Long-term test, first report, 14 April 2008.
My love of our long-term Defender isn’t just about Ray Mears off-road fantasies and humdrum domestic activities. Family Walton also genuinely needs a tow car, because my 12-year-old daughter has a pony and I have an old sailing boat. While it’s been with us, the Defender’s hitch has been properly used and abused.
To understand fully how at home the Defender is in this territory, you just have to look at the Defender brochure, There’s a whole chapter dedicated to the subject of Carrying, Towing and Winching. Winching. Oh god I wanted a winch… but instead I had to make do with a multi-height towbar, plus electrics, which altogether costs £326 (including the ‘S’ type auxiliary plug, used for interior lights on trailers etc).
First problem was the height – the Defender is such a tall car at the rear, even on its lowest setting the towball was on the high side for our Ifor Williams horsebox. You can buy a useful ‘adjustable multiheight tow bar’ which gives a bit more height flexibility – it slides up and down and is locked with a big pin, instead of nuts and bolts, which is handy if you’ve got trailers of various sizes to pull.
Once hitched though, as you would imagine, the Defender is totally at home with a trailer behind it. That 2.4-litre Transit engine, with 232lb ft of torque available from just 1500rpm (and a peak of 265lb ft at just 2000rpm), means it pulls away from a standstill effortlessly, as though there’s nothing behind it. And because the Defender already punches such a big aerodynamic hole in the air, a trailer makes no difference at all on a long journey – it feels stable, unfussed, and on a 200-mile round trip, we got an identical 23mpg.
The only problem with the Defender is that turning circle, which I’ve mentioned before in my magazine reports. In town, with no trailer, it’s a hindrance because it’s hard getting into a small parking space or getting round tight, narrow streets; with a trailer it just cramps your reversing style. You have to start switching from lock to lock earlier than most other tow cars when you reverse, otherwise you just end up following the trailer, instead of ‘kinking’ it in the direction you want. In tight reversing scenarios, it makes you look like a complete amateur. Which hurts my pride.
Actually, there is one other issue, and that's the price. Our long-term test car is a 110 Station Wagon in top-of-the-range XS spec, which means half-leather seats, air-con, CD player and five-spoke alloys. Add a few options, including the third row of seats (£400) and the metallic silver paint (£475), and you’re up to (gulp) £30,000. It may have an agricultural heritage, but the Defender is definitely premium now.
By Mark Walton
Read before Buy cars
My love of our long-term Defender isn’t just about Ray Mears off-road fantasies and humdrum domestic activities. Family Walton also genuinely needs a tow car, because my 12-year-old daughter has a pony and I have an old sailing boat. While it’s been with us, the Defender’s hitch has been properly used and abused.To understand fully how at home the Defender is in this territory, you just have to look at the Defender brochure, There’s a whole chapter dedicated to the subject of Carrying, Towing and Winching. Winching. Oh god I wanted a winch… but instead I had to make do with a multi-height towbar, plus electrics, which altogether costs £326 (including the ‘S’ type auxiliary plug, used for interior lights on trailers etc).
First problem was the height – the Defender is such a tall car at the rear, even on its lowest setting the towball was on the high side for our Ifor Williams horsebox. You can buy a useful ‘adjustable multiheight tow bar’ which gives a bit more height flexibility – it slides up and down and is locked with a big pin, instead of nuts and bolts, which is handy if you’ve got trailers of various sizes to pull.
Once hitched though, as you would imagine, the Defender is totally at home with a trailer behind it. That 2.4-litre Transit engine, with 232lb ft of torque available from just 1500rpm (and a peak of 265lb ft at just 2000rpm), means it pulls away from a standstill effortlessly, as though there’s nothing behind it. And because the Defender already punches such a big aerodynamic hole in the air, a trailer makes no difference at all on a long journey – it feels stable, unfussed, and on a 200-mile round trip, we got an identical 23mpg.
The only problem with the Defender is that turning circle, which I’ve mentioned before in my magazine reports. In town, with no trailer, it’s a hindrance because it’s hard getting into a small parking space or getting round tight, narrow streets; with a trailer it just cramps your reversing style. You have to start switching from lock to lock earlier than most other tow cars when you reverse, otherwise you just end up following the trailer, instead of ‘kinking’ it in the direction you want. In tight reversing scenarios, it makes you look like a complete amateur. Which hurts my pride.
Actually, there is one other issue, and that's the price. Our long-term test car is a 110 Station Wagon in top-of-the-range XS spec, which means half-leather seats, air-con, CD player and five-spoke alloys. Add a few options, including the third row of seats (£400) and the metallic silver paint (£475), and you’re up to (gulp) £30,000. It may have an agricultural heritage, but the Defender is definitely premium now.
By Mark Walton
Read before Buy cars
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