Define "beat up a Defender".... Good news is both walked away. Some of the folks on the Forum know the owners. Reliability: protected the heck out of them when they really needed it. The dashcam showed 68mph and you can imagine the Defender was going 70+?

Not sure I know many vehicles that could protect that well, at that speed, going over a jersey barrier & thru a steel light pole. Yeah, I've had some flakey issues with my modern tech Defender. But, I've owned Land Rovers before and it's about par for the course. Off-roading: it's a beast. When I need protection: I'm comforted there.

 

See this post: https://landroverforums.com/forum/20...e2/#post917815

 

On Monday my wife and I drove our 22 110 over 1000 miles over the course of 16 hours from Maine to North Carolina and the truck performed great. When we got off the highway, the auto stop start was very clunky but I'm willing to give it a pass since it had been going 65+ for 6 hours at a time....

I know this isn't what the OP meant by "really beating up your defender" but I think there is a misbegotten idea that since it's a land rover, it cant do things like long road trips without issues, but just as others have pointed out... the people posting on the forums typically arent sharing success stories.

 

you are exactly right, you only see the complaints. Thank you for sharing.

 

During the last 3 years, I've put over 80,000 miles on the truck of which 28,000 has been towing a 6,700 lb trailer. Travelled many, many hundreds of miles off road in the rockies, southwest and Appalachia. The Defender has always delivered. This is my first true off-road vehicle and I couldn't be more pleased. Yeah, I'd say I've beaten it up a bit.