Land Rover's pretty hasty with its 2023 model year updates

We’re fully used to the ‘model year update’ strategy these days. Jaguar Land Rover is especially keen on continual, small tweaks and improvements to its cars rather than waiting to heap them all into one big, earth-shaking facelift.

What we’re not used to is how much they wish time away. The Land Rover Defender has just been revealed in MY23 form and yeah, we just checked it’s not actually 2022 already too. Given how the concept of time has been biffed about in the last couple of years, it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise.

Anyway, the car. Or, indeed, van. Most changes involve the Defender Hard Top commercial vehicle, with the addition of a new ‘D250’ engine – a mild-hybrid straight-six diesel – and loads of extra kit if you go for the posher SE spec.

That brings 20in wheels, 12-way heated electric seats and a Meridian sound system, putting it several rungs up from a rusty old Transit in the van stakes. Blind Spot Assist is perhaps its most practical addition. Prices for the D250 Hard Top start at £38k before VAT, but can sail significantly higher with so much as a glance at the options list.

Meanwhile the stock Defender – the one with back seats and windows – gets a bigger media touchscreen, a couple of new colour options and strengthened security systems further up its range.

Land Rover has also fettled the Discovery, adding the ultra-posh Metropolitan Edition at one end of the range and a new R-Dynamic trim line to the Discovery Commercial (again, van) at the other.