While there’s plenty of headroom and legroom all around, accessing the rear is a nuisance. The front seats slowly slide forward and backward, providing just enough room to squeeze into the space – and even that requires a big step up. Accessing the rear seats in any two-door car is always slightly irritating but this is amplified in the Defender. Plus there’s barely room for a couple of bags of shopping in the tiny boot, let alone a kid’s stroller. A child safety seat can be installed easily using Isofix latches, but this really isn’t the car for a family with young children, as I learned pretty quickly.
At 10.5 cubic feet, trunk space in the Defender 90 is about the same size as a city car. So if you need more space regularly, look at the 130 – that model has 15.3 cubic feet with all seats in place. Folding down the rear seats in the Defender 90 avails 58.3 cubic feet, but that means sacrificing seating, which doesn’t work if you’re hauling a family.
Regardless of model, the side-hinged rear door is heavy due to the fact a 22-inch wheel is attached to it, and swings open in a wide arch, so if you need to access the trunk, best not to back into your parking space. However, the backup cameras advise when to stop so you have enough room to open the rear door if you are forced to back it in.
