Land Rover Defender 110

LEANING ON YOUR heritage doesn’t guarantee success in the automotive world.

- WILL NIGHTINGALE

D350 Sedona Edition

Sure, the ‘new’ Fiat 500 and Mini hatch have been massive hits, but the reimagined Volkswagen Beetle never really took off in the UK and, despite its undoubted brilliance, the Alpine A110 hasn't sold very well, either.

So, while launching a reinvented Land Rover Defender might seem like a no-brainer with the benefit of hindsight, it didn’t seem a fait accompli when we first tested it during the early days of the Covid pandemic - especially considering that the latest model is a very different SUV from its predecessor. It's much bigger, for starters, it sits on car-like 'monocoque' underpinnings (rather than an old-school ladder frame chassis) and it's vastly more expensive. My 110 D350 Sedona Edition, which is no longer available to order from the factory, had a list price of £84,470 - and cost £96,033 when you factored in the options I added.

Still, after running my car, I can absolutely understand why many of the 17,518 Brits who bought a Defender last year were happy to spend this sort of cash, or perhaps even more. And, of course, while no Defender is cheap, there are more affordable versions.