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Tim in Scotland Member Since: 23 May 2007 Location: The Land that time forgot Posts: 3753

Bearing in mind that I’ve not owned it 24 hours yet and it has only done 45 motorway and fast A road miles in my hands here is what I think of it so far. This is NOT a Defender, it isn’t a D4 or D5 replacement, this is a sort of Skimmed FFRR! Its a Full Fat with plastic checker plate covered floors and a half leather interior and its better built (so far!) than either of the L322’s I’ve owned. Onroad it has the fantastic ride and decent handling of its much more expensive brother without all the plutocrat trimmings. For sure it has dragged the Defender name into the 21st Century albeit a bit late. The on road ride is superb - maybe a little bit too nice! Like it or not I would suggest that if you get the offer of a test drive you should take it, irrespective of the engine. At 70 on the motorway the motor is all but silent and there is no wind noise at all, I was expecting some from the big mirrors but there isn’t any and at 70 the little 2.0 motor is turning at only 1600/1700rpm in 8th gear but also it has more than sufficient get up and go for me - after the test drive in the D200 version which has lower power but the same torque I was a little worried that the D240 might be a bit lethargic but it is more than adequate, how it would perform hauling a 3t trailer I don’t know but I think it might struggle a bit on inclines - the gas guzzling P400 will be the engine to spec for those duties. The car is no D4 because of the side opening door - you cannot yet such wide lumps in the back, I’ve never driven anything more than a basic D5 with the SD4 engine and it was so awful I didn’t take it very far, sluggish would be over describing it! Over on another thread there has been some chat about QC so I was prepared and took a list from that thread to check what had been found. It looks like the Nitra factory might have Friday afternoon cars and Monday Morning cars, Mine must be a Wednesday afternoon built car as I couldn’t find any of the issues on my car. The only disappointment is that JLR seems to have underestimated the demand for spare wheel covers as I ordered one so I can mount my Defender2.net sticker where it is easily seen! The factory options on mine are deployable tow hitch (which sounds like an expensive coffee grinder running as it deploys and returns into hiding!), tow assist and Secure-Pro tracker (I’m insured with NFU Mutual who are happy with JLR’s factory system unlike some companies - this is why I think that a security system is now an option when it used to be standard equipment, too many companies insisted on aftermarket systems as well as the JLR system.) Dealer fitted accessories are the non-appearing spare wheel cover, full set of waterproof seat covers, “Classic” mud flaps front and rear (it was the first Defender the dealers had fitted them to and like me thought that they were to be big rubber sheets like my old 90 has but they aren’t they are HUGE versions of the moulded plasticky things fitted to the other cars from JLR, they will be well up to the job! I’ll post a photo later. I also added the front bumper aluminium protection plate - this one looks a lot better designed than the optional one for RRS and being matte finish isn’t as bling as the shiny one on the RRS. Disappointments so far. The Incontrol app. I’m used to it from my L494 and the 2nd Evoque I owned and when it is working it is for sure one of the best vehicle apps around - streets ahead of the Mini Connected app) but despite having a valid account and spending nearly an hour with the salesman we couldn’t get passed the log in screen on my iPhone - we could access it on iPads, laptops and a PC all using various OS’s. All I can get is “Incorrect user name or password , please try again” You get 5 goes then you have to wait a period before you can try again......... Another is the EPB - to allow for the jump seat option instead of a centre consol the EPB has moved down to a position between the steering column and the door by the driver’s knee. Unlike previous JLR products with an EPB this one isn’t intuitive to find or operate and it works back to front compared to other cars - push the button/switch to engage it, pull it to release and it is silent and seems to take an age to show the icon that it has engaged on the dash. I hate to sit at traffic lights riding the footbrake But I thought that that was going to be how I would be driving in the future but a search in the iGUIDE reveals the secrets of operating it - there are a lot of ways to trigger it! This car is so far into the 21st Century that I think the software boffins /geeks in JLR might have forgotten that not everyone has a smartphone........... There are two Printed “quick guides” in the huge glove box but if you want an owner’s manual you have to use an excellent app called iGUIDE that anybody can download from your favoured App Store - no password/ account for LR is needed. On the trip home I suffered a wiper problem that I never had in my Countryman, but did have in all my previous modern Land Rovers - LR would do well to buy a Mini and look at some of the brilliant ideas in that. Mini’s have auto-on wipers like most modern cars but you have to enable it with a little button on the wiper stalk every time you start up, it defaults to off. The issue I had coming home was squashed bugs in the rain detection area of the screen and then the wipers scraping across the screen - if i was in the Mini I wouldn’t have had the auto wiper come on because it wouldn’t have been switched on by me at start up. I know that there is the facility to turn the wiper setting off auto but in the Mini I left it on Auto all the time and as soon as I started to get the odd spot of rain on the screen I only needed to touch the tiny button on the body of the stalk and the wipers would revert to auto on mode until I tapped the button to switch off auto wipers, very convenient and simple. Improvement over my previous LR’s - the paint appears to be thicker and more lustrous. When I have taken previous LR cars to have GTechniq or SwissWax coating applied by an aftermarket detailing company they have always told me that they have had to do a lot of paint corrections before applying the coatings. The mini was the first car I have had the treatment on that has not needed a single paint correction. The retailers were used to Mini being like that and also told me that while LR’s paint QC isn’t great it is better than some very prestigious Sports car marques that they work on, a walk around with the salesman and I couldn’t see any obvious paint defects. The car will be going in for GTechniq coating once the detailing company reopens after the lock down. They’ve done two car for me previously and IMHO it has been worth the price. They have quoted me a price only £10 more than the Countryman and the RRS cost me to have coated. I stopped opting for dealers staff applied coatings because I think that they don’t do it very well and charge more than a proper detailing company to do it.......... What’s to come...... Once the pension has recovered from the hit of buying the car in the first place I’m going to have a set of more suitable off-road tyres and take off the All Seasons (I’m sure that the tyres the car came on - Pirelli Scorpion Zero All Seasons - are well up to LR standards and those of the majority of owners but I think that they will clog up with mud very quickly and no amount of Mud and Ruts on the TR2 or launch control will get you going if you are riding on what are effectively slicks). Next will be the rather pricey winch, some better underside protection and some additional screw in recovery eyes once I’ve figured out if the very substantial one that comes with the car is the one that fits into the fittings behind the small oblong covers on the bumpers - if you buy the DefenderX it comes with some very natty Orange painted recovery points as standard - this on the £78000 version that other than member AndrewS I don’t see any other owners taking anywhere near a muddy field! At least the 20” wheels on my car have tyres with a decent amount of sidewall height and are not low profiles. Worries that turned out not to be - Rear View Mirror - mine has the Clearview mirror as standard, I found that while the view out the back is worse than that from an Evoque I didn’t need to resort to the Clearview to have an adequate view out of the back - yes there are 3 rear seat head restraints and a spare tyre blocking the view out but it isn’t a problem, having said that I usually only have a front seat passenger or a child in the back, it would be necessary if you were carrying 3 of the local rugby team on the rear bench and I would recommend that if you order a low spec version that if you only spec one option that this should be it, I see it as a safety feature and maybe all versions should have it as standard. On my bucket list are two road trips in it - one to do the Rund Tur of Iceland and the other is to get to North Cape lighthouse in Norway - that would complete my trips to the 7 great lighthouses of the world although the other 6 I have passed on the seaward side........ I thought I was going to check North cape off my list when I did a Hurtigruten Coastal cruise that was supposed to pass it but the weather was a bit nasty so we went inside the islands to get to the nearest port I would love to put the car into the cruise ferry to get north then drive south and in the Defender I have no need for a tent/ hotels as I tried last night and I can sleep diagonally across the rear with all the seats laid flat! New Defender Would be a brilliant car for a trans-continental drive, it is so quiet and comfortable - longest I can drive at a stretch in my 90 is about2 hours without a break to get the circulation back into my right arm, not an issue in the new one! Right, now to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out how to get traffic sign recognition showing in the dash, setting up my profile in the centre touch screen so it shows what i want it to display all the time and taking more photos for you guys!** later edit - gave up on the profile bit, the screen just showed “signing in” and I got no further- really disappointing that it seems that despite PrivPro being hyped as curing all JLR’s iT problems I’m going to have to go without it until lockdown is stopped in Scotland and I can sit in the car with the salesman and have a full handover, a £60000 car shouldn’t have this sort of issue on delivery and I have now heard of 3 other owners who are having similar logging in problems...... maybe PowerfulUK will have a fix for it because at the moment LRCS don’t even want to know and tell me to go to the dealer to fix it! Somethings haven’t changed in Customer Services in the two years I’ve been away from LR ownership. Monsieur Grenadier - when I had my house built I owned cars that fitted in my garage, length of drive wasn’t a problem even coming near the horizon in those days of MG Maestro and Rover 820 fastback ownership - even my Freelandr1 fitted in the garage but by then I was into my third LR product after a V8 Disco1 and a Disco2 that led to the garage filling up with wheels and tyres and an Ivor Williams trailer kitted out as a windsurfer rack......... Pangea Green D250 90 HSE with Air Suspension, Off-road Pack, Towing Pack, Black Contrast roof , rear recovery eyes, Front bash plate, Classic flaps all round, extended wheel arch kit and a few bits from PowerfulUK Expel Clear Gloss PPF to come 2020 D240 1st Edition in Pangea Green with Acorn interior. Now gone - old faithful, no mechanical issues whatsoever ever but the leaks and rattles all over the place won’t be missed! Last edited by Tim in Scotland on 13th Jun 2020 1:47pm. Edited 5 times in total

13th Jun 2020 9:46am

J77 Member Since: 04 Nov 2019 Location: Fife Posts: 3430

Nice write up Tim and good to read that on a whole the quality is good. I should be ok with the park brake, it’s the same in the Velar though one slip of the finger and you’re opening the tailgate By the time I get mine your one will almost be a year old though my salesman says he has one 90 in the holding pool but I think I’ll wait until I can order one in September. Good thing with my dealer closing and having to move to Dundee they will give me £500 off the car so that’s the cold climate pack paid for.

13th Jun 2020 10:16am

J77 Member Since: 04 Nov 2019 Location: Fife Posts: 3430	This one being sold as a James Bond Edition by Williams Classic https://www.instagram.com/williams_classics/?hl=en Click image to enlarge
13th Jun 2020 10:24am

Tim in Scotland Member Since: 23 May 2007 Location: The Land that time forgot Posts: 3753

Tailgate - I have a tailgate release button on the keyfob...........doesn’t do anything even though the tailgate door appears to have some sort of soft close function. Looks like despite all the new tech there has been some pats bin raiding for the keyfob, which is pretty big ! Classic mud flap - new Defender style This is a front one at acess height - might catch on a speed bump in a multistorey carpark.... What I was expecting a Classic mudflap to be...... Sorry but in my eyes a 20 plate Black new Defender even in James Bond spec doesn’t count as a classic. I assume that being James Bond spec it has a full rollover cage built in, beefed up suspension as per the cars used in the filming but I suspect it’s just a base model polished up. Pangea Green D250 90 HSE with Air Suspension, Off-road Pack, Towing Pack, Black Contrast roof , rear recovery eyes, Front bash plate, Classic flaps all round, extended wheel arch kit and a few bits from PowerfulUK Expel Clear Gloss PPF to come 2020 D240 1st Edition in Pangea Green with Acorn interior. Now gone - old faithful, no mechanical issues whatsoever ever but the leaks and rattles all over the place won’t be missed! Last edited by Tim in Scotland on 13th Jun 2020 12:20pm. Edited 1 time in total

13th Jun 2020 11:02am

J77 Member Since: 04 Nov 2019 Location: Fife Posts: 3430	At least it’s a new fob, my Velar still uses the ‘pebble’ key fob. The mud flaps look well up to the job though, and look better than the tiny ones.
13th Jun 2020 12:09pm

RDR Member Since: 27 Apr 2018 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 595

I think the new fobs are to do with enhanced security. I commented on the size of them on handover of my D5 they are massive compared to the pebble ones i handed back. They said it's to do with new security, could be dealer bull but i know land rover made efforts the other year to increase defence against radio hijacking. 110 MY23.5 X Dynamic HSE RR MY23 HSE PHEV D5 MY19 HSE - Now Sold D4 MY16 HSE Luxury - Now Sold D4 MY12 HSE - Gone D3 MY06 S - Gone but not forgotten

13th Jun 2020 1:13pm

RDR Member Since: 27 Apr 2018 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 595	does the tailgate button just unlock the tailgate and keep the interior alarmed and locked? 110 MY23.5 X Dynamic HSE RR MY23 HSE PHEV D5 MY19 HSE - Now Sold D4 MY16 HSE Luxury - Now Sold D4 MY12 HSE - Gone D3 MY06 S - Gone but not forgotten
13th Jun 2020 1:15pm

RDR Member Since: 27 Apr 2018 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 595	just checked it does button no.4 Click image to enlarge 110 MY23.5 X Dynamic HSE RR MY23 HSE PHEV D5 MY19 HSE - Now Sold D4 MY16 HSE Luxury - Now Sold D4 MY12 HSE - Gone D3 MY06 S - Gone but not forgotten
13th Jun 2020 1:18pm

Tim in Scotland Member Since: 23 May 2007 Location: The Land that time forgot Posts: 3753

Thanks RDR, regarding the new fob and security, I’ll continue to keep my fobs in the £2.99 Faraday pouches when they are in the house although I have noticed that I have stand very close to the car for the receiver to detect the fob. IIRC the fob was detected from 1m away from my 2015.5MY RRS, the Mini keyless entry could also detect the fob from quite a distance from the car, but how many Mini Countryman PHEV’s do you read of being stolen......... not many! Pangea Green D250 90 HSE with Air Suspension, Off-road Pack, Towing Pack, Black Contrast roof , rear recovery eyes, Front bash plate, Classic flaps all round, extended wheel arch kit and a few bits from PowerfulUK Expel Clear Gloss PPF to come 2020 D240 1st Edition in Pangea Green with Acorn interior. Now gone - old faithful, no mechanical issues whatsoever ever but the leaks and rattles all over the place won’t be missed!

13th Jun 2020 1:31pm

Naks Member Since: 27 Jan 2009 Location: Stellenbosch, ZA Posts: 2661	Review with plenty of off-roading, although I do not know what language that is  -- 2010 Defender Puma 90 + BAS remap + Alive IC + Slickshift + Ashcroft ATB rear 2015 Range Rover Sport V8 Supercharged Defender Puma Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zZ1en9 Discovery 4 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zXrtKO Range Rover/Sport L320/L322/L494 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zc58JQ
13th Jun 2020 4:56pm

apt100 Member Since: 05 Mar 2015 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 1547	^^ Watching the first couple of minutes, it looks like it might have SK code on the number plates for Slovakia? edit: google translate auto detects "radsej som sa nepriputal" as Slovakian for "I'd rather not buckle up" edit 2: "SK" clearly visible at 5:00, so Slovakia and the first two letters "BT" are for Bratislava according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_regi...f_Slovakia
13th Jun 2020 5:07pm

Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018

Naks wrote: Review with plenty of off-roading, although I do not know what language that is Irrespective of the language, it is the best review so far. Covered some interesting things. Not sure who has this parked on their front lawn: Click image to enlarge I would love this option: Click image to enlarge Although, without it, there could be some expensive bits of cracked plastic: Click image to enlarge And this facility to cycle though the trailer lights is good: Click image to enlarge As in one of the other off road reviews, this looked odd. The vehicle slid down the slope backwards. Stopped, and then as the rear wheels rotated backwards, the front was locked for a metre or two before unlocking: Click image to enlarge Not afraid to jump it: Click image to enlarge

13th Jun 2020 6:53pm

Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018

RDR wrote: I think the new fobs are to do with enhanced security. I commented on the size of them on handover of my D5 they are massive compared to the pebble ones i handed back. They said it's to do with new security, could be dealer bull but i know land rover made efforts the other year to increase defence against radio hijacking. Will these be the fobs imported into the UK from China in employees suitcases?

13th Jun 2020 6:55pm

RDR Member Since: 27 Apr 2018 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 595	no idea on that one They moved to new tech in 2019, i assume the new defender uses it. Only a matter of time before they figure out a way around it i guess. https://teamtalk.jaguarlandrover.com/news/...ry-attacks 110 MY23.5 X Dynamic HSE RR MY23 HSE PHEV D5 MY19 HSE - Now Sold D4 MY16 HSE Luxury - Now Sold D4 MY12 HSE - Gone D3 MY06 S - Gone but not forgotten
13th Jun 2020 8:38pm

JackW Member Since: 09 Jan 2017 Location: Roswell, Georgia Posts: 115	My P300 arrived at the dealer yesterday afternoon, went over to see it today. All of the dealer installed accessories need to be added, tow hitch, roof rack, snorkel, fender flares, hood decal - no telling what he lead time on those is. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Last edited by JackW on 14th Jun 2020 2:50am. Edited 2 times in total
13th Jun 2020 11:05pm

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