Land Rover DefenderYears to avoid, problems & recalls
Based on 329 NHTSA owner complaints across 15 model years, no Land Rover Defender year stands out as one to avoid, and the strongest years are 2020, 2021 and 2024. The Defender has 20 safety recalls on record.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls, investigations and manufacturer recall reports. Updated daily. How we score years. Photo: Yu Chu Chin, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Land Rover Defender years to avoid
Complaints by model year, colored by the CarFlaw verdict: complaints weighted for crashes, fires and injuries, adjusted for years on the road and compared with the Defender median. Tap a year for its full report.
- Avoid
- Caution
- Solid
- Best
- Not rated
Most common Land Rover Defender problems
All model years combined: 329 complaints grouped by the system owners reported.
| System | Complaints | Crash, fire or injury |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical system | 113 | 5 |
| Exterior lighting | 68 | 1 |
| Visibility/wiper | 53 | 0 |
| Engine | 39 | 1 |
| Steering | 26 | 2 |
| Power train | 21 | 0 |
| Structure | 12 | 0 |
| Lane departure | 11 | 0 |
| Back over prevention | 8 | 0 |
| 16 other systems | 59 | 7 |
Land Rover Defender recalls
Newest first. The ring shows the share of affected vehicles repaired, from the manufacturer's latest report to NHTSA.
Showing the 12 newest of 20 recalls. Each model-year page lists all recalls for that year.
NHTSA investigations of the Defender
- Rear Seat Belt Stitching Failure and DetachmentLed to recall 26V-615