The 2021 Land Rover Defender Reports for Work Van Duty, In Case You Wanted That
Need to cross mountains and rivers to deliver roses in style? Here ya go.
When it comes to shopping for a commercial vehicle, be it a work truck or van, one of the business owners' chief considerations is reliability. If the company vehicle doesn't start, or constantly breaks down, it could mean a lost day of work—or worse—a missed contract. Yet despite its regular appearances at the bottom of reliability surveys with its other SUVs, Land Rover is rolling out a commercial version of its all-new Defender SUV, specifically one called the Hard Top. All we can say is, it looks cool and good luck!
Land Rover calls its the worksite-oriented Defender in honor of the official hard top accessory available for the original series of Land Rovers. The modern off-roader gets prepped for work by shedding the Defender's extra rows of seats, which means that it only sits two as standard. It can accommodate a third occupant in an optional, center-mounted jump seat, though there are sadly no available photos of this quaint seating arrangement.
Land Rover insists that its steelie-equipped Defender makes a capable all-terrain commercial model due to its combination of steep approach and departure angles, tall ride height, and four-wheel drive, which one imagines are right for glamping excursions, mining expeditions, facility maintenance in remote locations, etc. Hard Tops also tout a roughly 7,700-pound towing capacity, though that only puts them in the same neighborhood as a 2020 Ford Ranger with the Trailer Tow Package.
And while a tow package-equipped Ranger starts at $26,745, Land Rover anticipates that the Defender Hard Top will start somewhere around the USD equivalent of $43,600. Land Rover hasn't yet indicated that it will sell the Defender Hard Top in the United States, and given that the new Ford F-150 will go on sale around the same time—not to mention trounce it for job site utility at a lower price—one imagines Land Rover will most likely stay in its side of the pond.
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