Land Rover Defender buyer’s guide

The Land Rover Defender has been a longstanding success for the brand, ranking as its highest-selling model and already showing strong performance this year with 480 Defenders sold so far in 2025.

While the segment is led by the Toyota Prado, with 5570 sales so far this year, the Defender outstrips its more closely-matched competitors such as the Prado’s Lexus GX twin (186) and is well ahead of others such as the Jeep Wrangler (86).

Like what you see? Here's everything you need to know to buy the Land Rover Defender that is right for you!

There are now 20 variants of Land Rover Defender range, shared across 90, 110 and 130 bodies with a choice of petrol, plug-in hybrid and diesel powertrains.

The range starts at $92,626 for the Defender 90 D250 S with a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine driving all four wheels. At the top of the line-up, the Defender 110 P635 OCTA, which uses a 4.4-litre petrol engine and four-wheel-drive, has a price tag of $317,592. Both prices exclude on-road costs.

All Defender 90 variants except two – the 90 P400 and 90 P525 – were eligible for this category's price cap, as were eight versions of the 110 and three of the 130.

Unfortunately, the remainder, and also both types of the OCTA grade, were over $150K and were therefore out of the running.

The entry-level Land Rover Defender comes with features such as a 10-inch Pivi Pro touchscreen (or 11.4-inch screen as a no-cost option) with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 12-inch digital instrument cluster, 12-way powered front seats, 19-inch alloy wheels with a full-size spare, wireless phone charging, 360-degree camera and tyre pressure monitoring, to name a few.

The Land Rover Defender is supported by Jaguar Land Rover’s five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.

There are 10 colour choices available for the luxury off-road SUV. 

X versions get Pangea Green, Gondwana Stone, Santorini Black, metallic paints and a Carpathian Grey Premium Metallic paint as well.

S, X-Dynamic SE and X-Dynamic HSE trims add a Fuji White solid paint and Tasman Blue Metallic too.

V8 versions of the 90 are limited to Fuji White, Santorini Black and Carpathian Grey, but on the 110 Fuji White is swapped out for Pangea Green and Gondwana Stone.

The top-spec OCTA adds Charente Grey and Petra Copper Premium Metallic paints, while the OCTA Edition 1 gets Faroe Green and Carpathian Grey Premium Metallic colours and the Sedona Edition 110 gets a Sedona Red too.

The Drive judges recommend the Land Rover Defender 110 X-Dynamic SE D350, which starts at $108,795 plus on-roads. This model uses a 3.0-litre six-cylinder twin-turbo diesel engine (257kW/700Nm) with four-wheel drive and an 8-speed automatic transmission.

With plenty of change in your pocket, we recommend adding a few options, including Pangea Green paint, the Black Pack, black roof, Tow Pack ($1432), Black Pack ($1707), 20-inch Satin Grey wheels, Caraway Windsor seats ($1950), a dark cross beam, the Premium Interior Pack ($3515), the Advanced Off-Road Pack ($2210), a panoramic glass sunroof ($4490), ladder, roof cross bars, A-frame bar, chequer kit, wheel arch flares, a snorkel and decals.

The brings the total to $124,099 before on-road costs.

There are currently 37 Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) dealers across Australia.

Stock levels are limited across the country, however, JLR has told Drive that it has good stock levels arriving over the next three months due to an increase in production allocation for our market – though depending on the colour chosen there could be a wait time of up to four or five months.

JLR doesn’t currently have any national offers on the Defender, but individual dealerships may have their own so it’s best to speak to your preferred dealer to find the best deal for you.

You can find plenty of new and used Land Rover vehicles available now from dealers around Australia on Drive Marketplace.

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

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