They’re calling it the 2023 Land Rover Defender 130. If you need to cram more stuff into a Defender, now you can. Land Rover has added 13.38 inches and can now seat up to eight people inside.
Seeing as it still says Defender on the outside, the actual off-road specs are still quite usable. Land Rover quotes approach, departure, and breakover as 37.5 degrees, 28.5 degrees, and 27.8 degrees, respectively. Still impressive is the 35.4″ maximum wading depth.
Less impressive though is the lack of the V8 option, at least at launch time. Your powertrain options are either a turbocharged inline-6 with mild-hybrid tech or a different turbocharged inline-6 with mild-hybrid tech. The P300 model makes 296 horsepower and 347 lb-ft of torque while the P400 cranks out 395 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque. Both engines are fine really, and the P400 version is actually pretty great. It’s just surprising not to see the V8 listed as a choice here.
The starting price for the stretched out 130? Land Rover quotes a figure of $68,000 while no dealer in the country will actually let you pay close to that, I am going to assume. I build one online just to see where one I’d like might land and I arrived at just over $94,000. This is funny to me because I could spend far less than that and get the Defender 130 that I actually want…
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