Last week, I piloted two very different vehicles. Here’s a short report on the first one — the 2024 Land Rover Defender 110 County Pack*.
*I know Defender is supposed to be it’s own brand/sub-brand by now, but like with Wagoneer and Jeep, we will, for the time being, still group it with Land Rover.
The County Pack offers up a different exterior, with the most notable features being a color-contrast roof and steel wheels. Yes, honest-to-goodness steelies.
This one had the 3.0-liter, inline-six cylinder that makes 395 horsepower and 406 lb-ft of torque and an eight-speed automatic transmission.
Here are my pros and cons.
Pros
- Defenders continue to have pretty good steering relative to their mission as an off-road capable SUV.
- It’s a Rover, so it’s nice and comfy inside.
- I like the interior shelf that runs across the passenger side of the dash, and the infotainment screens are easy to read.
- There’s passing punch.
- The County Pack looks cool.
- I didn’t experience any electronic gremlins.
Cons
- The ride was generally acceptable but the off-road tires roughening it up a bit.
- It can be a pain to engage the shifter correctly when doing forward-to-reverse maneuvering.
- There’s a bit too much menu-diving required for certain infotainment and HVAC functions.
- Fuel economy in around-town driving was, uh, not great. It was somewhat better on the freeway.
- A swing-out rear door with a mounted full-size spare tire looks great and is almost certainly useful in the boonies, but it can be a pain to access when parked in tight urban environments.
Overall, I liked this Rover, but I think I’d pick a more street-friendly setup if I wasn’t going off-road. Unless I really wanted the steelies.
[Images: Land Rover]
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