2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee L vs 2022 Land Rover Defender

Over seven decades in the car business, Land Rover has shifted from making utilitarian vehicles prized by farmers, explorers, and soldiers to making luxury vehicles prized by wealthy suburbanites. The 2022 Land Rover Defender aims to bridge the gap between Land Rover’s past and present.

As other Land Rover models got more luxurious, the original Defender carried on as a rugged, basic off-roader. While Land Rover stopped selling the old school Defender in the United States during the 1990s, it remained in production for other markets until 2016. By that time, Land Rover was already planning a clean-sheet redesign that brought the Defender back to the U.S. for the 2020 model year.

The new Land Rover Defender contrasts the automaker’s other models, like the Discovery and Range Rover, with an emphasis on ruggedness. It’s still bigger and cushier than the original Defender, but less fancy than its sibling models. And like the original Defender, the new model is available in two-door 90 and four-door 110 body styles. A three-row, eight-seat Defender 130 body style is also on the way for the 2023 model year.

Meanwhile, changes for the 2022 model year include a new optional 11.4-inch touchscreen, standard wireless phone charging, and an expansion of trim levels. The Defender 90 gets new X-Dynamic SE and X-Dynamic HSE trims, and a new V8 powertrain option debuts for both the 90 and Defender 110 in both standard and high-end Carpathian Edition models. Shared with other Jaguar Land Rover products, the supercharged 5.0-liter V8 provides a serious boost in performance. We sampled it in a Defender 90 for this review.

Jeep is now a luxury brand. That's why the 2022 Grand Cherokee L can ask, with a straight face, that you pay up to $70,000 for the privilege of ownership. But because Jeep is a proudly American brand, a war veteran that helped Allied troops defeat fascism, the company has earned the kind of unvarnished reputation and universal praise given only to a handful of U.S. presidents.

As such, a $60,000 Wrangler or a $100,000 Grand Wagoneer doesn't seem snooty, while a Mercedes-Benz or a Lexus sure does. Jeep's heritage as a hardcore 4x4 brand and its newer image as a bougie city truck maker can coexist. We took a Grand Cherokee L Summit Reserve across Tennessee to prove it.