Test drive: Land Rover Defender returns to its roots with new Hard Top

This commercial vehicle mixes on-road manners with versatile and practical load-carrying capability

The Defender Hard Top is usefully cheaper to buy than the passenger model, with prices starting at €61,680, including Vat, against €73,226 for the five-seat model

Last year, Land Rover launched the first completely new Defender in decades and, while the response to the new car has been almost universally positive, it has been accompanied by an acknowledgement that the Defender of the 2020s is built to a vastly different concept to that of the original.

In a bid to modernise the vehicle, it has lost some of its no-nonsense utility, instead focusing on luxurious space for all the family, although ...