2026 Land Rover Defender 110 Has You Covered, Whether Mall Crawling or Rock Hopping

The Land Rover 110 is a very interesting vehicle. The company markets it with a heavy emphasis on adventure. In particular, the Dakar Rally. There is even a trim dedicated to this legendary off-road event. Alongside its adventure theme is luxury. The Defender is a very luxurious vehicle in all regards.

During our time with the Defender 110, we were most impressed by its luxury. The seats have a few tricks we’ve not experienced on any other vehicle. They have subwoofers in them that vibrate as you play your tunes. You feel the music in the back. It’s fantastic. 

That same mechanism can offer you a vibrating massage type of effect with a variety of themes and accompanying music. Our initial compliment to the Defender 110 is that it has one of the best audio systems and seating tricks ever offered.  

The Defender also has its rugged side. We spotted a downhill assist button, which we’ve used to full effect in prior Land Rover tests. It’s ideal for descending steep slippery slopes, like one that leads to my remote cabin.

The Defender 110 also has a tremendously capable all-wheel, four-wheel drive system. It’s both high tech and a bit old school at the same time. You won't be hopping out to lock hubs. Instead, there are settings in the center infotainment screen to lock the differentials. There is also a low gear range button. Pretty serious kit.

The Defender also has serious recovery hooks. The center-mounted one up front looks like is designed to pull a train. More likely a lesser SUV.  The giant 22-inch wheel diameter spare tire is hanging off the outside of your tailgate for a quick swap when off-roading in the wild. Since it blocks a bit of the rear view, be sure to toggle your rear view mirror to camera mode. Then you can see better as you back slowly away from a pride of lions.

While we had the Defender, we experienced Bomb Cyclone Blizzard Bombogenesis Winter Storm Hernando. It dumped snow on us by the multiple feet. Three in Providence, about two in Boston, and over one where we were headed. You would think this would be an ideal test of the Defender’s capabilities, but our tester had Michelin Primacy touring tires on massive rims with tiny low-profile sidewalls. The Primacy is perhaps the world’s best on-pavement touring tire, but it is no match for rutted dirt roads covered by feet of snow, particularly in super low-profile sizes. For that reason, we were unable to take the Defender 110 on our trip out to snowmobile country and instead took an AWD SUV fitted with winter tires. It pained us to leave it behind, but with the street tires, it would have been unsafe, and we don’t risk damaging media vehicles.

It’s a real head scratcher to us why Land Rover would not select a winter-capable tire like the Michelin CrossClimate2, or throw on a set of all-terrain tires with the three-peak mountain snowflake. Locking differentials and advanced all-terrain setups don't help you stop - at all. And they don't help you turn on the highway. You need winter-rated tires for that job.

Here in suburban Metro West Boston, the Land Rover Defender 110 is everywhere you turn. Subjectively, we’d say it is one of the most popular premium SUVs in use, and it sure seems like the most popular Land Rover SUV. While out and about in the Defender, we checked out the rubber on the ones we spotted in the wild. All had the low-profile pavement-oriented tires. None had a scratch on them. Nobody in our area seems to be off-roading in Defender 110s. That’s a shame.

Count a quiet, comfortable ride in every situation among the Defender’s best attributes. Ours didn’t have a plug, and it had very capable power and torque.

The Defender has a price range of roughly $70K to about $180,000 for the off-the-hook Octa trim. If you are looking for an SUV that can do virtually anything possible off-road, or just need a fancy grocery getter, the Defender 110 is one of the world’s finest options. 
 

What's your opinion on our tire observation? Tell us in the comments below. 

John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his fourteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. John employs grammar and punctuation software when proofreading, and he sometimes uses image generation tools.