NEW LAND ROVER DEFENDER KEEPS WINNING AWARDS
Land Rover’s multi-award-winning new Defender continues to impress the critics and continues to add more trophies to its growing ‑ and impressive ‑ collection with two more added recently in Australia.
Releasing the results of its inaugural Safest Cars awards this week, Victoria’s Royal Automobile Club named new Defender 110 as its choice for ‘Safest SUV over $35,000’, the decision made using crash safety ratings and other data from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).
This latest award comes hard on the heels of a solid victory in the Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia’s Best Cars for 2020 awards, in which new Defender 110 easily won the ‘All-Terrain SUV ($70,000 ‑ $125,000)’ class, its off-road abilities and overall refinement praised by RAC Vehicle and Fuels Manager, Alex Forrest.
“The completely new Defender is tremendously capable off-road with the major upgrades being refinement, safety and comfort levels that are now fit for the 2020s, not the 1950s,” Mr Forrest said of the latest iteration of the Land Rover stalwart that has been with us since 1948.
New Defender, which has garnered more than 30 international awards since launch, boasts a full five-star ANCAP rating, achieved by building on the company’s obsession with functional safety and the protection of both vehicle occupants and other road users.
Fitted with six airbags and up to three ISOFIX mounting points, new Land Rover Defender boasts a comprehensive range of advanced driver assist and safety technologies as standard, including Emergency Braking, Blind Spot Assist, 3D Surround Camera, Clear Exit Monitor, Adaptive Cruise Control, Driver Condition Monitor and Lane Keep Assist, to name just a few.
Late last year new Defender won the coveted TopGear.com Awards ‘double header’, named overall Car of the Year and winning the ‘Unstoppable Force’ award after being recognised by judges as one of the toughest passenger vehicles currently available and earning praise for not only being the most capable off‑roader on the market but also for being a refined, well‑equipped, family car.
The local Defender family will grow this year with the introduction of the short wheelbase Defender 90 range and the responsive new 3.0‑litre, inline six‑cylinder Ingenium diesel engine which offers enhanced torque delivery and improved fuel economy thanks to its Mild-Hybrid Electric Vehicle (MHEV) technology.
The smooth and refined in-line diesel engine is available in three variants ‑ the D200 with 147kW of power and 500 Newton metres of torque, the D250 (183kW/570Nm) and range‑topping D300 delivering an impressive 220kW and 650Nm, enough to propel Defender 90 from 0-100km/h in 6.7 seconds.