Yahoo Autos Land Rover Defender 130 Outbound Road Test: Atmospheric river survival machine
NEWBURY PARK, Calif. – If there’s going to be a week to find yourself with a Land Rover Defender 130 Outbound, it’s the one where an historic atmospheric river dumps a staggering amount of rain. Not that you should drive through torrents of rushing water, but if anything is up for the task of literally keeping you high and dry, it’s this most up-for-anything version of the Defender.
Now, the 130 was effectively created to be the family-friendly version of the 2024 Land Rover Defender with 13.5 inches of extra length tacked on behind the rear axle to create enough room for an actually habitable third-row seat. The Outbound’s primary claim to fame is that it ditches that third row and instead takes full advantage of all that extra length to create the most voluminous cargo area possible. Seriously, the cargo area is almost 4 feet long. I had to climb all the way in just to secure the rear LATCH anchor on my son’s car seat. Total capacity is 46.9 cubic feet, up from 43.5 in the three-row 130 and 34 in the Defender 110. And no, I didn’t do a luggage test. It would be pointless. The 110 needed extra stuff beyond the usual six bags to fill up the cargo area; I’m honestly not sure what else I could haul out to satisfy the Outbound’s appetite.
Because the Outbound’s a bit of a bootleg creation, the air vents, storage bins, glass roof panel and rear side glass that would normally serve those in the third row are still there. Now, you can’t see that side glass from outside, but you can from inside, complete with the defrosting heating element – the body panel you see from the outside is just a painted panel placed over it. The fold-down ladder and storage box you see in the photos here are accessories available on every Defender, though they make those painted panels look more purposeful. The ladder is neatly engineered, and I know it would be a great help with roof loading, but you’d have to ask someone else what the storage box is for. My best guess of “poopy diapers” probably isn’t right. Both are bad news for aerodynamics and wind noise.
Speaking of noise, the Outbound also gets all-terrain tires around black 20-inch wheels. I wouldn’t call them booming, but this is a less refined Defender to be sure. The usual buttery-smooth ride quality gets a dose of impact harshness as well due to that extra-rigid rubber.
There’s another issue with that fat spare. As you might’ve noticed from the photos above as well as the gallery below, I plugged my Yakima StageTwo E-Bike rack into the hitch receiver included in the $1,850 Towing Pack 2. While the rack was installed without issue, the giant off-road tire sticks out far enough that there was no way to avoid my Gazelle’s pedal from resting against the wheel. That seemed like bad news for the bike and the wheel, so I had to go against Yakima’s instructions and place the bike on the outer platform. It also meant I had to bolt on that outer platform, which I really didn’t want to do. This inconvenience for me could be a deal breaker for others, though, since it basically means I can only carry one bike or need to remove the pedal. I was also unable to secure the rack in its upward position when not in use, meaning I had to drive around (and park) with an extra 2 feet hanging off the already extended-length Defender. Not ideal. I’m curious to know how the 130’s standard 19-inch wheel/tire package might change the situation, because we’re only talking about a centimeter or two here in regards to the pedal situation. You definitely wouldn’t want the tire cover, though, and I'm not sure a rack could ever fold up.
