Land Rover Defender 130 vs Range Rover

Neither of these is body-on-frame — both ride on JLR aluminum monocoques. The Defender 130 is the longer, taller box: 211 inches long and 77.6 tall against the Range Rover's 206.8 and 73.6.

The price ladders barely touch. The Defender 130 runs $73,000 to $123,900 (the V8 tops it); the Range Rover's seven-seat body runs $120,700 to $177,900. The most expensive Defender clears the cheapest three-row Range Rover by just $3,200 — otherwise the two ladders occupy different budgets entirely.

The Range Rover's third row exists only in the long-wheelbase seven-seat body; every figure on this page describes that configuration. The SV trims are four- or five-seat only.

The Defender 130 seats 8 (2+3+3) as its signature layout, with two exceptions: the Outbound trim deletes the third row for a five-seat build, and the 7-seat option means a two-seat third row — not second-row captain chairs. Both models run three-across second-row benches; neither offers captains in a three-row build.

The Range Rover publishes 34.0 inches of third-row legroom and 35.8 of headroom — both converted from JLR's metric figures (864/909 mm), since no US page prints them in inches. The eight-seat Defender publishes 31.6 inches of legroom; its 5+2 two-seat third row matches the Range Rover at 34.0. Defender headroom is 38.9 inches on the panoramic-roof basis — Land Rover publishes no standard-roof figure.

For child seats the Defender's three-seat bench is the stronger platform: two LATCH lower-anchor sets and three top tethers per the official handbook — the strongest third-row hardware of the models we cover. The Range Rover's third row carries two LATCH sets and two tethers, per secondary reporting we have not yet confirmed against a Land Rover primary source.

Behind the third row, the Defender 130 publishes 15.3 cu ft. The Range Rover publishes nothing — JLR prints "N/A" for that measurement on the seven-seat body, so we record no figure rather than borrow one from an incomparable metric.

Where both publish, they run close: 43.7 vs 43.1 cu ft behind the second row, and 89.0 vs 92.9 maximum — a 3.9 cu ft edge to the Range Rover.

The Defender 130 tows up to 8,200 lb; the Range Rover 7,716 — a 484 lb difference. Both clear the small-camper and boat brief with margin; neither approaches the GX 550's 9,096 lb dataset ceiling.

Land Rover Defender 130: The job is capacity — eight seats, 15.3 cu ft behind them, the batch's best third-row child-seat hardware, and 8,200 lb of towing — starting $47,700 below the cheapest three-row Range Rover. It is the JLR three-row as a working tool.

Land Rover Range Rover: The budget clears $120,700 and the third row should be the longer-legged of the two (34.0 vs 31.6 in against the eight-seat Defender). Luxury-feel scoring favors its price position. Accept the caveat that JLR publishes no cargo figure behind its third row.