I have to admit something stupid. I spent the last three weeks on the German mobile.de. My search query was specific, almost surgical: Land Rover Defender 110, model year 2021 or 2022, with the magical 3.0-liter diesel and about 100,000 kilometers. Target price? Somewhere around 60,000 euros.
This is that sweet spot where a car loses its first, brutal chunk of value, but still looks like new. (“mint condition”, as we like to say). I was ready. The credit card was twitching in my wallet. I could already see myself cruising into the sunset with my elbow on the window while the best SUV in the world – Land Rover – spun below me. Defender. But then I made a mistake. I started calling people who knew how this thing was put together. And my dreams collided with concrete wall of reality.
JLR and identity crisis: Who are you anyway?
Before we get to my heartbreak, let’s clear up some confusion. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) recently decided to go into corporate separation – a “House of Brands”. The Defender is no longer just a model under the Land Rover brand; Defender is now its own sub-brand. Ranger Rover is its own. Discovery is its own. Jaguar is… well, Jaguar is in a corner somewhere trying to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up. We know, 2025 has been a tough year for Jaguar.
Does this marketing exercise change the fact that the screws are still tightened with British optimism? No. The car is still a product of the same engineering chaos, which gave us the most beautiful and most frustrating cars in history. And that's exactly the problem.
Object of Desire: 3.0 Diesel (D300) – Land Rover Defender
Why the hell do I want it so badly? Because the Defender 110 D300 is probably the best all-rounder ever created by mankind.
- Engine: Inline six-cylinder, 3.0 liters. This is an “Ingenium” engine that purrs like a contented tiger.
- Power: 221 kW (300 hp) and a brutal 650 Nm (479 lb-ft) of torque.
- Performance: Accelerates to 100 km/h (62 mph) in approximately 7 seconds.
- Towing: 3,500 kg (7,716 lbs) of pure power.
When you drive this car, the world stops. The air suspension smooths the road in a way that a Mercedes G-Class will never understand. The steering is precise, the cabin is as quiet as a tomb (in a good way), and the feeling of safety is indescribable. It's perfect. And it's killing me.
Emergency call: “Guys, would you screw this?”
Not being a naive person, I called my “people.” These are the mechanics who have their hands dirty from oil to their elbows and who fix everything – from tractors to Ferraris. I told them: “Listen, I found this nice Defender, 2021, 3.0 diesel. If I buy it, will you take care of it??”
I expected the answer: "No problem, Jan, bring it, we'll fix it." I got silence. Long, an uncomfortable silence. And then questions, full of skepticism.
“Are you kidding?” said the first. “This is not a car anymore, Jan. This is a computer center on wheels. If the electronics die, we don't even have the tools to get to them. Everything is locked. Everything is connected. If one sensor on your mild-hybrid system goes bad, it can shut down your whole car.”
The other, a 4×4 specialist, was even more direct: “The engine is complicated. Accessing the components is a nightmare. When 100,000 kilometers "You're entering the twilight zone. The warranty is up, and you're stuck with a car where changing the transmission fluid requires a PhD in rocket science."
It turns out that the new Defender is so technologically complex that even the masters are afraid of it. It's not that it can't be fixed. The point is that no one outside the official network (where hourly rates are comparable to prices of open heart surgery) refuses to take responsibility for it.
Conclusion: Fear of one's own courage
So here I am. I'm looking at photos of that gray one. Defender with the “Explorer Pack” equipment. He's beautiful. I think he's looking back at me. I don't know, we like each other.
My heart screams: “Buy it! You only live once! It's an icon!” My mind, supported by reliability reports and warnings from mechanics, screams: “Don't be an idiot. At 100,000 km, you'll be buying a ticket to financial bankruptcy.”
New Defender it's like that fA scene from a film NoirYou know that it will destroy you. You know it's going to hurt. But, damn it, how nice it would be while it lasted. I'll close the browser for now. I don't dare for now. But tomorrow... I'll probably look again tomorrow.if the price dropped by another thousand. Because love is blind. And at Land Rover, it's apparently also deaf to the warnings of the mechanics.
PS or author's note: Let me add that this record is probably completely irrelevant. Why? Because I am a human this year, who probably wrote the most articles about Defender in the world. I cover absolutely every news story, even if the factory just changes the color of a bolt on the chassis. My obsession is a diagnosis, so take everything with a grain of salt – this is not consumer advice, this is just the cry of a man who knows too much about this car to dare buy it.
