Test drive Land Rover Defender 110 1991 - 2007 SUV

No road, and no need

Autumn entered into its legal rights. Rains, puddles, impassable dirt. But in the spring it will be even worse. We need an SUV, a simple and at the same time able to pass where the leg of a city person almost never stepped.
The first thing that comes to mind is our immortal creation by the Ulyanovsk goat. But from the thought that you will have to beat your knees on the iron panel of the devices, you are trembling, especially after some chevrol or even the forty-first Muscovite. But look at this high car with large wheels and the inscription of the UAZ on the spare. This machine is not at all like a simple goat. There is no tarpaulin top, the appearance has changed, and the salon has transformed.
Yes, this is he UAZ-3160 a descendant of the glorious GAZ-69. The question immediately arises: and from the imported what? Of the imported for impassable dirt, Land Rover was always good. Immediately recall Camel-Trophy and other adventures. Moreover, a neighbor on Cheroki is constantly sitting in a tractor rut next to your car. Defender! This car, which has been knitting along the roads of the planet for six decades, is perfectly suitable for comparison. He was also in military service, but he was ennobled and at the same time did not lose at all in off -rate.
So, dirt, autumn rains and two large SUVs. Both (!) Russian production: Land Rover is collected in Kaliningrad at the Autotor factory. UAZ-3160 is absolutely not like its ancestors. Round front headlights, folding windshield and a tarpaulin roof have gone into history. The car added in growth and lost a little. The bumpers from the bent channel are replaced by elegant overlays corresponding to the lines of the body. The body itself was rounded, and there are almost no straight angles. Due to the windows in the trunk, the car has become more glass. Ahead of the block fara with large turn signals, and multi-section lanterns behind. The doors are opened with normal flat handles and there are full -fledged locks on everyone. The widespread fifth door appeared on UAZ, unfortunately, opening to the sidewalk. It opens from the inside and also closes to the castle. On the streets we were often asked: what kind of car?, Being in full confidence that we met a foreign SUV. And this means that designers from Simbirsk tried not in vain a new machine turned out to be both bright and peculiar.
The defender is already 51 years old. According to conscience, he needs to compete with that sixty -ninth, but the latter, unfortunately, did not live to this day. Over the years, the designers almost did not touch his face or insides. All the same straight corners, round headlights, small dimensions and turns indicators. Small doors, and all five, make it necessary to assume that it will be difficult to get into the car. The fifth door also opens to the sidewalk. Despite the large width of the defender stern, the door is narrow and low. But in the area of \u200b\u200bglazing, defender champion among SUVs, there are small windows even in the roof. A huge hood is still decorated with huge brackets for the second spare. Land Rover is much longer than the opponent. This is good or poorly shown the road, or rather off -road.
Again, Ulyanovsk pleased. At 3160 not just a new gasoline engine, but, most importantly, injector with multi -point injection. The brains of the system are the same as on the Volga-3110. Especially impressive is the large size of an acute air filter. It all looks solid, and the motor works softly and, most importantly, quietly. The declared capacity of 103 horses with a volume of 2.9 liters. Fuel gasoline A-92. The drive is full with the front axle disconnected. The Anglo-Russian defender is equipped with a 2.5 liter turbodiesel with a capacity of 122 hp. The cover of the block head is decorated with a proud inscription TurboCharged, that is, turbocharged. (I want to remind you that diesel engines are also installed on UAZs.). The drive is complete with an unknown front bridge. Both engines make the impression of serious units, but whether they are really serious, the road will show.
The internal space of the Volga brainchild makes one again think about the country of the car of this car. Any analogy with the predecessor is just a crime. A large solid panel of plastic devices from now on does not threaten passengers with bruises and cones. The combination of devices, the heater block (very good) and the clock is borrowed from the VAZ seven, eights and dozens. From the Lada, the door locks and the ignition lock. The inscription of Lada is proudly on the keys to the car, so if you have two cars and one of them VAZ, not to confuse for an hour ... The doors, like the instrument panel, are dressed in plastic, all windows are equipped with full -fledged windows, and between the front ones The seats are a plastic box that can simultaneously serve as a table. Above the mess, the front passenger handle, so that when driving on off -road it does not hang too much. It should also be noted that the pens in the ceiling are for all UAZ passengers. Everything is very convenient, although the assembly was clearly not straining and without thinking about the quality of materials. Plastic, of course, is harsh, but what happened and what happened ... The difference is huge.
Seats. There are seven of them. All seats, except for those in the trunk, with headrests and seat belts. The front ones are adjustable along the back of the back, length, there is an adjustable lumbar roller. And lo and lo and about a miracle! The back of the second row of seats is also regulated! You can change its slope, and it itself is folded 2 to 3 for transporting long -meters. The trunk is large, with a low loading height and two more seats, however, folding. Total in UAZ-3160 can comfortably accommodate seven people. Defender is a completely different car both in terms of comfort and passenger capacity. The car’s interior is more like an Ikarus salon, which runs somewhere in Butovo.
Everything is very modest, no hint of comfort. 12 seats resemble benches covered in matter. For all twelve people only 2 headrests and not a single armrest. The possibilities of transformation of the salon are minimal. Only the rear low seat with a narrow pillow is laid out. It is very great for special services, and if for civilians, it is clearly only for the enthusiasts of the juper movement. Additional passenger seats in the trunk cannot be moved and rearranged. And loading things into the trunk is not very convenient due to a large loading height and ... the size of the rear door. The driver’s place is executed on the principle of which is easier, the better. A minimum of devices, among which there is a watch. The metal panel of the devices includes all controls, including the heater. Its taps are on the left, and it is inconvenient to manipulate them. Functional buttons are not very successfully located, in particular, the glass heater, while the rear fog lights are turned on from below the dashboard and are not visible at all. It is not easy to open the windshield from the driver's side.
The defender ventilation system is especially successful. In summer, two shutters opening from the cabin provide a good tributary of street air, and in winter you can cool the bottles. In general, everything is in Armenian, and at the same time very high quality. On the streets of the city, both cars showed themselves with good fighters for the championship at traffic lights. UAZ, again, compared to his predecessor, he added very much to agility. It accelerates along with the classics and goes with them nose to nose. The steering wheel with a hydraulic wrap constantly vibrates, and with maneuvers, shocks are felt on it. Brakes are not suitable at all. Huge free pedaling and almost zero braking efficiency. The rearrangement on the UAZ is unsafe: the car is very rushed. The programs have to be stuck twice from the first time this does not always succeed. (Perhaps, of course, that we got a car with an unresolved clutch.). On the 3160 highway, it is able to develop passport 140 km/h, but at the same time it is all the time we scouring and you have to continuously steal.
Land Rover is more powerful and accelerates faster. The turning on the turbine is accompanied by a slight whistle, and the car takes forward. The defender does not chat from side to side and slows down quite worthy. The hydraulic wrap works for five out of five possible. The only unpleasant detail is the constant noise of the engine, seasoned with our diesel fuel. Dirt, puddles, rain and sand quarry, what could be better for testing an SUV? It goes without saying that both cars have all -wheel drive and both spring suspension. We connect the front on UAZ. In the floor, one single lever of handouts with understandable symbols 2N, 4H, 4L. Previously, the transmission levers were two plus a gearbox lever, and the tunnel was decorated with a whole forest of various handles.
Go! The impression is that UAZ did not go from the asphalt. In deep ford, it goes as easily as along the highway, and the water only slightly reaches the thresholds. Having overcome the ford, we get out to a large pipe, which lies on the ground 30 centimeters from the ground. Gently and slowly UAZ slides off the obstacles, without clinging a single part on the bottom. It is not possible to plant a UAZ and a simple manipulation with a handout in deep sand, and the machine in reduced gear crawls out of a sandy dunes, in which legs completely stuck. After half an hour of such experiments, it turned out that planting 3160 is almost impossible. He is not afraid of liquid dirt, is not afraid of sand and water. From any trouble he crawls out slowly and with dignity.
Actually, the same can be said about our imported friend. Despite the large base, he also easily crawled from the pipe, not even hitting it with even a thrown back. Defender entered Brod with pressure and also did not drown, although he still soaked the bumpers. Sand tests also did not puzzle a large SUV for a second. Sand for the conqueror of deserts, a mere trifle. The raising of any steepness, the Russified Englishman overcame it cheerfully, whistling with a turbine and scattering mountains of sand. We also could not plant a defender, although, believe me, we tried very hard and we even had KamAZ in our mind, who would get stuck. Both participants showed an excellent result and the dirty ears went back to Moscow.
UAZ greatly added both the cabin and the motor. He did not add only as the assembly and the cost of finishing materials. A convenient salon with the possibility of transformation, a good engine and a low price plus Ulyanovtsa. Land Rover is more expensive, the salon is the top of asceticism. But he is roomy, he has a wonderful engine, especially fingering on the bottom, and he is firmly sewn. And Defender and UAZ are not just excellent SUVs, these are cars for a real jeep and beautiful summer cottages. There would be money ...
 
UAZ-31605
+ 
1. Convenient salon
2. Excellent
cross -country ability
3. Price
- 
1. Low
build quality
2. Weak brakes
3. Bad
sustainability
Land Rover
Defender
 +
 
1. Good engine
2. Beautiful
controllability
- 
1. Non -transformable
salon
2. Poor ergonomics
 
Maxim Rakitin
Photo by Alexander Nozdrin
 

Source: Cars