Land Rover Defender

The Land Rover Defender is a British four wheel drive off-road utility vehicle. The product of continued development of the original Land Rover Series I launched in 1948, it uses the basic yet robust underpinnings of a ladder frame chassis and aluminium body and is available in a huge variety of body types from the manufacturer, plus many more specialist versions such as fire engines.

The Defender name was not adopted until 1990 as a measure to distinguish the utility Land Rover model from the Discovery and Range Rover.[1] Between 1983 and 1990 the coil-sprung utility Land Rovers were officially known as the Land Rover Ninety or One Ten, with the number spelled out in full in advertising and in handbooks and manuals. These vehicles also carried badges above the radiator grille which read Land Rover 90 or Land Rover 110, with the number rendered numerically. From late 1989, following the introduction of the Discovery, the front badge simply said 90 or 110. From 1991, when the Defender name was adopted the vehicles became the Defender 90 or the Defender 110. These carry front badges that say Defender, with a badge on the rear of the vehicle saying Defender 90 or Defender 110. The current model, from 2007, still has the space above the radiator for the badge, but is simply blank. These have Land Rover spelt out across the leading edge of the bonnet in raised individual letters. At the rear is a new Defender badge with a underlining 'swoosh'. On these current models there are no badges defining the wheelbase model of the vehicle. The 127-inch (3,226 mm) wheelbase Land Rover 127 available from 1985 was always marketed with the name rendered numerically. Following the adoption of the Defender name, it became the Defender 130, although the wheelbase remained unchanged. In the United States and Canada, North American Specification (NAS) Defenders sold between 1989 and 1997 said only 'Land Rover' with no '90' or '110' numeric designation.