I love the Fuji White and 18' steelies, so I'm only looking for a custom order 110 or 110S.
I need the air suspension, electronic active diff & towing pack
Does 110 hold its value better than 110S in the long term?
How hard is it to clean the fabric seat on 110?
Does 110S really have 12 way seat? I think they look the same with 110 seat.

 

I chose the base model because I neither want nor need leather seats.

3000 miles and I haven't needed to clean the seats at all - I've run a handheld vac over them to pick up sand and doghair. I cover the drivers seat when I drive back from the beach in a wetsuit

I don't think the resale market would know the difference between the two models.

I did specify the upgraded headlights and fog lights and I'm happy I did that

 

Thank you for sharing!

 

Hi

110 base with all the offroad goodies. The way to go!

 

OK sorry ill give you more.... I have exactly what you're looking for. I added off-road packs, bigger screen, digital display, diff, and towing. I have 20k pretty hard miles on my car and have loved it. I have had mud all along the inside and the seats do clean out pretty well. I am looking to get seat covers through so I don't have to worry about it. What seems to be the hardest to clean actually is the trim material on the doors by the windows. I scrubbed on that for a while and some mud still shows...

Reasons I didn't go for the S - I wanted the 18s, once I decided I was gonna put a rack and everything on it the sunroof didn't make sense, didn't think leather seats would make a big difference and they haven't really, and honestly wanted to keep my build as cheap as possible. I think my car is basically exactly what you're looking for so if you have any further questions don't hesitate to ping me!

 

Thank you inter for sharing! Are you located in the Inland Northwest? Such a nice pic!!
How is the lumbar support? I notice that the lumber adjustment is nonfunctional on the 110.

 

I believe lumbar is missing from the base as well as the rear seat armrest is missing. I bought an S for better seat options and the rear seat armrest for my youngest son but I also 'downgraded' to steelies at no cost on my custom order, a move that bit me back when I had it appraised at carmax which made the highly incorrect assumption that steelies = I had a really basic Defender even though stuff like air suspension, adaptive cruise and cold climate pack wasn't even touched upon during the appraisal process. I would say forget about holding value with base vs S trim and just buy what you want because very few dealers will know how to appraise this thing properly anyway (at least not yet). I even had an Alfa dealer who couldn't even cough up an appraisal number on it because there wasn't one within 500 miles of him which ended up costing his parent dealership a sale on a new VW that I was fully prepared to buy.

If you really want to buy for the purposes of retaining value then I'd probably go with the S trim but keep the 19 inch alloys on it that come with the S and go basic on paint. Not like me with Carpathian with contrast roof, they'll appraise it as what color is it? Gray and that's that. That's likely 2k in paint you'll never get back on an appraisal. lol The white paint with the black 19s and the black hood decal actually look pretty damn sharp IMO and for a while there you could add the dark wood trim finisher at no upcharge, I'd definitely do that, I regret not going with the wood finisher on my build but when I ordered it wasn't free. If you went for white paint that was no upcharge so maybe add the black contrast roof, your call on that. If you really don't like white there's always black or eiger which lessen the temptation for black pack or contrast roof IMO. Also for the E-diff you'll probably need a private sale to get back the money for that vs any back end trade-in or appraisal. Nobody ever asks about that in any appraisal I've had done and I've had quite a few done over the past six months.

 

I went with the S , did not downgrade to 18" steelies instead I choose the 18" 5094 dark grey and bought aftermarket a set steelies for MT,s
For me to prefer the S VS base ( 2021, sorry folks 23,5 are so much lesser now)

​​- Keyless entree
- Lumber adjustment
- Leather steeringwheel + shift **** instead of plastic
- Digital Drivers Display
- Dinamica suedecloth
- Rear of the front seats look way better / armrest backseat
- foglight+ DRL Signature option/ Not available on that time for the base.
- 5094 alloy wheels
Found the x-dynamic at that time to expensive, didn't like the gloss black skids. Did spay my bumpers and decals Silicon Silver Satin

 

My son bought a Base 110, back in Feb. of ‘21. They still had deals on them back then, believe it or not. Anyway, he opted for a Fuji white, base 110 with off-road package, advanced off-road and some other basic goodies. His reasoning back then was two-fold……keep the cost down and have it as true to the vintage Defenders (looks wise) as possible within the modern iteration.

The vehicle was a stunner, with those white steelies. Unfortunately, as many of you have experienced, his Defender had lots of problems. By the same token, because of the insane used car market back in late ‘21 and into early ‘22, he was able to sell it for a hefty profit.

If creature comforts aren’t your thing when purchasing one of these vehicles, the base model is the way to go!!

BTW….. I had a base model Defender 90, Tasman blue, white top and steelies, pretty much optioned like the build sheet below from my son’s 110. Got stopped every day and tons of complements. Unfortunately, much like his, problems galore and ultimately sold it

His Build Sheet

 

For the towing, I ended up with the SE instead of the S. I wanted the extra weight of the 6 Cyl as my goal is to have 'more' than I need by around 25-35% vs being at the limit. the I4 was below my limit and it elimintated the 18" steelies because you have bigger brakes with the 6.

I do really like the steelies though, so if you're not towing 5K GVWR trailers, and need the towing for something smaller maybe it won't matter to you.

I can't remember my exact reason for going with the SE beyond that, so if that isn't your consideration then go with what works. The 6 Cyl might have required the SE. I stayed at the SE level as I wanted Pangea green with the white roof and oddly as you go up in trim they drop the white roof option, which I think looks awesome.

The only other thing I see is the slightly better sound system in the S, tunes are important to me so I tend to get the better stereo. My first car as a kid had only an AM radio and wasn't upgradable without bending sheet metal to do it so I've always wanted a good 'stock' system and not liked updating. That's about the only thing I can see between the non-S and S that would make me lean S.

Everyone has their different views, I never buy a car new looking at its resale value though, I always buy new so I can specify exactly what I want.