2026 Land Rover Defender Octa First Test: “God Save the King!”

The advent of the modern SUV is predicated on the idea of a single vehicle type that can do just about everything an owner could need. Move people and cargo, manage well enough off-road or in inclement weather, be at least somewhat engaging to drive, tow a moderately sized trailer if needed, be safe in a crash, and be sufficiently comfortable for the long commute. It’s a lot to ask, and no single vehicle does everything perfectly. The 2026 Land Rover Defender Octa makes a damn good run at the job, though.

It Does Everything?

As a variant of the popular Defender 110, it already covers most of that list. Standard Defenders ride, handle, and off-road better than the average SUV and do well enough on the rest of the criteria above. The Octa improves that base by offering more. More power, more off-road capability, more handling performance, and more cushion. Credit the BMW-sourced 4.4-liter twin-turbo mild hybrid V-8 and “6-D” hydraulic and air suspension for, well, all of it.

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The rule stated above remains unbroken, of course, as the Octa isn’t great at everything. At 17 mpg combined, its fuel economy is harder than ever to overlook given the current price of the premium fuel it requires. Even harder to stomach is the roughly $40,000 price premium over a Defender 110 V-8 and the $95,000 upcharge over the already excellent base Defender 110 S and its turbo I-4.

Less consequential is that for all that money, it’s still rather subtle. Aside from the wheels and tires, plus a few confusing four-point diamond badges on a vehicle named for the octahedron cut of a classic diamond, it’s hard to tell there’s anything special about it. Our test car was indeed mistaken on one occasion for a much cheaper Defender 110 V-8 by several automotive industry professionals, so the average person won’t have a clue. Automakers are putting orange clearance lights on everything wide these days, so even those aren’t a giveaway. And while the interior materials are noticeably improved, they don’t look or feel $95,000 better.

Better Off-Road

To truly understand why someone might pay such a hefty premium for the Octa, we headed for our favorite off-road park and put its hydraulically enhanced suspension to work. That’s the showpiece, its special active dampers acting as both shock absorbers and anti-roll bars that can be decoupled from the other three wheels. This allows the Octa to access all 5.3 inches of suspension travel at each wheel at any time, which the steel anti-roll bars on a typical Defender restrict. Its 33-inch off-road tires add an extra half inch to the ground clearance for a total of 12 when the air suspension is fully inflated.

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We like this park because it has multiple lines for every obstacle, which means it’s as good for evaluating midgrade off-road packages as it is for testing the hardest-core factory setups. Here, the Octa easily proved it’s among the best of the latter. The difficult lines are reserved for only the most capable factory off-roaders and aftermarket stuff. Think Wrangler Rubicon, Bronco Raptor, Rivian R1S Quad, that kind of thing. Now, add the Defender Octa to that elite group.

With its meaty BFGoodrich Trail-Terrain T/A tires, fancy hydropneumatic suspension, true four-wheel drive with low-range transfer case, and twin-turbo V-8 power, the Octa made easy work of every climb. Not once did it come to an unplanned stop, and never once were we forced to back up and try again. It clawed and crawled up the most difficult path we could think of every time. The improved approach, breakover, and departure angles—courtesy of the additional ride height and big tires—meant the skidplates were used surprisingly infrequently. Those other rigs on the list have done the same climb, but none made it feel quite as easy.

None ripped down the entrance road half as fast, either. Those trick shocks allow the Octa to sail over poorly maintained dirt roads twice as fast as the others even with their own special suspensions. Put the Defender in Octa mode, and it does far and away the best impression of a rally race car we’ve ever seen from a mass-market vehicle.

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Better On-Road, Too

Put it on pavement and in its uniquely tuned Dynamic drive mode, and even with the all-terrain tires the Octa drives like a Range Rover Sport SVO. Fully uncorked, the German V-8 is an absolute monster and turns the truck into a rocket. Land Rover’s own 5.0-liter supercharged V-8 in the lesser Defender may sound better, but it wishes it were this quick. Thank goodness for the massive brakes, which are the reason the Octa has unusually big wheels for an off-roader.

Not just quick, the Octa goes around a corner like a high-performance street machine, tires be damned. Testing it on the Nürburgring wasn’t a joke; the engineers wanted it to handle like a track car, and it does. A big, tall one, but a track car nonetheless.

The only other vehicle we’ve driven with this range of capability is the Rivian R1S with its own hydropneumatic suspension and massive electric power, but even it isn’t quite this good. The Bronco Raptor wishes it were this quick, and the less said about the Wrangler Rubicon’s on-road handling, the better.

That’s just the fun stuff. The Defender people went and benchmarked an original Citroën DS for hydraulic suspension ride quality, and it shows. Whether your area actually has the worst roads in the nation or not, you won’t know it in an Octa. It smashes through potholes and over speed bumps like they’re not there. The only other SUVs that ride this smoothly cost at least as much and are strictly limited to pavement. Even if you spend most of the time commuting to the office, you’ll still enjoy what this suspension has to offer.

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Better Performance, Naturally

To be sure we weren’t just blinded by the subjective experience, we put not one but two Octas to the test, one with the all-terrain tires and one with the more streetable Michelin Primacy all-season rubber. Surprisingly, the performance gap wasn’t nearly as big as we expected.

The smallest difference was recorded in acceleration, where the street tire needed just 4.2 seconds to hit 60 mph while the off-road tire needed 4.5. Similarly, the road tire ran the quarter mile in 12.6 seconds at 112.4 mph to the dirt tire’s 12.9 seconds at 109.3 mph.

Shockingly, the regular Defender V-8 is right behind hitting 60 mph in 4.6 seconds and running a 13.1-second quarter mile at 107.7 mph despite making just 518 hp and 461 lb-ft to the Octa’s 626 hp and 590 lb-ft. The Octas were 251 to 327 pounds heavier, but we still expected them to be quicker. This is why we test.

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The differences are stark in braking. The Octa with the street tire needed just 110 feet to stop from 60 mph, which is downright impressive for a nearly 6,000-pound off-road SUV. Especially so when you consider the Defender V-8, also on a road tire, needed 120 feet. The Octa on all-terrain tires stretched it out to 124 feet, which isn’t a bad number for an off-road tire on a heavy vehicle.

The delta effectively evaporates around a corner. The street tire Octa and street tire Defender V-8 pull the same 0.81 average g on the skidpad, with the less grippy Octa on off-road tires pulling 0.71 g. Our figure eight, which combines acceleration, braking, and turning, showed the cumulative potential off all the Octa’s upgrades with the street tire model putting down a 26.3-second lap at 0.74 average cumulative g to the Defender V-8’s 27.0-second lap at 0.66 g and the off-road tire model’s 27.9-second lap at 0.66 g.

Here, our test team’s subjective impressions come into play. Defenders won’t let you fully turn off the stability control, and it hurts their figure-eight lap times as the brakes intervene and the throttle cuts out. The Octa’s special Octa driving mode loosens up the stability control far more than possible in lesser models, though, allowing our drivers to get on the throttle sooner and harder, even drifting out of the corners with power oversteer.

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You Can Put a Price on Fun

The Octa’s magic, then, lies in its alchemy rather than its numbers. Put all those different aspects together, from its incredible suspension response on-road and off to the big power and brakes to the bridled stability control, and it drives much differently than other Defenders. Is it $40,000 to $95,000 better? That’s between you and your financial planner, but if we had $160,250 or more to spend, we wouldn’t think twice about getting the Octa or putting gas in it.