A few weeks ago we published our road test review of the Land Rover Defender 90. You can find a link to our review in the post below. We walked away from the new-gen Defender quite impressed. At the time there were just two body styles, the 90 and 110. Today that changed with the unveiling of the Land Rover Defender 130.

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A family affair

The Land Rover Defender 130 is a stretched version of the five-door 110 that has been on sale in SA for some time already. 340 mm of bodywork has been added to the overall length of the 110. As a result the 130 measures 5 358 mm. Extending this cabin this way has allowed Land Rover to add another bench with seating for three. Take a look at the comparative sizes of the three body styles in the image below.

Land Rover Defender family

A generous 389 litres of boot volume is available with all three rows in place in the eight-seater version. That expands to 1 232 litres with the rear-most bench folded and a gargantuan 2 291 with both rear rows flat.

Land Rover has added a few niceties as standard to the 130. These include four-zone climate control and air suspension for enhanced comfort. In addition, a larger 11,4-inch touchscreen infotainment interface is fitted as standard to the Defender 130. The system features the innovative what3words navigation platform.

Read our Land Rover Defender 90 driving review at this link.

Engine line-up

The local engine line-up will consist of two engine types, one petrol- and the other diesel-fed. An eight-speed automatic transmission is the only option The P400 mild-hybrid Ingenium six-cylinder petrol has 48V mild-hybrid electric technology. This 3,0-litre inline six develops 294 kW along with 550 N.m torque between 2 000 a 5 000 r/min. The D300 six-cylinder diesel produces 221 kW with 650 N.m of torque from 1 500 to 2 500 r/min. The V8 petrol powerplant (as written about here) is not available in this body style. 

Still off-road capable

Land Rover engineers have crafted a subtle boat tail-style uplift that helps the longest Defender maintain some of the all-terrain capability. Reshaping the rear provides a departure angle of 28,5 degrees. Every Defender 130 is fitted with Land Rover’s Intelligent All-Wheel Drive (iAWD) system as standard. The standard air suspension system allows for up to 430 mm of articulation, with an additional 71,5 mm of lift at the front  and 73,5 mm at the rear.