Picked up our P300 D90 last Thu in Salt Lake and been driving it around UT. First couple days in the Wasatch Mountains area and today in Canyonlands National Park on a day trip on White Rim road. Very happy with the car so far. The P300 is actually pretty impressive from a capability standpoint. Definitely noisier than I expected, but actually very capable both on and off road. The transmission seems well paired and shifting is fairly smooth and progressive. The coil suspension is actually fairly comfortable offroad, definitely more than the air suspension in offroad mode (have that one in my wife’s D5 and is hard as hell in offroad mode). Brakes are good and the steering, though lacking a bit of feedback, makes driving around town a breeze. Used TR and low range on a steep climb out of Lathrop Canyon on White Rim road, and the car didn’t even blink. All in all a great experience and fairly happy with my purchase.

Having said that, two gremlins that stop this to be a perfect first few days: the main one is an intermittent, annoying and inconvenient as heck AC issue. It just capriciously stops working in situations when it is needed the most. It started with us parking at a store after say an hour of driving it. It was hot out there (high nineties), when we cane back and drove off with the climate system in Auto it started blowing hot air, played with settings, changed target temp, used MAX AC, turned it off and back on and nothing, kept blowing hot. After driving around with windows down, while playing with the climate controls finally started blowing cold air again. Same issue a couple times more, but the hotter out there the longer it takes for it to finally start working again. Happened today on the trail, which led to getting dust enverywhere inside as with the high 90s low 100s weather driving with the windows up and no AC was a no go. Finally worked again in the end. Anyone out there experiencing the same issue?

Second gremlin was after a spirited bumpy drive offroad today (already frustrated with the AC and trying to pick up some speed as that seems to help ) the stereo started acting out. Sound cutting off and on as if a connector was lose and was generating static. Went for my first system restore of Pivi, to no avail. Then after a while it seems to have fixed itself. Still would like to check the connectors. Anyone know where the stereo’s amp is located in the car?

 

Don't know the details of the air suspension in the D5 vs the D110, but that description doesn't sound like our D110.

 

I experienced the same AC issue last Friday on my new, one week old D90. Took it io the dealer right away and they figured it out after a couple of hours. They said the AC had been over charged and it was causing it to freeze up. They recharged it to the appropriate level and it has worked flawlessly since then. They indicated another Defender had been brought in for the same thing just as I was leaving.

 

I love White Rim trail. Sounds like a great trail!

I hope you're mistaken about air suspension on the 110; one of the (many) reasons I bought it was for the supple ride characteristics on mild but bouncy trails like White Rim, trails you can take at higher speeds (compared to rock-crawling), where my coil-sprung 2-door JK Wrangler would beat the hell out of you, even running 10 pounds of air and with sway bars disconnected. Hoping the air-bagged 110 P400 will smooth out that part of offroading, in exchange for not being able to do some of the more extreme trails the Jeep could do.

 

From my dealer team (which have proven ro be AWESOME, definitely recommend them to anyone buying a JLR car):

”Sorry to hear about the A/C issue. Since you have taken delivery of your vehicle, we have found a reoccurring issue with the D90 issue. It seems that the factory is filling the freon levels to D110 levels, not D90 levels. The over fill is not allowing the system to function properly.”

Glad it is something simple, ‘cause I am loving this car!!

 

Just to clarify my comment was comparing to the air suspension on the D5 when in offroad height. I have not driven a Defender with air suspension, so don’t want to turn people off. Others, like @Kev M are definitely better judges of the air suspension on the Defender, which sounds ro be great too.

 

I understood that; that's why I said I hope you're mistaken about the air suspension on D110. And I typo'd above when I said "sounds like a great trail' I meant "sounds like a great trip." I love a good road trip, and one around Utah is always a great idea. I never, ever tire of driving from Escalante to Boulder on The Hogback, UT 12. It is, in my opinion, the finest scenic stretch of highway in America, and I've by-God done a lot of the famous ones. And after a good meal at Hells Backbone, you get to set out across the Burr Trail to Hanksville. I love southern Utah!

 

Sounds awesome - I'm curious about people's thoughts on running in the new vehicles. Owner's manual says:


Seems like a lot of you are taking vehicles on road trips or off-road as soon as collecting them. What am I missing? Are JLR being overly cautious here?

I'm planning on keeping my Defender for a long time, so treating it carefully for the first 2000 miles was part of the plan.

 

^^ I can't speak for JLR manuals and products, but this is a recurring debate for Porsche sports cars over on Rennlist. I've never heard of a 2000-mile break-in from any manufacturer; that's insane, seems to me. IIRC, my Porsche GT cars were 500 miles, but it's possible they were 1000 and conventional wisdom is "500 is plenty." And lots of people point out that the US manual has one break in period (long) and the German one has a much shorter or possibly even non-existent one, leading to speculation that it has to do with the likelihood of litigation more than with ruining the car prematurely.

All that said, I follow a 500-mile breakin on modern cars, then do whatever I want. But to be fair, I haven't kept a vehicle past 100,000 miles since my pair of 92 Jeep Cherokees, so I'm hardly the one to ask. But I've never had smoking, leaking, or excessive oil consumption from a modern car.

 

Personally I think the run-in period is more of a liability issue from manufacturers than anything. Having said that, although I picked it up and went straight on a road trip, when I look at that list, other than taking it off road, there is nothing there that I have done in the first 1,000 miles (which I reached this afternoon). And the off road driving I have done wasn't hardcore and at no point was I "forcing" the engine or taking it to extreme parameters, so I think you can follow the guidance without limiting yourself too much.