I love the Defender's image: the butch, bundu-chowing, rock-climbing, all-terrain-busting ultimate man's vehicle.
And I know for a fact that there're hordes of Landy fans out there who simply won't drive anything else - and that since its emergence nearly 60 years ago, the original Land Rover has carved a heroic path through some of the world's remotest regions.
In fact at one time, for 60 percent of the planet's population, a Land Rover was the first motor vehicle they'd seen.
The iconic Defender has an entrenched reputation of being one of the hardiest, most able and toughest vehicles on the planet, being able to go where most others would fear to tread.
So, boogeying around the 'burbs in the new long-wheel-base 110 was pretty much a useless exercise for the few days I had it. I mean, how challenging can the school run be for this big beast? How much of its extraordinary versatility and superb ground clearance am I likely to need popping out to the mall?
How, on the tree-lined avenues of KZN, am I supposed to test the driveability and 360Nm (from 3000rpm) produced by the 2.4-litre, 90kW diesel engine?
Really, all that remained was for me to be hugely impressed by the size, the width, the height, the new seating configuration (an extra row which the short people loved) and all of the comforts of home, such as power windows and, much to many women's delight I would imagine, softer seats.
Climbing in the first time, of course, was a bit of a challenge: I happened to be wearing girls' clothes - a long skirt - and found myself standing on the bottom of the skirt itself, unable to move forward from the step below the door, half-in, half-out... nothing graceful about the move whatsoever.
Men, no doubt, would've simply swung in their hairy khaki-shorts-clad-ending-in-vellies-legs and made it all appear terribly easy.
I loved the feeling that it would go wherever I chose to wander, come hell or high water, but the kids parking in the back were concerned only with one factor:
'Mom, there's just tin on the floor," yelled mine as I tried to engage reverse (it has a new six-speed gearbox, by the way, as well as permanent all-wheel-drive).
That, darling, it's because it's built for tough stuff, not for sissies in the city. Who needs lush carpeting in the boonies?
Another point in its favour, sisters: the clutch is quite hard work and, by the time I gave the Defender back, I had developed a beautifully taut upper left thigh - another month and it could have rivalled Arnie Schwarznegger's.
Not a car any Gladys should drive: rather a he-man, all-male big beast which has long proved its reputation as the best 4x4 by far.
Yours for R349 056.