Would you spend £40k on a new Defender or an old G-Wagen?

Oh, you’d forgotten there’s a new Land Rover Defender inbound, had you? Probably not. It’s quite an important car. We’re rather excited for it. But, what will it cost?

Answer, officially announced today: from £40,260 – for the three-door Defender 90, with none of the tempting option packs ticked. Want a more practical version with seating for six? Then you’ll want the Defender 110, complete with five doors, and a sticker price of £45,240.

So, it’s cannily slotting on top of the Discovery Sport (which starts way down on £31,575 for a slow, poorly kitted out one that nobody buys) and the full-fat, wonky-tailgate Discovery 5, which begins at £47,745.

Now, Land Rover isn’t (publicly) worried about sales of the Defender cannibalising its other 4x4s. Indeed, it says over 1.2 million people have been to its website and confirmed a new Defender, adding lots of profitable optional extras. To be fair, about 500,000 of those were us, playing with the wheels and paint. Sorry, Land Rover.

But step away from the Land Rover party and consider what else your £40k-£45k could buy you, that’s big, boxy, and likely to be unstoppable in an off-road, zombie apocalypse situation.

A quick browse – okay, a wasted afternoon – on the classifieds reveals that £45k buys the discerning green-lane enthusiast a diesel V8 Toyota Land Cruiser. It’ll survive World Wars Three, Four and Five without needing so much as an oil change. Or, how about some naturally-aspirated racey madness, in the inelegant shape of a Porsche Cayenne GTS? Lots of them around for about £42k…

But, the TG office has settled on the pocket of Mercedes G-Wagens lurking for sale at the £40k-£45k mark. At that money, you’re not going to be getting a side-exit exhaust AMG. But the sensible G350 CDI diesel is, if anything, even more pleasant to smoke about in, and Defender cash gets you a well-cared-for example with 60,000 miles on the clock.

Which is it to be?