Jeremy Clarkson
Get Closer
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From
February 2, 2008
Land Rover 90 Td5
Rating 
Verdict Back to the bad old days
Along with no power at all, the Defender Td5 also has a set of gear ratios that may be fine in Swaledale in February but are no good anywhere else. Often fourth isn’t enough to get you up a hill, so you drop down to third and it feels as though you’ve been hit in the back with a wrecking ball. All of a sudden you’re doing 35mph but your eight-ton suit of armour has come to an almost dead stop.
What’s more, there still isn’t enough room behind the wheel for anyone with shoulders or legs and it’s as bouncy as a small dog at suppertime. The Defender is about as much fun to drive as a punctured wheelbarrow.
Why doesn’t Land Rover simply replace it with something that works? Because everyone is terrified of change. It’s why the Royal Navy’s second world war battleships were so crap, because rate of fire was what won the day at Trafalgar, so rate of fire was always going to be more important than size of shell, or indeed accuracy, or armour plating for that matter.
We see exactly the same with the “proper old Land Rover”. It’s rubbish: uncomfortable, slow, impractical and with prices starting at £20,000, not that cheap. Yet nobody has the courage to pull the plug on a 60-year tradition and start again. But somebody should.
Current price (90 Station Wagon) £21,380
Price when tested (Dec 2006) £20,540
Engine 2495cc, five cylinders
Power 122bhp @ 4200rpm
Torque 221 lb ft @ 1950rpm
Transmission Five-speed manual
Fuel/CO2 28.2mpg (combined) / 282g/km
0-60mph n/a
Top speed 87mph
Defenders Rescued many people during the floods
saved how many Brits in war zones come on Clarkson get a grip Land rovers stayed the same cos its British andt its the Best!
Gareth, Reading, Berkshire
"Why doesn’t Land Rover simply replace it with something that works?"
Because it does work. It does what it says on the tin: Roves over land.
It might not be as much fun to drive as a BMW X5 but that's not the point is it? It's a utility vehicle designed to do a job of work.
Matt, Hatley, UK
Perhaps the Americans have got something right- diesel defenders don't pass emission standards, so the only ones you can get are petrol V8s. I've got one and it's epic to drive, but still pretty victorian.
-A
AK, Peacham, Vermont USA
For some reason, on the Top Gear Online Interactive Cool Wall, the Land Rover Defender is recommended by Jeremy (or his pop-up-internet twin) as "SUB-ZERO" (super cool) level...
Perhaps it's like they say, it never broke so they never fixed it.
Cheers.
JT, Hailsham, East Sussex
The V8 Defender 90 is the answer. With twin straight through exhausts, sounds like 2 TVRs mating.
MM , Singapore, Singapore