch baseline ground clearance to 11.5 inches. The air springs provide a surprising amount of articulation and prove capable of cushioning the ride on all surfaces and at all heights.

A camera view helps the driver see the trail ahead with a second view that can be enlarged to show the position of the tire where it meets the ground. The ClearSight see-through hood uses a downward-looking camera to make it appear as if you are looking through the hood to the ground below to see wheel placement over obstacles in real time. If this sounds perhaps too cool for Land Rover, with its history of buggy infotainment systems, know that the automaker has worked to make a more robust system, using a more advanced electronic architecture, and we had no issues over the course of three days.

So, the Defender 130 is a real Defender, even if it looks sort of odd and is larger than its siblings. Land Rover executives say the Defender 130 could account for as much as 25 percent of the mix. All versions come from the same plant in Nitra, Slovakia, which can easily adapt to demand for each variant. The P300 starts at $69,475; the P400 starts at $79,775, and our SE, a relatively low trim level, with assorted goodies came to $87,3765. There are some Defender 130s in stock, but many customers will order and wait. Traditionally the Land Rover Range Rover Sport is the brand’s top seller but in 2022, it was the Defender family that sold the most in the U.S.

_{^{Article Credits: Alisa Priddle
Full Articles: https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2023-land-rover-defender-130-first-drive-review/}}

The brand’s marquee off-roader goes to greater length to carry a crowd.

The classic Land Rover Defender came in various sizes and shapes, so it’s in keeping with tradition that the new one should too. Upon its debut, the reborn Defender appeared both as the mainstay four-door 110 and the two-door 90—which is lesser in length but greater in charm. The Defender 110 does offer the option of a supplemental rear bench wedged into the cargo area, though it’s all but useless. To create a genuine three-row seating package required a third body style, and that’s what we now have with the taffy-stretched Defender 130.

We’ve praised the current Defender’s design, which manages the not-so-easy feat of looking wholly modern and yet unmistakably kin to the off-road icon that first appeared in the 1940s. That sentiment applies both to the Defender 90 and the 110, but the 130’s extra length—it is 13.3 inches longer than the 110, 30.5 inches longer than the 90—throws off its proportions. (For some of us, it calls to mind the Jeep Grand Wagoneer L.) With the long rear overhang, one can almost imagine that opening the side-hinged cargo door and plopping a particularly heavy item onto the rear load floor could result in the Land Rover popping a wheelie.

Of course, that would never happen, in part because the Defender itself is so heavy. At 5931 pounds, our Defender 130 is 158 pounds heavier than the last Defender 110 to cross our scales.

The 130’s engine offerings are trimmed from the bottom and the top, which means there’s no turbo four and no V-8. Motivating this Land Rover’s mass, therefore, is one of two 3.0-liter six-cylinder engines: the 296-hp P300 and the 395-hp P400. In most cases, it’ll be the P400, which is in all but the lowest trim level.

The turbo-boosted inline-six also features an electrically driven supercharger, which effectively combats turbo lag. There’s also a 48-volt motor-generator; despite its presence, restarts from the auto stop-start system could be snappier. The long-travel accelerator seems designed for careful modulation in delicate off-pavement situations, with a demure tip-in. Push past that, however, and this boosted six proves smooth and muscular. Working in concert with a superb ZF-built eight-speed automatic, it shrugs off the 130’s avoirdupois and proves more than up to the task of propelling our well-loaded example. Whereas a 2020 Defender 110 SE (with the same engine) needs 6.3 seconds to hit 60 and 14.8 seconds to power through the quarter-mile, this 130 charges to 60 mph in 6.2 clicks and shaves 0.2 seconds off the quarter-mile time. It’s also rated to tow 8200 pounds.

Predictably, EPA estimates are grim at 17 mpg city and 21 mpg highway (with either engine), and in our 75-mph fuel-economy test, the XL Landie quaffed a gallon of premium every 19 miles. That sounds bad, but it’s actually 1 mpg better than our result with a Defender 110X with the same powertrain. We should note the 110X was equipped with the Explorer package that includes a roof rack, snorkel, and side-mounted gear carrier.

We didn’t have an opportunity to drive the Defender 130 in its natural environment—climbing the mountains of Nepal, say, or traversing the jungles of Borneo. Those who do travel in extremis will want to be mindful of their extra-long steed’s commensurately shallower departure angle—28.5 degrees versus 40.0 degrees for the 110—lest the larger Rover drag its bodacious booty on a rock. Otherwise, though, the 130 should be as capable as its siblings off-road. That is to say, very, as we discovered piloting a Defender 110 through the muck on Michigan’s Drummond Island. The standard all-wheel-drive system includes a two-speed transfer case, and the center differential is lockable. A locking rear differential is available as part of the $1500 Off-Road package. Ground clearance is 11.4 inches, and like its siblings the 130 can ford 35.4 inches of water.

The Defender 130 gets air springs, along with Land Rover’s Adaptive Dynamics, as standard. The sophisticated suspension keeps the ride from getting bouncy, and it effectively isolates passengers from broken pavement. The steering is pleasantly weighted and precise for such a serious off-roader, but when cornering, the Defender 130 feels every inch of its size and will have you slowing considerably for curves. At the track, the 130 recorded a modest 0.71 g of lateral grip.

The Defender’s brake-by-wire system, which in the 2020 model we found difficult to modulate, brings no complaints this time around. The setup also proves highly effective in panic stops, hauling the Land Rover down from 70 mph in just 167 feet.

None of the above is a great deviation from other Defender models. The big change here is the interior package: The 130 clearly was designed to accommodate three rows of seating. Its back bench has sufficient headroom and an additional 11.2 inches legroom for teens or even average-size adults, although foot room is tight. Split 40/20/40 or optionally 60/40, the seat has belts for three, which seems optimistic unless they’re all waifish models. Land Rover includes USB-C ports and even optional seat heaters back there, plus a supplemental sunroof, so it doesn’t feel too much like steerage. One other change from lesser Defenders is that the 130 doesn’t offer the unusual three-person front bench seat (which would have pushed total capacity to nine), nor can second-row captain’s chairs be had.

Even with the extra-long body, with all seats deployed, passengers won’t be able to pack much more than a toothbrush and a change of underwear. Behind the rearmost seat there’s space for just three carry-on bags. In max-cargo mode, there’s 81 cubic feet of cargo space behind the front seats, which is only two cubic feet more than in the three-row Defender 110. That’s about as much as you’d find in a Nissan Pathfinder but less than in some other mid-sizers, such as the Hyundai Palisade, Chevrolet Traverse, or Volkswagen Atlas, and with the seats folded, the Land Rover’s load floor isn’t flat.

As in its less lengthy stablemates, the Defender interior is ruggedly practical, featuring grab handles, durable-looking finishes, and numerous storage cubbies. Yet it manages to avoid seeming basic thanks to extensive padded surfaces. It’s distinctly different from other upscale SUVs.

Distinctly different describes the Defender overall, and the pricing is certainly upscale. The 130 skips the steel-wheels stripper trim level and starts instead with the S, for $69,475, which is a premium of $9700 over the 110 S. From there, it climbs through SE, X-Dynamic SE, and First Edition trim levels to top out with the X, which retails for $101,375 before options. Beyond the extra spend, though, there aren’t many compromises to be made here. With the 130, Land Rover successfully stretches the Defender in size and capability.

Specifications

2023 Land Rover Defender 130 First Edition
Vehicle Type: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 8-passenger, 4-door wagon

PRICE
Base/As Tested: $86,175/$92,075
Options: 22-inch Gloss Sparkle Silver wheels, $2000; Towing Pack 2 (tow hitch receiver, advanced tow assist, configurable terrain response), $1850; Carpathian Grey paint, $1050; Cold Climate pack (heated windshield, washer jets, and steering wheel, headlight washers), $500; 60/40-split, heated third-row seat, $300; full-size spare, $200

ENGINE
supercharged, turbocharged, and intercooled DOHC 24-valve inline-6, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 183 in³, 2996 cm³
Power: 395 hp @ 6500 rpm
Torque: 406 lb-ft @ 2000 rpm

TRANSMISSION
8-speed automatic

CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: multilink/multilink
Brakes, F/R: 14.3-in vented disc/13.8-in vented disc
Tires: Continental CrossContact LX
HL275/45R-22 115W M+S LR

DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 119.0 in
Length: 210.9 in
Width: 79.1 in
Height: 77.6 in
Cargo Volume, Behind F/M/R: 81/44/14 ft³
Curb Weight: 5931 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 6.2 sec
1/4-Mile: 14.6 sec @ 97 mph
100 mph: 15.7 sec
130 mph: 33.6 sec
Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.4 sec.
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 6.9 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 4.0 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 4.6 sec
Top Speed (gov ltd): 131 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 167 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.71 g

C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 16 mpg
75-mph Highway Driving: 19 mpg
75-mph Highway Range: 370 mi

EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 19/17/21 mpg

^{_{Article Credits: Joe Lorio
Full Articles: https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a42555354/2023-land-rover-defender-130-by-the-numbers/}}