Having admired the various versions of the Defender and Discovery for many years—and having grown up with multiple FJ40s—I decided to take the plunge into Land Rover ownership with the new Defender. Having read comments related to reliability in the JD Power and other reviews I was concerned about taking a chance on a Land Rover, but reading this forum helped alleviate some of my concerns. I wanted to relate my experience during the first 2K miles for those of you doing similar research.

First off, I was incredibly lucky in getting my Defender. While I was doing my research I happened to call one of the dealerships in my area and was told that they had just taken a Defender 90 X in Carpathian Grey in a trade with a dealer in the Chicago area and that it was on a truck on its way to the dealership. I jumped at the good fortune and took delivery in June.

• 6/4 - delivery - AUTO STOP/START was inoperable as others have mentioned on the forum
• 6/7 - "Low battery - please start engine" message displayed after spending the afternoon cleaning the interior from a weekend of hauling sailing stuff - drove for 30 minutes on the freeway as instructed in the manual
• 6/20 - "Low battery - please start engine" message again displayed after cleaning - just drove the vehicle to work the next morning - has not reoccured
• 1st dealer visit - service tech received fault codes related to the 48V lithium-ion battery and confirmed AUTO STOP/START wasn't working - dealer needed to keep it more than a day, but didn't have any loaners on that day
• 7/11 - first time on the tollroad at 70+ mph and the first time I noticed the "crackling" sound coming from the passenger side A PILLAR area that others on the forum have mentioned
• 2nd dealer visit - tech again received fault codes related to the 48V battery. He submitted a support case and ordered a replacement battery.
• 8/9 - received the SAFETY RECALL N598 "Tail Lamp Inoperative" notice dated 7/30 stating that I would be contacted when parts were available
• 3rd dealer visit - tech replaced LR137929 LITHIUM ION BATT. With that change the AUTO STOP/START is now working and the tech stated that he is no longer receiving any fault codes (given all that's going on in the supply chain world, I was really pleased that my local dealer was able to get a replacement 48V lithium-ion battery in just over a week)

So, I hope the initial battery related issues are behind me with the new 48V battery. I will address the A PILLAR issue at some point, but if I hadn't read about the crackling noise on the forum I probably wouldn't have noticed it as I am usually enjoying the impressive sound system.

That's it in the first 2K miles. One other observation... in a mix of around town and highway driving I'm getting 16.9 mpg (just hit 17 mpg today)

I absolutely love driving the new Defender and can't believe how well it handles on the road for a vehicle of this size. It'll be perfect for towing the boat on dirt roads and in the mountains and is the most fun I've had driving since my Dad's FJ40.

 

Beautifully described. I believe that a year to two the new Defender model will already be free of all these little glitches that unfortunately accompany every new car model at any car company. The new owners of the 24.25 and beyond models will no longer be aware of such problems. I believe it will be. Many happy miles!

 

Enjoy! Good luck with the battery, hopefully that's all set now. I bet that looks sharp.

I have a Carpathian 90 too, a lower budget p300 build. Love it so far.