 | Home > General & Technical (L663) > Is the defender an off roader? |
 
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| lightning Member Since: 23 Apr 2009 Location: High Peak, Derbyshire Posts: 3314  
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Which vehicle do you think looks better?
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5th Aug 2025 10:38pm |
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| Nuclear Nick Member Since: 21 Aug 2021 Location: Southwest Posts: 310
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I did the 'free' half day experience at Eastnoor Castle, extended to a full day. Then later went back and did the Advanced day. Great fun and a real eye opener and, believe me, the Defender IS an off roader! 23.5MY 90 V8 Carpathian grey
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6th Aug 2025 6:46am |
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| johnlad Member Since: 18 Dec 2023 Location: Blackpool Posts: 95
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From the rear forwards the grenadier looks aggressive and I like the look of it with the utility panel instead of the rear quarter panel. A lot like the old 110 utility, which was my favourite looking defender.
But the front bumper is stuck out to far and I’d have to swop that out if I was having one. But the l663 back with bigger tyres fitted looks great in my opinion. |
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6th Aug 2025 6:48am |
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| mse Member Since: 06 Apr 2008 Location: UK Posts: 5111 
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The defender is very competent - surprisingly so - on all decent tyres, but as said the first most important thing are the tyres.
The set up and design and toys of the defender make it even more capable. The Grenadier is just ugly and pointless in my opinion, sit in it its awful, look at it its awful and im sure the defender will be just as good if not better if you really went to it. I dont take mine off road properly that often, but have and it just does it with all toys and comfort. Mike |
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6th Aug 2025 3:53pm |
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| Jerry Member Since: 13 Nov 2015 Location: Cardiff Posts: 210 
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My only issues with the grenadier are it’s price (2nd hand ones are dropping nicely though), the footwell issue (others don’t seem to be bothered by this), ? dealer support & (most importantly) the fact that I feel that Ratcliffe sold out the (potential) Bridgend factory in favour of France (I think). I shouldn’t be so principled really!
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7th Aug 2025 10:06am |
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| stevemfr Member Since: 18 Sep 2022 Location: Strasbpurg Posts: 159 
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Yes you should (be so principled).
Jim 'The Rat' Ratcliffe not only moved Grenadier production to France (ex-Smart factory), but also moved Ineos to Switzerland and his ugly mug to Monaco. For tax reasons. After promoting Brexit. 'Shole. (IMHO) And the car is... At the price, silly. Look for a really good P38 or D2 for a similar driving experience - likely better. At 1/10th the cost. 
RRC 2Dr, RRC 4Dr, P38, and 2 L322s, 2 FL1s and a L663 on the way |
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8th Aug 2025 11:54pm |
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| zilch Member Since: 11 Sep 2019 Location: Whitsundays & Sydney Posts: 838 
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In Oz it is certainly deemed to be an off roader, many owners including moi get them into the back of beyond and wilds without worrying about its capability. If it has the right footwear there is no reason
why it should not be able to tackle 99% of the weekend or even longer overland requirements.. If you want to aim for the 1% highly technical and challenging stuff, like climbing cliffs, wading up to your roof line.. then nah, nothing out of the factory will do that, hence why in OZ there is a market for extreme modifications followed by the Toyota/Nissan brigade.. In the main the Defender can manage most that your average driver will require it to do.. IMHO yet another pommie bar steward down under MY20 110 P400 SE Defender MY10 3.0 RR Sport |
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14th Aug 2025 2:57am |
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| bynxy Member Since: 08 Feb 2022 Location: magull Posts: 9 
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The Defender more than capable as an off roader and can match the Grenadier especially with the right tiers which goes for any off roader, the problem is most people are afraid to take them off the tarmac even to do a little bit of light green lane driving due to the cost of the car and worry about fixing it if things go wrong due to inexperience/over confidence of the driver especially if its your daily drive.
By the time you spec up a Grenadier they are not cheep and compatible to the Defender in terms of cost I was really tempted only thing that stopped me was the fear that being a relatively new company that the could go the way of fisker and you end up with an unsellable Lemmon!!! The one thing that the Defender has over the Grenadier is the the comfort level when on the road they make driving a pleasure especially with the air suspension, as someone else has said in a few years when the cost of second hand cars come down you will see more Defenders bashing around the green lanes |
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14th Aug 2025 2:18pm |
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