Creating a definitive list of the ‘best’ off-roaders is something of a fool’s errand (although, as you can see, that hasn’t stopped us from trying). Even if you pin down the basic parameters for comparison – breakover angles, wheel travel, wading depth, cost and so on – the problem becomes one of environment.
Some of these vehicles are designed to crawl up boulder-strewn slopes where one crimped brake line will bring an abrupt halt to activities. Others are designed to bomb across loose surfaces at heroic speed, and in a manner entirely at odds with the cars whose incredible traction will haul them across impossibly slippery terrain at no more than walking pace. Then there are the mechanically unstoppable desert survival specialists. Each could be called an off-roader, and each breed has its own particular blend of strengths.
In any case, these are Autocar's preferred exemplars of the traditional, go-anywhere 4x4 breed, in our own particular order of preference.
1. Land Rover Defender
After a preamble that lasted more than a decade, Land Rover finally showed off the long-awaited follow-up act to the original ‘Land Rover’ in 2019, and launched the car in showrooms in 2020. Having switched from a ladder frame construction to a monocoque, and for plenty of reasons otherwise, this new Land Rover Defender is more of a successor than a direct replacement; and some feared that it wouldn’t be capable of quite the same kind of mud-plugging, rock-hopping, water-fording, slope-scaling and axle-twisting as a result.
The new Defender can do almost all of that and more, however. With approach and departure angles of around 40 degrees, and ground clearance of as much as 291mm thanks to its height-adjustable air suspension, this car has all of the right vital statistics. And yet it’s the style in which is tackles offroad driving, and the way it eases the load on the driver to select just the right transmission mode, to maintain just the right amount of forward momentum, and to keep to just the right line through those ruts, that really impresses.
Land Rover now offers four-, six-, and eight-cylinder engines for the car, but the P400e plug-in hybrid has become the only four-pot available, while all the diesels are now inline sixes. The range-topping P525 V8 version certainly has performance and presence to spare; but the D300 diesel would be our pick of them all, which combines plenty of torque with respectable fuel economy, drivability and refinement, and needn’t cost as much as some of the other versions of the car. For fleet users and urban dwellers, of course, the P400e plug-in hybrid (which has a claimed electric range of 27 miles) will have it own particular lures.
The Defender's available in both three-door '90' and five-door '110' bodystyles, as well as as a 'Hardtop' commercial if you prefer; and whichever you go for, you'll find it's a wide, tall and heavy car that isn't ideally suited to the narrowest of tracks or 'green lanes'. But that acknowledged, this 4x4 capabilities remain beyond question, and the way in which it sets about its work offroad makes it seem like a car built for people who don’t even like offroading.
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New defender is absolute masterpiece
Jaguar land rover is on an absolute roll.What a beautiful car the new defender is, and a fantastic year to follow for JLR, brilliant work lads!
Yeah. Nah.
Completely unproven Defender the No. 1 4x4? I don't think so.
jason_recliner wrote:
the defender had been drived on 3 million miles in the last couple of years and been driven by some of the best off road drivers alive, in places all over the globe, i suggest you stop writing rubbish and read ALL the road test reports from ALL the magazines, off road titles too, and they all state the same thing, that the new car is amazing, and far out strips the old tank it replaces..and why the hell the jeep is at #2 is beyond me, it is the most fragile thing there, even the Jimny is a better car than that.