5 things we LOVE and HATE about the 2025 Defender HD10

UTV Driver

With the introduction of the HD11, is the 2025 Defender Limited with the HD10 still worth it? To help you find out, we put together five things we love and five things we hate about the 2025 Can-Am Defender Limited HD10!  Become a Channel Partner: https://octanemedia.co/home/become-an-advertiser/  Looking to buy? Get prequalifed https://octane.co/vehicle-selection/?partner=A8PrQQB&a=298&flow=long-prequal&appTheme=3a49337c5724d18079602a4ca5a91626  Favorite Gear:  Packtalk Edge ORV: Code 'octane' for 10% off https://cardosystems.rfrl.co/z8qy5   For more stories, reviews, and first-looks check out https://www.utvdriver.com/   Want to see even more shenanigans from the UTV Driver team? Give us a like and follow:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UTVdriver/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utvdrivermagazine/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/utvdriver/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@utvdriver

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00:00Welcome, UTV driver fans, friends, and enthusiasts. Today we're going to talk about the Can-Am Defender,

00:05specifically the Can-Am Defender Max Limited. Now, this here is the Cadillac of UTVs,

00:11if Cadillacs could actually go fun, dirty, and dangerous places. This is the four-door,

00:15six-person Defender Max Limited. Now, there is a model above the Defender Max Limited,

00:21and that is the Defender Max Lone Star Cab Edition, which, because it's a Texas-themed

00:26sort of thing. It has tinted windows, blacked out everything. You know, I always thought that

00:30the official pickup of Texas was a white pickup, but apparently not. Now, the Lone Star Cab is great

00:35and all, but it's an extra $3,200. Before we get to the hits and misses, let's go over some basic specs.

00:41Because it's a Can-Am, it's got a torquey V-twin inside. It's got a 978cc HD10 Rotax V-twin engine

00:48that puts out 82 horsepower and 69 feet-pound of torque. This motor pushes 2,496 pounds of chassis

00:55on 30-inch tires spaced 65 inches apart. It all rides on double-arched A-arms with a sway bar up

01:02front with arched twin trailing arms in back and an external sway bar in the rear. Ground clearance

01:06is 14 inches. Power gets transmitted via ProTorx CVT with quick response system. DriveTrain features

01:12selectable turf mode, two-wheel drive, or four-wheel drive with exclusive smart lock. You can pull or tow

01:182,500 pounds of whatever you like or put 1,000 pounds back in the truck bed or just 600 pounds if you

01:24live in the great state of California. And it's right there in the spec sheet. This thing is good

01:28for a party of six or one driver and five partiers. That's the TLDR on what the Defender Max Limited

01:35is. But how does all of that come together on the trail? We're going to talk about our feelings when

01:39it comes to side-by-sides, and we're going to talk about the five things we love and the five things

01:42we hate about this Can-Am Defender Max Limited. The first thing that we love about the Defender Max

01:46Limited is the engine. Lord love a V-twin Rotax engine. As any aging moto weirdo will tell you,

01:53the best engine they ever put in a Buell was a Rotax V-twin. Sorry, Harley. Smooth and free-revving,

01:58they still have that nice little bit of rumble without that lumpy potato potato sound. It's tuned

02:03for a respectable 82 horsepower, but more importantly, it's got 69 feet-pound of torque. For this type of

02:09class-leading rec ute, torque is what's really important. Leave the triple-digit horsepower ratings

02:13to all the sport rigs. It's all about what you can put to the ground right now. The number two thing

02:18that we love about the Defender Max Limited is this cab. It is just a bubble of comfort and

02:22awesomeness no matter where you are. The doors are solid and make that satisfying clunk when you

02:26close them. Up front, you get electric windows, which we all know is fancy. In the back, you get

02:30hand-crank windows. For those of you who don't know what hand-crank windows are, they're an ancient

02:34form of rolling down windows that involves using a crank and spinning it clockwise or counterclockwise.

02:39Plus, the glass front windshield folds out into one of three positions and has a wiper, which is

02:44awesome on these really muddy days. It actually sort of makes me want to hit puddles on purpose,

02:48just having that wiper. I don't know why. And lastly, an adjustable front seat isn't exactly

02:52breaking news, but it's exactly what you expect from a premium rig from Can-Am. Taken all together,

02:57this Can-Am interior really sets the bar high. So staying in the cab, the third thing that we love

03:02about the Defender Max Limited is selectable turf mode. Selectable turf mode means that you can

03:06absolutely send it on the trails, but once you get closer to the homestead, you can tip-toe through

03:10the daisies, so to speak. The fourth thing that we love about the Defender Max Limited is this 4,500

03:15pound winch. This thing puts the Defender Max Limited's purpose right up front. Now, it does

03:20have a steel cable, but some of us here at UTV Driver wish that the steel cable was synthetic instead.

03:25Either way, it means that you have all that pulling power at your disposal and you get to play hero when

03:30things go sideways. It means that even if you're carrying a full complement of six burly dudes,

03:34you've still got a seventh or eighth man with you. And that's really about it. A winch is always a good

03:38thing to have. The fifth thing that we love about the Defender Max Limited is the HVAC system. Listen

03:43to this thing. Welcome to July and August in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is hot as blazes and

03:52everything is sweaty. It's just a fact that the more comfortable you are, the more work you can

03:55get done. So zero apologies for enjoying a bit of cold air on a hot day. The Defender Max Limited's

04:00air conditioning is going to make you wish that the trip to the next part of the job site lasts just a

04:05little bit longer. Being that it's July or August, we're just going to assume that the heat works.

04:09You folks up north, keep us honest in the comments. So that's five things we love about the Can-Am

04:13Defender Max Limited. Now to everyone's favorite part, the five things we hate. What is with us?

04:18Why do we always like things that are negative? My theory is that negativity is just another form of

04:22honesty. Anybody can tell you what you want to hear. It takes someone special to give it to you

04:27straight. So number one on the list of things that we hate, again, the HVAC system. So you know how we

04:32love what the HVAC system does? We hate how it works. This one-button system for the HVAC is really

04:37annoying. There is one button that turns, so that's fairly easy, right? There's the temperature,

04:44and then I press it, and now it's on heat, and I don't know why it's doing that. I press it again,

04:50and now it's on low, which is a fan setting, not a temperature setting. Press it again, and now we're

04:55back to the 57 degrees HVAC setting. On one hand, it's fairly easy. It's a button and a knob that you

05:02twist and press until you get the setting that you want, but a separate dial or knob would just be so

05:07much easier. You wouldn't even have to take your eyes off the trail to fiddle with it, but with the

05:11button, you got to look down and constantly confirm that what you're trying to control is what's being

05:15controlled. Admittedly, it's kind of a nitpicky thing, but with Can-Am, we've come to expect a lot.

05:19So the number two thing we hate about the Defender Max Limited is the dump bed, specifically the lack

05:25of a power dump bed. Remember that thousand pound hauling capacity? That's really great, huh? Pretty

05:29cool, but there is no power assist or any kind of hydraulic assist to dump this bed. When you want

05:35to dump this bed, you have to get in here and lift it up by yourself. If you have a full day of hauling

05:42or transferring whatever it is that you're carrying, that is extra time and energy that you could be

05:46spending towards something else. It's sort of like Can-Am's way of saying that this Defender Max

05:50Limited is too good for moving potting soil or sand. Now, the number three thing that we hate about the

05:56Can-Am Defender Max Limited is how hot this back seat gets. Now, you remember the HVAC, the air

06:01conditioning up front, awesome. However, in the rear, it's a little different story. That awesome Rotax HD10

06:08engine is right behind you, right behind this firewall here. It gets hot back here. Today, it's about 91

06:14degrees and we were blasting the AC and up front, we were cool as a cucumber. However, for those of us

06:20like me stuck back here, things were getting a little toasty. Part of the problem is that there

06:24are no vents from the front to the back. It's probably not a hard thing to solve. We actually

06:27probably just need like more robust or sturdy heat shield back here and the problem would be largely

06:31fixed. So the number four thing that we hate about the Can-Am Defender Max Limited is, strangely

06:37enough, the power. In this caliber of utility rig, 82 is frankly lacking behind some of the competitors.

06:43Now, we're seeing horsepower figures of 114, 115. That's over 30 horsepower less than comparable

06:50models. And that's why power, or lack thereof, is the fourth thing we hate about the Can-Am Defender

06:56Max Limited. And so, the fifth and final thing that we hate about the Can-Am Defender Max Limited is the

07:01price. Starts at $33,499 and that is just the beginning. We have to talk about tax. We have to talk

07:08about dealership fees. We have to talk about transportation. And then when you start opening up

07:12the aftermarket or accessories catalog, things go north from there. Pretty soon, you are talking

07:18about something that is close to $40,000. Comparable competitors from Kawasaki and Polaris have added

07:23updates. They've added new features. They have more horsepower. In some ways, this rig shouldn't even be in the

07:29same class as those competitors. Now, we've said this again and again and again. However, north of $30,000

07:34is a lot of money to spend on a UTV or side-by-side. And that is just not in the books for most people.

07:40So, those are the five things that we hate about the Can-Am Defender Max Limited. But wait, there's

07:45more. There are two honorable mentions. These are really nitpicky and dumb and frankly kind of small

07:50things. But who would we be if we didn't mention them? This comes in four colors. They're all strikingly

07:56wonderful, beautiful colors with fancy names. There's camo. There's red. There's blue. There's tan,

08:01like the one we have here. That's too many options. How am I supposed to decide? It's an

08:05embarrassment of riches. It's too much for one man to decide. And the other final thing is the name

08:10Limited. Frankly, we drove this thing around all day and we were impressed by the limitless

08:15possibilities. Why Limited? I know that that sounds fancy. It's shorthand for scarcity, this, that,

08:22and the other thing. If it was us, we would change it to the Can-Am Defender Max Unlimited. That was the

08:27five things that we love and the five things that we hate about the Can-Am Defender Max

08:31Limited. Now, who is this rig for? This is a pure utility rig for people who are frankly engaged in

08:37purely utilitarian exercises. Whether it's hunting, whether it's farming, whether you are hauling brush

08:42or logs or anything in between, this rig will always have you covered. Thank you very much for

08:47watching. If you like what you have just watched, go down below and hit the like button. Then hit the

08:51subscribe button. Then go to udvdriver.com where we have news, reviews, and buyer's guides five days a week.

08:57All the news that's fit to send. And when you are done with that, go to all the social medias. We are

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