We needed another vehicle in spring before our kids arrived home from college for the summer. My wife decided she was taking our Defender to be her vehicle. There wasn't enough time to order another Defender for myself so I ordered a BMW X5 M50i that was built and delivered in 6 weeks as promised. I agree the M50i is certainly a fast and fun ride. However, I can not get comfortable in it. Something about the narrow flat area in the seat bottom cushion combined with the large rigid side bolsters is miserable on long trips. Feels like I am sitting on a giant wallet all the time. Rear leg room is far too small for our tall family as well. I find the Defender seats, upright seating position, leg room and tall ceiling to be extremely comfortable. So now we have another Defender on order and the X5 will be leaving.

As for engine choice, another factor is what you are used to driving. We came from V8 LR4's so the P400 felt just as powerful while the P300 felt just slightly underpowered. Paired with the excellent 8-speed transmission, the P400 hauls the Defender packed with family, luggage and ski gear up into the mountains with ease. Our second Defender will also be a P400.

 

Yea BMW I was very very close several years back to leasing one until I test drove it and liked everything but the seats, that was the one thing that I couldn't get past, they were too firm for my taste. It would be brutal on a long road trip imo. Defender is much better for that. I still can't find the perfect seating position in my Defender though. It's good, it's above average but not great. I think if you have the full electric seats with the Defender it helps with getting things setup just right. The way the manual seat angles downward as you ratchet up the seat height manually is not a good thing IMO. People with long legs like me when we raise the seat height we want the front of the seat to start to angle upward or at least stay level definitely not downward. smh. To be perfectly honest I even found a better seating position in a test drive of a VW Taos with full electric seats vs my Defender's partial electric.

 

80 or 90 mph is no problem all day long by normal outside temp,
Did drive 119 mph in Germany, shortly to test topspeed ( Fuel consumption 8 mpg.. )

 

I agree with what you wrote about the M50i. In addition while it is quick I didn’t find it stable at higher speeds. No comparison to the X5M I had. I just never really bonded with my M50i which is why I traded it for my 110X. I have to say that this is my favorite car of all time in a long line of contenders. I think we have discussed the same on the Bimmer forums. Happy travels.

I will also add that the defender has a better ride on normal roads and a much much better ride on rough roads.

 

Good to know!
I have other cars to satisfy any need for speed so performance isn't a demand from my Defender.
Just need it to do quick highway speeds all day for road trips.
I do live in the Southwest so 110 degrees is the norm for summer so I would just monitor engine temps as usual.
Thanks

 

Picked up my P300 Defender 110 today. I ordered P300 purely because I wanted factory steelies. If they offered factory steelies in P400 I would have gone for that for sure. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised how preppy the P300 felt. Drove mostly highways after I picked it up from dealer and the car never felt underpowered. I am pretty happy with the 4 banger needless to say. If I wanted to go fast I got a couple other toys in my garage that will do the job.