It’s utterly inadequate as a family car, but Land Rover’s Defender 90 SE P400 makes for a brilliant high-rise hot hatch with the bonus of extreme off-road capability
- How much does the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 cost?
- What equipment comes with the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
- How safe is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
- What powers the 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
- How fuel efficient is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
- What is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 like to drive?
- How good is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 off-road?
- What is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 like inside?
- Should I buy a Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
There’s plenty of power in the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400, and the package will be the fastest Land Rover until the P525 V8 arrives. Indeed, the Defender 90 P400 is effectively a high-rise hot hatch, with equipment and performance to match, with the bonus of extreme off-road ability. It’s an unstressed city machine, a peerless off-roader but an utterly inadequate family car, thanks to the 90’s three-door bodyshell. Still, that’s what the longer Defender 110 is for, so Land Rover has an app for that.
How much does the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 cost?
The 2023 Land Rover Defender range is about as mix-and-matchy as models get these days, with six different engines, three body styles, three wheelbases, two fuel types, some mild hybrids and the Defender 90 SE P400 sitting near the middle of the tree.
Defender pricing starts at $81,950 plus on-road costs and should elicit some sharp sucking of teeth, with the three-door, five-seat SE P400 kicking off at $107,850 plus ORCs. And that’s before you add anything to it, which you will, because you almost have to.
There’s a P400 X version, at $149,200, and then you can get really silly, climbing into the P525 V8 for $221,300 plus ORCs.
If you want greater practicality than this (because impracticality is a recurring Defender 90 theme), the same powertrain can be found in the five-door Defender 110 SE P400 at $111,400 plus ORCs, so an impost of just $3550 steps it up to a better real-world option.
What equipment comes with the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
The 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400’s stock equipment features the more premium of the Defender’s LED headlights and daytime running light options, and adds a 10-speaker, 400W Meridian surround sound system and a blind spot driver’s assistance package.
The door mirrors are heated and fold in automatically, there’s a brake pad wear indicator (handy, given the combination of mass and straight-line performance), puddle lights, dual-zone climate control and automatic high beam assistance, plus Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Along with tyre pressure monitoring, there’s a full-size 20-inch spare tyre attached to the side-hinged rear door.
Our version was optioned up with a $4044 towing package, which brings a tow hitch, advanced towing assistant software, configurable terrain response, Level 2 terrain response and all-terrain progress control.
The side steps (useful, given the ride height of the Defender) added $1995, while the cold climate pack delivered a heated steering wheel, heated windscreen, heated washer nozzles and a headlight power wash.
There was also an electronic active differential ($806), an air suspension pack ($1309) and a $1663 off-road pack that adds torque vectoring via the braking system.
It also had the $806 option of 12-way heated electric front seats, the $999 privacy glass option, $600 exposed black recovery eyes, a $1446 ‘clearsight’ interior rear-view mirror, $2205 for the bright exterior package and $1210 for polished silver 20-inch rims.
The Defender 90 SE P400 comes with a five-year/unlimited-mileage warranty, and that includes roadside assistance, and for $2250 that can be flipped into five years and 102,000km of inclusive services as well.
How safe is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
The 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 is another variant of a proper off-roader that has already scored a maximum five-star rating from ANCAP (based on the 110).
There are front airbags, of course, plus an occupant detection system for the passenger seat and ISOFIX systems in the rear seat.
It also has a perimetric alarm, combined with a locking system that’s configurable by each owner.
The driver assistance package features autonomous emergency braking (AEB), blind spot assistance, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist and speed limit and traffic sign recognition.
The stuff behind the driver is managed by a combination of a 360-degree parking camera, blind spot assistance, rear traffic monitoring and braking, and a rear collision monitor.
What technology does the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 feature?
The 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 makes use of its on-road sensor suite when it’s off-road as well. After all, it’s just a few more lines of code to collate all their data into something useful in the dirt as well as when the car is staying clean.
It can tow 3500kg of whatever rolls behind it, plus it manages 350kg on the tow ball, and the roof itself can manage a static load of up to 118kg.
Our test car was on the optional air suspension, lifting its ground clearance from 226mm to a maximum of 290mm (though it defaults to 216mm).
The standard coil-sprung Defender 90 SE P400 delivers a 31-degree approach angle, a 25-degree ramp angle and a 37.9-degree departure angle, but those numbers are all significantly greater with the air suspension, taking them to 37.5 degrees, 30.7 degrees and 40 degrees respectively.
The air suspension also adds another 50mm to the stock unit’s 850mm wading depth, which isn’t bad for a petrol-powered SUV.
What powers the 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
Land Rover combines a 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder petrol engine, two turbochargers and a mild-hybrid system to create the P400 powertrain for the 2023 Defender 90 SE P400.
And it works. There’s a lot of power and torque, and the performance is there, all the time.
Its 550Nm of torque is maxxed out from 2000rpm and sticks around in a plateau until 5000rpm. Then the power takes over, with 294kW available from 5500rpm to 6500rpm.
That’s enough for a claimed 6.1-second burst to 100km/h (0.1 seconds faster than the same powertrain in the more practical Defender 110 version), and takes the 2245kg machine to a bluff-fronted top speed of 191km/h.
How fuel efficient is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
Obviously, the British car-maker claims 9.9L/100km for the 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400, and, equally obviously, you’re not going to get anywhere near that if you call upon the machine’s maximum outputs with any regularity.
We ran at about double that, but that was mostly on urban work, with a little off-roading thrown in.
What is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 like to drive?
The 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 is something of a high-rise hot hatch, with a lot more weight and better ride quality.
It’s only 40mm longer than the Volkswagen Golf GTI, and the German car hits 100km/h only 0.3 seconds later than the Slovakian-built Defender, or you could have an all-wheel drive Golf R that’s even faster.
The Defender’s ride quality is perfectly judged with more well-controlled body roll than is the norm with today’s stiff suspension set-ups.
The steering is relatively slow and doesn’t invite you to press its handling envelope on the blacktop, but the petrol six is lighter than the diesel version, so its chassis balance is less nose-heavy.
While it won’t dart from apex to apex, it compensates by being able to ooze over serious road irregularities that would have hot-hatch drivers bracing for impact on low-profile tyres.
It’s a gem of a powertrain in what it delivers, even if it’s not the smoothest inline six-cylinder petrol engine doing the rounds.
There is performance whenever it’s needed, though, and plenty of it. Whether it’s darting off from the lights, holding a slide on gravel, climbing a hill in low-range or overtaking on a highway, the powertrain just takes everything in its stride.
The eight-speed transmission is particularly worthy of note, because it’s gloriously slick, quick and generally invisible.
How good is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 off-road?
Our off-road work in the 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 was limited, but the hefty hatch proved itself disdainful of the challenges we threw at it, as you’d expect from the Defender family that was judged carsales’ Best Off-Road SUV for 2022 (in 110 guise).
What is the Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 like inside?
The 2022 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400’s interior is a game of two halves.
Up front, the interior has all the cleverness and brilliant versatility of its longer brother, but then you turn and look over your shoulder…
While the rear seats themselves are fine for even longer trips for adults, they’re difficult to get in and out of, certainly with any dignity.
What’s more, the Defender’s luggage area is severely compromised when those seats are occupied, plummeting to 397 litres, in just 460mm of length. So, one large suitcase, on its side, and that’s it.
Should I buy a Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400?
To rehash an old-school term, the 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 is a great DINKs machine, with enough space for two people and their luggage (but not four), enough lifestyle versatility, great ride quality and it’s easy to park and even easier to manoeuvre off road, where it does its best to make even novices look like old hands.
There really aren’t any key rivals for the Defender 90 SE P400, though the more practical Defender 110 version seems more appealing for the real world.
There is the Jeep Wrangler, but its engine lacks the power of the Defender and fails to compensate for the shortfall with sophistication.
There is the Golf GTI or the Hyundai i30 N, but they lack ground clearance and a tonne or so of mass, and have too many doors.
For mine, though, you’re probably a better bet with the equivalent 110 Defender P400 SE, and it even casts a bigger net on resale.
2023 Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 at a glance:
Price: $107,850 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder twin-turbo petrol
Output: 294kW/550Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 9.9L/100km (WLTP)
CO2: 230g/km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Not tested
Keyword: Land Rover Defender 90 SE P400 2023 Review