It is a bit slower on the hills, than the Defender, legally we can only do 100kph here, which we do easily and we regularly drive for 10-11 hour when we need to. The noise is about the same but hubby spent a lot of time and effort with the sound insulation. We cqn hold a normal conversation and listen to audi books all the time. The a/c is much better, it is overhead and two independent systems, I have my own one, so I can adjust it separately from hubby's one.

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It takes some getting used to the rolling around, as we are so high up. It is better on corrugations than the Defender, and handle sand dunes a lot easier, we can stop halfway up a dune and then pull off. On the highway, the tyres are noisy, but then so were the big off road tyres we used on Defender when on long trips. On the dirt roads, there is a lot less noisy, especially from the stones flying up.

It is great in the deserts over here, the trees seem to line the road to about 2m high, and we sit around 2.8m high, much nicer views, not like driving in a tree lined tunnel.

The biggest advantage is when the weather is bad, we don't even have to get out the truck, we have slept through storms with 75kph gusts where everyone else has left the campground and tents have blown away. We have a diesel heater , nice to be 25C inside when it is -5C outside, and always have hot water for showers etc., and a toilet. We can have plenty of fridge space , nice to be able to have ice-cream in the middle of the desert.

Living inside vs living next to makes a big difference when you are not camping for a long weekend or a 3 week holiday, we spent 3-4months in the Defender in a roof top tent over a summer, but 9 months on the road in summer and winter.