Car Statistics: Land Rover - Defender Series 03 (2 stars)

Styling (3 stars)

A modern interpretation of the classic Land Rover look. Well, 'modern' in that you can no longer fix a bent panel by taking it off and jumping on it.

Handling (3 stars)

Once you've driven a Landy for a while and got used to how much its body wafts around in corners, you'll find it has so much grip that you can basically go everywhere on full throttle. Steering is cheerfully vague, and the axles act like levers every time you hit a bump, but it would taking something approaching malice aforethought to have a road accident in one of these.

Comfort (2 stars)

It's cramped, noisy and bumpy, its refinement is dire and its ergonomics are basically absent. Yet the Defender has one trick up its sleeve: a truly brilliant driver's seat, in a truly brilliant position. Loads of well shaped support and a great view of the road ahead mean that despite it all, after a long journey you'll still feel as good as you would in many executive cars. Sounds crazy, but it's true.

Quality (3 stars)

Land Rover has a long history of dismal reliability, but in truth the Defender is a pretty tough old boot when you consider what it's built to get put through. Its fixtures and fittings have a sort of industrial quality to them, but some of the cabin appointments feel cheap in comparison.

Performance (2 stars)

Well, at least it has some. The engine is a plodder, even with its six-speed box, but it's made for hard work and won't baulk at having to haul a gross train weight approaching five tonnes.

Roominess (1 star)

The cabin is amazingly cramped; leg- and elbow-room in particular are dreadful. Rear-seat passengers get an equally poor deal, and despite the vehicle's vast proportions, cargo room is hugely limited by the intrusive wheel boxes.

Costs (2 stars)

A 130 can scrape past 25mpg combined. But given that you'll be hitting the throttle hard to keep up with the traffic, even in a 90 you'd be wiser to budget for a figure in the high teens. Emissions are pretty shocking, too. But depreciation is the highest element of any car's running costs - and few hold their value better.

Value (1 star)

Yes, you get Land Rover's off-road know-how. But it's not even all that cleverly applied here, and the lack of even basic equipment on such an expensive vehicle is hard to understand and impossible to forgive. Way too much costs extra - and that's when it's available at all; you can't even get airbags at any price.

Stereo (1 star)

It's basic, when it exists at all. Specifying a model with a stereo as standard vaults you over the twenty grand mark. Sat-nav is unavailable.