President Paul Kagame recently stepped out in a luxury Land Rover Defender 130, a model released this year that is disrupting the auto market.
This new Defender does not come cheap. Even the three-door ‘90’ comes in at almost £60,000, and the 130 starts at just over £73,000.
Under the Defender 130 bonnet is a 3-litre, six-cylinder diesel engine that churns out up to 296bhp. It takes the 130 from 0-62mph in about seven seconds.
Land Rover is also selling 3-litre and 5-litre petrol versions of the 130 — but choosing one of those variants would be a decidedly expensive decision.
Where the diesel might return just over 30mpg on a long run, you’ll be lucky to get 20mpg from the most powerful petrol engines.
The Defender 130 is an eight-seater also designed to offer more cargo space in five- and two-seat forms, although you probably won’t need to use the two-seat configuration very often.
Technology
The Defender 130 comes with the latest version of the brand’s Pivi family of infotainment systems. This means you get a big, attractive central touchscreen and a digital instrument display, both of which look sharp and modern.
Perhaps the instrument cluster isn’t the most function-rich system on the market, but it’s clear and easy to comprehend, which is the most important thing.
Land Rover has also made use of the two rotary controls in the middle of the dash to carry out a number of functions.
They can be used to control the heated and ventilated seats on either side, but push them in and they switch to temperature adjustment duties and fan speed settings.
And if you press another button, you can use them to adjust the Terrain Response 4×4 system. The execution is pretty neat.
The big draw of the Defender, however, is its off-road capability, and the 130 delivers that in spades.
It comes with all the same kit as the 110, including a clever all-wheel-drive system and the Terrain Response functionality that allows the driver to tell the car which surface it’s traversing so it can set itself up accordingly.
The 130 is more or less unstoppable over any terrain, just like every other model in the Defender range.
