<sniff> Bea-u-ti-ful
That Defender is not a vehicle, its a life choice.
<sniff> I need to be alone now.
Well, the first thing you need to do is learn the correct terminology for Land Rovers. The one in the photos is not a Defender. Land Rover did not stick that silly marketing name on the Land Rover until 1990.
Land Rovers were called "Series" starting with the Series I in 1948. Eventually enough changes were made to the vehicle to warrant a new model designation, so it became the Series II. Then some minor changes were made to make this the Series IIa. In the early 70s, a bunch of changes like a new transmission, interior and whatnot defined the Series III, which is what mine is.
The Series Land Rovers were available in two wheelbase lengths: 88" and 109" These numbers became the model designators. So my 1973 Land Rover is a Series III Model 88. (They also had sub-categories for their vehicles like Hardtop and Four Wheel Drive Station Wagon.)
In 1983 they made so many changes to the Series III that it warranted a new designation. Again, they keyed the name off the wheelbase. So the short body version became the "Land Rover 90" and the long body became the "Land Rover 110" Eventually they added a third body style, usually in pickup or crewcab pickup form, called the "Land Rover 130"
In 1990 somebody in the marketing department felt they needed a more zippy designator than just the wheelbase length. So they named the basic Land Rover the "Defender," a dorky name derived from the vehicle's use by various arms of the military. So now you have the present day designations of Defender 90, Defender 110, and Defender 130.
The Range Rover, which came out in 1969, has always had its own identity at Land Rover. When the company began introducing new models they badged them according to which category they best fit: the utility Land Rover or the luxury Range Rover. So the Discovery was badged a Land Rover as at least initially it was sort of utilitarian. So was the little Freelander. The Range Rover Sport, on the other hand, which has no parts in common with the full-size Range Rover by the way, was badged a Range Rover as it was designed primarily for luxury-minded pavement drivers.
This is why the entry level Evoque is badged a Range Rover even though it's about as far from being a Range Rover as it's possible to be. It's a cheap (for the Land Rover company) style study for paved roads intended to capture new customers for the brand in the hopes that they'll eventually move up to a Range Rover.
Sometime in the mid 90s Land Rover conducted a two-year, worldwide study to determine how the buyers of 4wd vehicles (all makes) used them. What the study found is that 90-plus percent of 4wd vehicle buyers on the planet NEVER take them off the pavement.
This changed the entire way of thinking at Land Rover. They continued to build the utilitarian Land Rover, now called the Defender, because there was a big market for them among farmers, miners, oilfield people, the military, and so on.
But.... when it came to the Range Rover, Discovery, Range Rover Sport, Freelander, and now the Evoque, almost the entire emphasis was put on creature comforts, amenities, and on-pavement handling. They continued to offer them as 4wd or AWD vehicles because of the image that conveys (like calling a cabin cruiser a "trawler"). But they put almost no emphasis on actually making them better for off-road use. Why bother, since they had learned that almost every Range Rover/Discovery/Freelander buyer never takes them off the pavement.
Our other Land Rover vehicle is a 1991 Range Rover. It's the last of the off-road Range Rovers in that it has coil spring suspension, off-road steering, and other things that make it almost the equal of a Series or Defender off road. I use it for moose hunting in BC, for example, on logging roads in deep snow and across frozen creeks, sometimes towing a U-Haul trailer. At the time we bought it the manager of the Land Rover assembly plant in Solihull was a good acquaintance, so he had ours made as a Vogue SE, which was not a version imported to the US. Other than some minor interior details, it differs from the then-US-export Range Rover in the suspension setup and steering, both of which make it a better off-road vehicle although not as good of an on-road vehicle.