Land Rover Defender SUV - Reliability & safety
The Defender's reliability isn't known yet, but Land Rover has gone to extreme lengths to prove its strength
There's always been an odd disparity between the Defender’s rugged looks and toughness and its poor reliability reputation. One reason for issues has been an ageing design, which certainly won't be the case with the new model.
Land Rover Defender reliability
The Defender’s body structure and technology are all-new compared with the old model, and the car has been developed with future-proofing in mind. It has also been tested to destruction, including more than 700,000 development miles and around 62,000 validation tests. These include 'Extreme Event' procedures that test for 'repeated and sustained impacts, above and beyond the normal standard for SUV and passenger cars.'
Land Rover came a disappointing 25th out of 30 manufacturers in our 2020 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, but this still kept it ahead of rivals BMW and Mercedes. Around a third of respondents told us their Land Rover had at least one fault within the first year.
Safety
Along with its tough frame, the Defender is fitted with an impressive amount of safety kit as standard. We'll have to wait to see the results of Euro NCAP crash tests, but the signs look promising and Land Rover is targeting a five-star result.
Technology including automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist and traffic-sign recognition is standard, while SE adds blind-spot warnings and a rear traffic monitor, along with an ISOFIX point for the front passenger seat. A strong rating could give the Defender a significant advantage over the Jeep Wrangler, which only scored one star in 2018 crash tests.
