Yahoo Autos 2023 Land Rover Defender 130 First Drive: Now a proper people hauler
The modern Land Rover Defender doesn’t have a shortage of seats. You can get a third row in the 110 and a front bench seat in the 90, making it possible for six to seven people to come along on whatever adventure you had cooked up. Of course, “coming along” is not the same as “being comfortable.” For that, you’ll need the new 2023 Land Rover Defender 130.
The 130 is virtually identical to the 110 from the front bumper to the back doors. Even the wheelbase is the same. The difference is the extra 13.5 inches tacked onto the back end, much of that hanging over the rear wheels. If you’re thinking that’ll substantially reduce the departure angle, you’d be right. Comparing the 130 to an air-suspension-equipped 110 (the 130 only comes with air suspension), the 110 has a 37.7-degree departure angle at on-road height and 40 degrees at the off-road setting. Meanwhile, the 130 has a 24.5-degree departure angle at the on-road height and 28.5 degrees when raised. So, if you're going to be off-roading your 130, you will need to be careful not to drag the tail. At least the approach and breakover angles stay the same, as do the ground clearances of 8.5 and 11.5 inches depending on suspension mode.
The extra length also changes the Defender’s look, and not for the better as far as most of the Autoblog staff is concerned. After spending a week with it, however, I came to rather like the look and find that the 110 almost looks stubby in comparison. At the very least, it definitely looks better in person, so before writing it off entirely, make sure you check one out in real life.
Besides the obvious extra length, one notable exterior change is the lack of the rear safari windows. Instead, the 130 gets a traditional sunroof. It's definitely not as distinctive as the safari windows on the short Defenders, but it does let in more light (or less if you close the shade), which helps the rear-most seats feel airier and more spacious.
And on the topic of room, the 130 has lots of it, at least for passengers. At about 5-foot-11, and a little under 300 pounds, yours truly can sit pretty comfortably in the third row. There's plenty of headroom and even legroom. It doesn't require the second-row occupants to sacrifice much, if at all. So, the promise of a Defender with actually usable extra seats is satisfied. That doesn’t make it a minivan, though. The third-row seat is a tad firm, a bit close to the floor and good luck fitting three across despite having the seatbelts for it. Access is also a little tricky since the rear doors aren’t any larger and the second row simply slides forward without any seat-bottom tricks to provide a wider pass-through.
