The original Land Rover Defender’s list of rivals was short. Even the Jeep Wrangler, whose heritage-laced styling makes it vaguely Defender-like, wasn’t really in the same ballpark. The key difference is that the Jeep evolved to look like its predecessors, while the Land Rover just didn’t change. But in an odd twist of automotive fate, Land Rover helped spawn one of the old Defender’s most direct rivals: the Iveco Massif.
Possibly alarmed by the Italian government’s large fleet of Land Rovers, Fiat began plotting an alternative to the Defender in the middle of the 2000s. This idea wasn’t unprecedented. For decades, Italy’s largest carmaker sold a no-nonsense, body-on-frame off-roader called the Campagnola that, like Land Rover’s Series models, Jeep’s older CJs, and Toyota’s early Land Cruisers, blurred the line between a tractor and a truck.
The 21st-century Campagnola needed to pick up where the second-generation model left off in 1987. It had to offer exceptional off-road capability while putting a far more pronounced focus on work than on leisure, luxury, and performance. The idea wasn’t to give the Mercedes-Benz G-Class a run for its money.
Fiat assigned the project to its Iveco division, which primarily sold commercial vans and lorries. The reason for this decision wasn’t disclosed, but I can give you two possible explanations. One is that a big, Defender-like 4×4 would have looked more than a little weird parked next to the tiny 500 and the humble Panda in showrooms. Another is that giving the SUV to Iveco would bump the company closer to the mainstream and, with any luck, lay the foundations for Italy’s full-blown answer to the Land Rover brand.
That’s where Italy’s involvement ends. Next, let’s hop across the Mediterranean and land in sunny Spain.
Santana, a small company that started building Land Rovers under licence in 1958, entered the 2000s on shaky financial footing. Long-time partner Suzuki was gradually distancing itself from the business. Sales were dropping, and the Land Rover-derived Aníbal wasn’t nearly successful enough to make a difference.
What we had, then, was an Italian company with a business plan but no off-roader to sell and a Spanish company with a ready-for-production off-roader but no one to sell it to. The tie-up made sense. Once a deal was struck, the project moved quickly. Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro made styling updates in a bid to differentiate the Massif from the Aníbal (which was also sold as the PS-10), and the Iveco featured a brand-specific interior with a redesigned dashboard, but the Land Rover genes were difficult to hide.
It was a different story under the body. While the Aníbal was released in 2003, it was closely related to the 2500 launched in 1984 and derived from Land Rover’s Series III, which went on sale in 1971. Put another way, the Massif made the Defender look modern, which was damn near impossible in the 2000s. It came with leaf springs, which significantly increased the ruggedness factor at the expense of on-road comfort.
Fiat’s modern take on the Campagnola went on sale in select European countries in 2007, and buyers had a fairly wide selection of variants to choose from. Body styles included a long-wheelbase model offered as a four-door station wagon, a pickup, and a cab-chassis, and a short-wheelbase model only available as a station wagon. And, due to the Series III roots, the Massif was almost exactly the same size as a Defender.
The standard engine was a 3.0-litre turbodiesel four-cylinder borrowed from the Daily van and rated at 146 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. Buyers who wanted more power could get an evolution of the 3.0 that posted figures of 176 and 295, respectively. The only transmission available was a six-speed manual, and a two-speed transfer case came standard, but the Massif crucially came with a part-time four-wheel-drive system. In contrast, the Defender was only available with a full-time system.
While the Massif was largely designed for government agencies, utility companies, and farmers, Iveco hesitantly tried to lure SUV-hungry buyers into showrooms by releasing a more comfort-oriented model called Campagnola in 2008. Fiat’s off-road ambitions had finally come full circle. Offered only with the short wheelbase, the new Campagnola benefited from the 176bhp engine, air conditioning, a leather-upholstered steering wheel, and an alarm, among other features added to make it more car-like.
Iveco was so optimistic that it considered buying Santana from the government of Andalusia if the Massif sold well. Spoiler alert: That didn’t happen. Instead, production of the Massif ended in 2010 after fewer than than 10,000 units were built (the exact figure varies depending on whom you ask) and Andalusian officials closed Santana the following year. I doubt anyone at Land Rover seriously worried about losing sales during the three-year ordeal, and none of Fiat’s divisions have dared to venture onto the Defender’s territory since.
Might be worth doing an article on the Morattab Pazhan, which was still apparently being built when the original Defender stopped production.
So to sum up, the Defender’s best competition was … an off-brand Defender?!
+1 Quickly Googled that and does indeed look like an interesting topic for an article.