 Put these up, you guys. I'll go back to another one. If you're new to the channel, I'm Goldpony. I do new car track SUV reviews on YouTube. And today we are in the brand new 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 Carpathian Edition courtesy of Land Rover. I got this one for a week, so I am a lucky guy. But anyways, this thing as a heck of a legacy is built for off-roading, taking through the desert, taking through the jungle, taking through the mountains. You pretty much take this thing everywhere and I'll get more into that in a little bit here. But ultimately this video we will be testing out and going over everything about this one from acceleration to braking, steering for a ride quality, sound system, exhaust, clip, all that fun stuff. So having said all that, what do you guys say? Let's just go ahead and jump right into it. And as always, let's start with pricing it. So MSRP for this beast, we'll start at $115,000. Powering our Carpathian Edition is going to be a five liter, super charged V8 putting out 518 horsepower at 6,000 RPM, 461 pound feet of torque coming in at 2,500 RPM. Power sent to all four wheels through an eight speed automatic with paddle shifters, which you guys know of course we will be testing out here in a little bit zero to 60 time coming in at approximately 4.9 seconds. Top speed 149 miles per hour with MPG numbers coming in at 15 in the city, 19 on the highway, taking premium unleaded fuel. But through that before we do any kind of fun paddle shifter or acceleration test here in this thing, I wanted to mention to you guys the drive modes. So the drive mode setup is a little bit different than just about every single other car on the road. So you get two climate control dials just to the right of the shifter. Essentially the one on the left is how you adjust the drive modes, but you have to press the land rover vehicle button to the right of it first. And so when you press that, then that dial actually turns into the drive mode button as opposed to the climate control button. And that is where you can select your drive modes. Drive modes you have to choose from is dynamic, eco comfort, grass gravel and snow, mud and rut, sand, rock crawl, wade and custom. So if you're curious what wade is if you were in an area that frequently floods or you have streams that you have to get through, that is what wade is for. You can actually get through a decent amount of water in the land rover defender. Actually between 50 and 90 centimeters submerged is the exact number. So that is definitely a good bit of water. And the fact that this has a drive mode made to power through that is impressive enough quite honestly. So we'll of course be testing that out today because it's bright and sunny here in Pennsylvania. But still, nice to know that it's there. Anyways, the rest of it adjusts things like the shift points, throttle response, steering sensitivity and suspension settings then as well. And so now I've got all of that out of the way. What do you guys say? Let's go ahead and find it straight away. Let's put the paddle shifters here to the test first and let's see how quickly they are going to react for us here. All right, we're in full manual shift mode, by the way. Just slide the shifter to the left and first gear. Let's try them. Quick. Instantly. Insanely quick. Dang, that sound, man. Wait till we get to the exhaust clip later in this video. I'm feeling no one's gonna be disappointed there but paddle shifters are instantaneous. Not only that, the paddle shifters are huge and they're very high quality as well. So 100% can have a heck of a lot of fun and an SUV with the paddle shifter here. So definitely a big fan of that. And so Benel haven't got that out of the way. What do you guys say? Let's go ahead and give back full control of the shifting to the Land Rover here. I'm just gonna slide the shifter back to the right. Let's find yet another straight away and let's see how quickly we can get our new 2023 Land Rover Defender here up to speed. All right, stand still in three, two, one. Go, baby. Oh my gosh. Ah! Holy cow. Holy cow. This thing is ridiculously quick. There's no way this is an SUV. That was insane. Zero to 60 in 4.9 seconds and an SUV is absolutely ridiculous. You guys, just in case you didn't already know that and you already did, but yeah, I don't put a smile on your face every time. But anyways, do go along with that acceleration as always. Braking is equally important. And so as you can imagine, the brake rotors on this thing are pretty beastly. Actually 15 inches up front, which pretty much says it all right there. As far as braking fuel goes, it's great. Honestly, I mean, it's a little bit on the softer side because we do have 22 inch wheels and this is a larger SUV, but honestly, it's not that bad. Definitely not going to have any issues with the braking on this thing. Then touching on suspension and handling, you will get an independent front and rear suspension, but not only that, you get an adaptive air suspension, which by the way is manually adjustable to go along with that. There's actually buttons located just to the left of the climate control dials there. You can manually adjust the air suspension which is pretty crazy. But if you didn't want to manually adjust it, that's perfectly fine as well because again, it's adaptive. It's going to monitor the driving conditions. It's going to monitor each shock absorber individually, not only tightening up the suspension during heavy cornering, but also giving you a smoother ride then as well. So really best of both worlds. You want to also mention you also get a rear active electronic differential as well, but putting all that together, as far as ride quality goes, it's been 100% perfectly fine on my short test drive here today. So definitely not going to have any issues with that and that's due in part because of this crazy A, dear, what's up? A lot of wildlife out this morning. And that's due in part because of the air suspension, of course an adaptive air suspension at that, that's pretty much the smoothest ride you could possibly get on this thing. And that's one of the first things I noticed. It definitely is a smooth ride for what this vehicle is with 22 inch wheels. So definitely not going to have any issues there. As far as steering feel goes, I would say it feels right. It's not the heaviest steering feel in the world. It's certainly not the loosest steering feel either. So it feels just about what you would expect the Land Rover Defender to feel like. So no issues there either. As far as cabin noise goes, I'm going approximately 40 miles per hour right now. Really, what you get in this thing is that incredible engine and exhaust note when you really hit the gas, but other than that, this thing is pretty darn good when it comes to cabin noise. There's ultimately no road noise, just maybe a slight bit of wind noise, but it's 100% on point. This is a luxury vehicle after all. So wait, it really does feel like that when you're inside of this thing. So no issues there either. And touch of visibility, I don't know. The second row headrests are absolutely mammoth. And of course, you got the full-size spare on the back as well. So if you were to take off the second row headrests, I think visibility would be 100% perfectly fine. But, and the shape of it also lends itself to good visibility as well. I think it's just the second row headrests are absolutely gigantic. So if you don't have the second row and you just go ahead and just fold that down and then you're 100% on point. Rinsins and windshield wipers also do come standard. So that is pretty nice as well. Meaning whenever the Land Rover detects any kind of mist or rainfall, it's gonna automatically turn on this windshield wipers for you. So that's definitely a huge win as well. And head up display also coming standard on this thing. And that's not just gonna display your speed. It's also gonna display safety features and the speed limit of any given road that you are on. So all of that definitely a very good thing. But that pretty much rounds out the performance segment of this review, you guys. Let's go ahead and take a look at the exterior of our brand new 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 V8 Carpathian Edition. All right, so here she is you guys, the new 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 V8 Carpathian Edition. Little bit of a mouthful there, but the very highest trim level of this beast looks absolutely amazing. But let's go ahead and start it from, let me start with the actual color. Carpathian Gray obviously is the color name. That is a matte finish in case you didn't notice that already, so definitely a very cool look to it. But it does have a black contrast roof that is going to be gloss black. It also has gloss black accents on the front bumper and a gloss black hood as well, kind of giving it a little pop of color to go with the matte color that is on this thing. Land Rover Magin can be found up front on that singular gray bar, along with Defender lettering spelled out horizontally in gray as well, give it a little pop against the gloss black hood there. Premium LED headlights do come standard with LED signature lighting and the automatic feature, meaning when it starts to get dark at night, these headlights will turn on automatically for you there. High beams also coming standard, meaning if you have a high beams on at night and it senses a vehicle coming in the opposite direction, it's gonna automatically dim them back to low beams. Then when that vehicle is gone, it's gonna automatically bump it back up to high beams. So very nice there as well. And overall, this thing looks like an absolute beast. You got LED fog lights down below as well, plenty of ventilation up front. So, and also like these little accents found on the hood as well, a little bit of texturized finish to the hood. So that is pretty cool there too. But anyways, that pretty much rounds out the front end of this one. So now go ahead and make our way to the side. So then making our way to the side of this one, gloss black A pillar and window surrounds do come standard rear privacy glass. Of course, gloss black power adjustable side mirrors, they will be heated by the way with LED integrated turd signals and power folding as well. So pretty darn cool there. Panoramic rear side glass. I don't know if you guys noticed that or not, but the very back, the very tail end of that side glass, there's really no pillar there. So it's a panoramic design. So definitely a big fan of that. V8 badging can be found on the front doors as well. You guys can see that towards the bottom. You actually have functional ventilation found on the front fenders as well to help cool that supercharged V8. Also a very nice feature there. Gloss black side skirts do come standard. And then taking a look down at the wheel configuration, they are 22 inch gloss black alloy wheels. So definitely a beast. But one of the cool things about those gloss black alloy wheels, let me show you guys real quick here. They actually have defender lettering spelled out within the wheel itself, which is pretty cool. And you guys can see there's massive six-piston front calipers, the Land River brumbos behind those 22 inch wheels as well. So pretty darn cool. But anyways, that pretty much rounds out the side. Let's now go ahead and make our way to the back. All right, so now since we are around to the back of this, when you guys will notice a gloss black shark fin antenna all the way to the top, you do have an integrated brake light, believe it or not, found all the way to the top there, although there's no rear spoiler. But quite honestly, I think a rear spoiler would look kind of weird on the fender. So I actually like the design there. You do have a full-size spare in the back as well. Land River badging, of course, you get the fender badging as well. LED tail lights, but not only LED tail lights, but you also get LED mini tail lights to the left and the right of those tail lights. So definitely in design, you don't often see. Towing capacity, if you're curious, comes in at 8,200 pounds. And just below it all, you will get dual exhaust outlets with quad-chrome tips. So having said that, I do believe you guys know what we have to do next as always here is that exhaust clip. All right, so now since we are around to the back of the Defender, it comes to opening that rear tailgate. There is a button on the key fob to unlock it, but it is in manual tailgate. You open it up from the left side, but then once opened up, cargo capacity comes in at 10.5 cubic feet. If there was not enough space, there is a 40-20-40 split, meaning the rear seats do fold down quite nicely, bumping that up to 58.3 cubic feet then. Did want to also mention in the back, you do have a high load height, but that's kind of like the G-Wagon, I guess. But the cool thing is, there's actually buttons in the cargo area where you can load that ride height, courtesy of the air suspension. And that does lower quite a bit actually as well. So definitely a huge fan of that, I gotta be honest, but of course you will find some cargo lighting back there and it is LED cargo lighting, by the way. Cargo net, there is a 110-volt power outlet back there. And of course you have your 12-volt power outlet as well, but 110-volt power outlet is pretty darn cold. Usually you don't find that in cargo area of vehicles. All-weather floor mats, of course, you have some storage on the backside of the tailgate as well. And you gotta love the exposed bolts to go along with all of that. Definitely looks very good. And you actually do have grocery bag hooks back there as well. So overall, pretty much everything you could possibly want in the cargo area of the Defender. But so then making our way to the rear legroom. Rear legroom is actually going to come in at a fairly impressive 36.6 inches. So for reference, I mean even six feet tall. This is how much space I had back there. Did want to also mention there's a grab handle to get into the back. So that was definitely very nice. There's some optional coat hangers on the back of the front seats. If you wanted to go that route, we don't have them here today, but still pretty cool. Rear ventilation, of course, does come standard and actually heated and ventilated rear seats do come standard as well. You have a couple USB-C charging ports back there as well. Rear center armrest with cup holders. But my very favorite part for the rear seats has got to be the Safari roof glass in the cargo area itself. Of course you got the panoramic roof, but you also have these little Safari kind of roof glass. It's kind of like a Jurassic Park vehicle on both sides in the back as well. That's my favorite part because it's extremely rare. You don't usually see that. I think it looks pretty darn cool, but anyways, they make your way to the front seats. 14-way power adjustable front seats do come standard along with memory settings. Ebony Windsor leather slash dynamite a combination comes standard as well. I absolutely love that. Heated and ventilated front seats. And quite honestly, seat comfort was 100% on point. So definitely not going to have any issues there. To take a look at the steering wheel, it is tilt and telescoping and is power adjustable. It does come with a suede finish, which I am a 100% huge fan of with the leather finish in the middle and the defender lettering right in the middle of it all. But the suede finish on the steering wheel is 100% perfect. Love that. Also heated steering wheel does come steered by the way as well. They make our way to the startup. Let me start by showing you guys the key here. You do have your Land Rover logo on the one side. Then when you flip it over lock, unlock that button to unlock the rear hatch. And of course a button for the lights actually as well. But ultimately it is all keyless entry with a push button start. So all I'm going to do here is simply put my foot on the brake and press that engine start button located just to the left of the gear shifter there. So once started up, it is a full digital gauge cluster, 12.3 inch digital gauge cluster to be exact. Speedometer is actually all the way to your left. Tachometer is on your right. And there's a ton of different things you could scroll through up there. Of course it gives you your safety information, average miles per gallon at any given time, trip A, trip B, outside temperature. The list goes on. So pretty much everything you could possibly want on the digital portion of the gauges there. Then make our way to overall interior quality. We'll find a sliding panoramic roof coming standard on this thing. LED interior lighting also coming standard from the front to the back. Also a big fan of that. You will have a frameless rear of your mirror with homely controls up to three different garage doors as well. That was pretty cool. But perhaps my favorite part in the front was the front center console refrigerator compartment. And so there's actually two settings. There's cold and then there's super cold. So there's a couple of buttons you can actually press in there. So I absolutely love that. And just in front of that I actually have a wireless phone charger as well. TriZone climate control does come stated, meaning both driver, passenger and rear passengers can all set their own temperatures. You do have aluminum foot pedals down below as well. I like the defender lettering found just above passenger side glove box. And just above that you have a massive grab handle with places where you can actually put your fingers and hang on for dear life when you're going through the water if you wanted to do that. So that was pretty cool as well. There's actually another USB charging port just within that little cargo area above the passenger side glove box as well there. I like these exposed bolts yet again on the doors as well as this center console area. So good bit of exposed bolts in this thing really plays to its offered nature. There is a USB-A, USB-C charging port 12-volt power outlet, a ton of rubberized storage just below that. Dual cupholders, a little bit more storage. And again, then the center armrest you have that refrigerator, mini fridge more or less. Then make your way to the infotainment screen here. 11.4 inch color touchscreen display does come standard Bluetooth and audio streaming, also standard. Android Auto, Apple CarPlay coming standard, factory navigation system of course, can check out your drive modes up there as well as I was showing you guys earlier. Climate control settings can be had up there along with your off-road statistics. I thought that was pretty cool as well. And of course your radio information is so when it comes to this specific Defender, you will get a 700 watt Meridian sound system. So having said that, what do you guys say? Let's go ahead and turn on the radio, see what we got playing this morning and let's test out the clarity, this one. Absolute ridiculous amount of bass in that thing. Plenty of clarity. That sound system, although I don't know about the song, but that sound system was pretty darn good. I absolutely love that sound system for the Defender. But anyways, last thing I wanted to mention you guys on the infotainment screen is when you do put this thing in reverse, you will find a rear view camera letting you know who or what is behind you. But not only that, a 360 degree monitor as well. There is an off-road mode giving you some suspension settings as well, and a towing mode actually as well. So that is pretty cool. It kind of shows you the projection of where you're backing up. So overall, rear view camera is 100% on point and as always that is going to lead us into safety. So to start, front side, side current airbags do come standard. In the back, you're gonna have latch, aka lower anchors and tethers to children for the rear car seats, tire pressure monitoring system, but also coming standard adaptive cruise control with stop and go, blind spot assist with rear cross traffic alert, lane keep assist, driver attention monitoring system, traffic sign recognition, automatic emergency braking, and wade sensing as well. So overall, when it comes to my final thoughts, this thing is extremely capable off-road, so you gotta love that. Supercharged V8, I'm not sure they could get any better than that in this particular SUV. It's extremely overkill and I absolutely love it there. Adaptive air suspension is great for ride quality but it's also very great for loading in the back because like I said, there's buttons in the cargo area where you can actually lower the cargo area to help you easily get items or groceries into the back, so that's pretty cool. We'll say I definitely like the Carpathian Gray matte finish on this thing. I think that looks pretty darn cool. I love the mini fridge as well. The only drawback, I guess, is the miles per gallon but quite honestly, if you're buying the Land Rover Defender, I don't really think you care about miles per gallon and that's okay. That's not what this thing was built for after all, but anyways, that is about it for this one, you guys, thank you so much for watching. Feel free to follow me on social media at the bottom of the screen if you want to see what's coming next on the channel before it gets to YouTube. Be sure to hit the subscribe and the bell notification button if you're into new car reviews. That is what we do here on this channel after all. Do appreciate you guys watching more than you know and I will see you guys all in the next video. Stay Gold.