Ace of Base: 2020 Land Rover Defender 110

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

This is the most predictable Ace of Base appearance since the C8 Corvette earlier this summer. With a stout off-road presence and a dose of retro style, the Land Rover Defender was shown in production form yesterday in Frankfurt.

A trio of trims will be available in America when it goes on sale, to be joined later by similarly equipped Defenders in two-door 90 next year and a long-wheelbase 130 sometime down the road. This base model, simply called the 110, starts under fifty grand.

All-wheel drive with a twin-speed transfer box is standard, of course, thereby preventing the die-hard fan base from rioting at Land Rover dealers across our nation. LR’s Terrain Response system is on board at this price, along with other off-road goodies like hill descent control and a low-traction launch function.

Powered by a 2.0L inline turbo four making 296 horsepower, the new base Defender can allegedly scamper to 60mph from rest just less than eight seconds. This is about half the time it takes owners of vintage Defenders to simply start the engine.

LED headlights are standard, meaning the forward facing peepers won’t give away your thrifty ways unless an eagle-eyed spotter notes the lack of LR’s signature daytime pattern. LEDs are present and account for out back, too. So-called ‘Alpine Lights’ aren’t really lights at all but rather narrow slivers of glass located in the side edges of the Defender’s roof. Designed as a throwback to similar cues on old Defenders, their purpose is to “help bathe the cabin in light and provide a view to the outside.”

What will nark on your choice of base model are the 18-inch steel wheels painted gloss white. They look good in a retro sort of way, standing out against any available color and offering yet another throwback cue to the past. If you listen to the talking heads on Car Twitter, including my own, they’re the best thing since bangers & mash. Those side mirrors are heated and power folding. Note that the only $0 paint choice is Fuji White.

Inside, one will find dual-zone climate control on the base Defender, along with durable rubber cabin flooring for a hose-it-out feeling. The rear bench is of a 40/20/40 configuration and, yes, you can spec a front bench as well, even if it is a $900 option. This puts it in company with another author-favorite SUV, the Chevy Tahoe Custom. A 10-inch touchscreen stands ready for infotainment duties and, it must be said, the location of Defender’s shift lever is just too perfect.

Lane keeping, blind spot monitoring, and a 3D surround camera are also standard. Something not found on, say, a $50k Ford Edge is something called a wade sensor, a device which doesn’t sense the approach of your author’s Uncle Wade but deploys ultrasonic sensors in the door mirrors to provide real-time pictorial information about the water depth when wading. Max depth is 35.4 inches, by the way.

Putting the excitement of a new Defender to one side for a moment and injecting a bit of buying advice for once in this series, the standard level of equipment in this $49,900 SUV compares quite well with other, less capable crossovers in this price range. Sure, it’s easy to go mad with the options and find oneself with a Defender costing the best part of $100k but, with restraint, buyers can easily find themselves with the keys to a reasonably stickered example of the coolest SUV on the block.

Until the new Bronco shows up, anyway.

[Images: Jaguar Land Rover]

Not every base model has aced it. The ones which have? They help make the automotive landscape a lot better. Any others you can think of, B&B? Let us know in the comments and feel free to eviscerate our selections.

The model above is shown with American options and priced in American Dollars. Your dealer may sell for less.

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

More by Matthew Guy

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 32 comments
  • Tstag Tstag on Sep 12, 2019

    Land Rover have already said orders for the Defender are running at twice that if the global smash hit that is the Evoque. Given the sticker price they will be delighted

  • SuperCarEnthusiast SuperCarEnthusiast on Sep 14, 2019

    The Defender will be the next status symbol shopping mall vehicle! Nice Defender at $100K+ version called the Model "X"! The base model is for those sucker who buy it and have no status attach to it since it an entry model. People can clearly see the difference! After all; what percentage of the population actually live off-road or do off-roading that are not ranchers or farmers?

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
Next