Any New Defender 110 owners?

Dan S

Thanks everyone for updating this thread with firsthand experiences. As someone who truly needs a reliable and capable off-road vehicle, I'm always on the alert for something that can replace my 5th generation 4Runner.

Now that the 6th generation 4Runner is available, I have a real decision to make, and the lack of a lie-flat back seat is a problem for me, because I have always used the cargo area to sleep at trailheads, to get an early start the next day. With the 6-gen 4Runner, I would need to set up my tent at the trailhead. Of course, every other vehicle option is the same, but it's no longer an advantage for the 4Runner.

The Defender would work for me, but I don't know if I could tolerate the position of the spare tire, and the 4-door (with the tire) will actually not fit in my garage. The 2-door Defender is an option, but you know ... it only has two doors. The Rivian would be great around town, and it's certainly capable enough off-road. But I am concerned about range and reliability, especially when going into very remote parts of my state. My friend had a problem with the electric drive train on his one-year-old Rivian, and he was stranded with no cell phone access. I am also considering the Landcruiser, but it's a non-plug-in hybrid, which just seems like the worst of both worlds, it's also expensive and slightly less capable than the 4Runner. Great looking vehicle, though, my wife got one. The 4Runner is still available with the conventional ICE drive train.

So at the moment, there is no ideal option for me, and I may continue to use my 5-gen 4Runner, although I really don't want to drive a high mileage vehicle, but the cargo area of the new generation just really pisses me off. TBH, the third generation 4Runner was my favorite vehicle ever, it has been down hill since then for me.

timoss

Thx for the replies! I am in the same boat. Been a Land Cruiser guy for many, many years. Still have two of them, one of which has been a DD for a good 15 or more years but is (not surprisingly) getting long in the tooth (almost 300k miles at the moment). I love LCs for their combination of offroad capability, durability/reliability, and mix of utility and (good enough for me) comfort. The utility aspect is important to me, as we really USE our trucks. I don't do a lot of rock crawling anymore, but we definitely need the 4wd and hauling/cargo capacity. I find the utility aspect is frequently in conflict with the higher end options out there--I would have a hard time throwing steel and lumber into the back of a Defender or Rivian or Ineos. I just would not feel comfortable "destroying" the interior of a "luxury" vehicle like that, and I would feel equally hesitant about scratching or denting it driving through the woods. On the utility side of things, however, I don't see much that fits the bill perfectly, either. Taco is too small inside, full size pickups are too large overall (we have a dual city/country life), new 4runner I really didn't like when I test drove it last summer. The new LC is probably the closest to what I want but there are a bunch of details about it that annoy me, and they are pretty expensive for what you get. Still, it's probably the best option for me right now.