I can swear Ive seen videos of the Defender doing donuts in the snow, mud, and sand so there HAS to be a way to disable traction control.
Not sure if thats the yard stick to judge off road capabilities.
Also if you have the off road packs the diffs lock and unlock automatically and the whole system is pretty advanced, I cant see the Def coming behind those vehicles.
Most reviews Ive seen the Defenders advanced off road systems make obstacles much easier than other vehicles.
I think it was just a bad article.

 

I would take the new Defender anywhere I could get an off-road, flatbed truck to access it -- because these vehicles are not yet simplified to the point they are technically able to be repaired on the side of the trail with parts readily available and computer fixing capability on-hand. For survivability, a pre-90s technology is necessary.

For daily off-road travel, farm travel, mountain work access and comfortable highway travel the new Defender works for me.

As for the articles, I do not believe those who are driving the old technology know how to drive the new defender -- the skills and techniques are different because the technology approach is different.

 

To disable traction control, make sure you are NOT in Auto mode and press the disable DSC button. If the vehicle is left in DSC mode, it's off-road ability in some situations is greatly reduced.

 

The JK Wrangler (and probably JL as well) automatically disables all the traction controls in 4Lo, and you can do so manually in 4Hi easily. Hopefully, LR has made the Defender to have all sorts of electronic assistance, and to be able to turn them all off if you know what you’re doing and why you want them off.

 

Two thoughts -

* Article - MEH, that's why I don't read journalists. Even the best are biased. It's a subjective rating, not objective. But the poor print copy doesn't put them in the best light. I mean it was basically "wah, we couldn't figure out how to use it so it loses." - NOT that they are wrong. It's overly complicated with way too many options and takes a little while to learn. It's NOT intuitive. And MAYBE that's its great strength to the enthusiast, but also its great negative to Joe Average The Ragman Consumer. And yeah, it's not as "cushy" as your stereotypical LR, again, perhaps that's a good thing, but some will see it as a negative.

* DSC - Considering we can program how the steering feels or how responsive the throttle is, I'd be SHOCKED if we can't shut it off manually and/or that it doesn't go off manually in certain modes. But I'll have to play with that some (next time she lets me drive it lol).

 

In the prior gen Terrain Response 1, the decision to have DSC engaged or not was the driver's, solely. Said another way, DSC was active always, unless the driver turned it off. One learned pretty quickly to turn it off in any situation where momentum conservation was a primary concern -- example, sand, mud ruts and deep snow.

Terrain Response 2 added the AUTO mode, which frees the computer to use its entire capability to read the terrain and respond accordingly -- much faster than a driver. In terrain which is crossing modes, mountain driving in the wet woods for instance, I have found the Auto mode does a better job than I can. The penalty for this is that DSC stays on in AUTO mode.

So, my practice now is to leave it in Auto mode at all times, except for when momentum is paramount -- deep snow, deep mud, sand -- and then switch to one of those modes and simultaneously turn off DSC -- if is expect to need low speed momentum.

The mode I have yet to figure out is comfort --- I don't know what that one does -- can notice no difference. And I still have not got round to using configurable terrain response -- that's still on the to do list.

 

In my wife's 2019 Mercedes SUV, there's Eco, Comfort, Sport and Sport+; each one "tightens" up the responsiveness of every variable -- transmission shift points, throttle response, even steering response. All become sharper or twitchier, depending on what you're used to. Since my main DD is a Porsche GT4, I say they become "sharper." My wife thinks they become "twitchier." And as you go down the scale, noise lessens, smoothness increases, and acceleration "jerkiness" (to quote my wife) lessens, while theoretically gas mileage improves (although if you're like me and just hammer the pedal harder in Comfort mode, then I doubt it makes any difference in fuel economy.)

Anyway, on the interstate I put her Benz in Comfort (that's the default) because that's the "sharpest" setting that still allows all 9 gears. In Sport (which I prefer and use on surface streets), and Sport+ you are locked out of 9th gear.

If you are driving at a steady but low speed in Comfort and push the Sport button the car accelerates immediately, based on the new "reading" of the throttle position.

 

MB locks you out of 9th gear in sport mode ? Interesting. Surprising.

I wonder what is the logic / reason?

 

I'll take a SWAG at that.

Sport mode is designed to make it feel and act faster. Steering is more responsive, shift points are higher, throttle response is increased, it's possible ignition timing is advanced as well etc. I guess is that top gear/overdrive is shut out either to keep it responsive (keep the revs up) in higher gears and/or as part of a nanny/limiter - if the ignition timing is advanced as well it would potentially result in an even higher top speed if it was allowed to reach top gear.

At least that's my guess.

 

Also, 9th is such an overdrive that top speed is achieved in 8th. That’s not an academic reason in Germany.