I'm firmly in the "air is the way to go" camp. But, welp, the front air shocks on my old Sport (dynamic supercharged blahblahblah) were $1700 each a few years ago. that's not 155. that's x2 ... $$$ from the dealer to replace both.

I've replaced my D2 rear bags for a few hundy. Sure. The newer ones with dynamic suspension, more spendy and some of them not avail aftermarket (may never be... unsure)

 

Was that price for the OEM branded ones? The dynamic shock is actually three distinct components, shock, air bag and dynamic dampener. I couldn’t conceive of having all three components fail at once, unless your mechanic had a boat. However if you cannot do it yourself, you could be racked over the coals on replacements. Mine is full size supercharged and I just replaced mine, reman, $155 free shipping. I watch the customers in the dealer talk to the service reps. It is really depressing, I only let the dealer do warranty work. Those poor sods let the dealer talk them into pretty much anything. ‘I’m so sorry miss, your bleeding pig kidney here in the right wheel well must be replaced.” Really they wanted $160 just to hook up the computer to do diagnostics. Kind of a rake over the coals, especially when a decent code reader coupled with a good app will set you back almost $20. Now with decent search capability, they can run down formerly secret body codes. Now I, being a nosy jerk, asked why $160? ‘Well,’ the nice service rep said,”We have to disconnect the battery and hook the car up to certified power supply before we can hook to the OBD port.” Now, this sounds like they are taking very careful attention to the integrity of you vehicle. That is until you think it through, disconnecting the battery will dump the codes and do a reset! So an analytical person could make the leap in logic that they are trying to use a small tube to blow smoke up someplace.

Now the aftermarket ones do not say Delphi, but if you look at the stampings on the parts, you find they both where made in China, same place, with the Delphi one having a paper sticker over the stamping on the OEM one, where they assembled the complete unit in UK.

 

It all depends on if you are taking it offroad. I may be wrong but was under the assumption that the danced offroad pack and electronic locking rear diff requires air suspension. If u are going to buy a defender and go offroad, these packages are ESSENTIAL. The locking rear diff sets the truck apart and is required for any serious offroading.

 

You can get the rear locker with coil springs. I agree that the rear locker is a plus for off road use, but not essential. The terrain response 2 requires air suspension but doesnt include or require the rear locker. It is debatable on how "essential" terrain response 2 is. It is software only and allows some customization of the terrain response system that all new defenders have. It also offers an additional auto mode that selects terrain on its own. Not sure if that makes any difference in capability. Cool tech tho . Similar situation with the tow package. It requires air suspension, but you can order a tow bar with coil springs and both are rated the same. Tow package has some cool software features like backing up the trailer with the climate ****. The standard tow bar option still has the towing camera view and the ability to program your trailer dimensions.

I know i am in the minority here, but i just want to give my 1st hand experience with these systems. I drove a a Trophy at the Biltmore at the Trophy Challenge. P400 air suspension d110 with rear locker on the "off road" tires. I know that the impression is given that this setup is the most capable off road. And by all means, it is very capable. However i was very happy to get into my vehicle after the competition was over and go to Uwharrie and really enjoy my d90. And i am still waiting for the day that i follow a new defender with air suspension and a rear locker( I wasn't fortunate enough to get mine with the locker. I would have ordered with one) to make it up terrain where i cant without winching. The only thing that has still surprised me is that the traction control is so fast acting (much faster than the lr4 and l322). There is only a small moment and the wheels look like they just twitch and the truck just keeps going. It is truely remarkable how well JLR refined the traction control. I was a naysayer of the new defender when it came out. When i set mine up with some lift and a larger MT tire i was amazed! So, in my opinion, i think any setup is very capable off road with a proper off road tire. It is not essential to have any of the off road options to have an extremely capable off roader. Yes air suspension will raise the vehicle up and provide clearance, but if you purchase the right aftermarket upgrades to gain clearance without losing all of the suspension down travel, you will find that any choice you make will not be the wrong one. Take any new defender off road, on road or tow with it. You will not regret it. Just dont let salesmen or other folks tell you that certain options are required to go off road. They are not.

 

I have REALLY tried to keep out of this Coil vs. Air discussion. It's like religion or politics. Everyone wants to change someone's opinion as long as it's not their own. But @sarek just nailed it in my book. The "proper off road tire" has more to do with the Defender's ability than ANYTHING else. I think what you roll out of the show-room with (even if you go with the Duratac (sp?)) will limit you FAR more than anything else. Durability, off-road ability, you name it - the tires and height should be your #1 focus.

 

I think it is really easy for any of us to lose sight of how OUR needs (and wants) differ from the next guy.

I know I do sometimes.

There's plusses and minuses in both setups.

For MY uses, I'm damn glad we have the air set-up. It fits OUR off-road use PERFECTLY, and our towing/hauling needs etc.

And frankly, having dealt with saggy spring replacement on a couple of my Jeeps over the years, I'm just fine with a future repair to the air suspension should the need eventually arise.

Of course, as I said, MY OFF-ROAD needs are more simple than many (beach, dunes, forest trails). I'm never gonna run larger tires on this thing, never gonna rock crawl, so a failure is VERY VERY unlikely to strand me... well, at least a suspension failure per se.

 

Ralf - please add me to your list of D90 owners seeking a solution for the poorly folding back seat ;-)

 

l've read through this whole discussion and the conclusion would appear to be

1/The new Defender is great off road whichever suspension option you have

2/For serious off road the air suspension is better

3/lf your grandparents are really old, air suspension will help them to get in your truck more easily

4/On road, coils and air are both good and you will be happy with either

5/lf you carry heavy loads or tow a trailer with a high nose weight the air suspension is better

6/On coils the vehicle has one less thing to go wrong although air suspension is pretty reliable these days

So, after looking at the above l chose coils for my 90 and l love the vehicle.

But l don't do serious off road and my small caravan has a nose weight of only 75kg. So l'm fine with it.

 

I wouldn't share the assertion that serious off-roaders eschew coils. I would suggest it's quite the opposite. Coils seem to be the dominant and preferred kit in the broader market. An upgrade from leaf springs and a more robust and reliable option in remote areas than fancy-pants air.

I know @sarek has posted about the potential/actual weakness in the hollow struts. This hollow design allows cabling through at the expense of metal. He also showed a failure of the attached hydraulic fluid reservoir weld point in a rear strut. There are more accurate posts from him about that here and on FB. I know next to nothing about this.

Air suspension definitely is well suited for land rovers. 99% will likely never leave the pavement. Parking structures are low ceilinged, elderly and infirm can't clamber up so easily. It's really indispensable for me. I can't fit in my garage with my ski rack on without access height. It is good on the trail too of course giving more clearance than stock coils but I wouldn't see coils as any real disadvantage. A coil lift is also an option if you are really tricking out the rig.

With air I like the rear height adjust button for a few reasons.

• Trailer hitching is easy (control from the key fob even better)
• Lower rear to better turn it into a seat when getting gear on
• Adjust rear height when on an incline and cooking from the rear galley.

I have auto-access height setup as my wife likes the easier ingress. The Defender sits very low in this mode. Even short-stack kids can hop right in. No biggie either way of course.

I suspect for most users, the benefits or air outweigh any disadvantages so it boils down to added cost and if you can even get your desired spec in coils. Once you start adding a few bells and whistles, coils are tossed to the curb by LR's build limitations.

 

@GavinC
Thanks for sharing your perspective. The use cases for adding air suspension for lowering capability wouldn’t apply in my situation:

(1) I live on 10 acres and have a custom built garage with oversized garage doors and 18 foot ceilings

(2) I will never add a roof rack

(3) My wife and I are very fit and have no issues climbing in and out of a standard ride height Defender

With regards to ride comfort, we have another comfortable SUV and a Porsche 911 so the Defender doesn’t have to pull double duty as a grocery getter or daily commuter in traffic. Instead, it’s more likely to be pulling a trailer of lumber from Home Depot or being taken off road on trips to the Rocky Mountains.

I totally get it that a lot of the Defender owners on this site may be raising families or have other situations where their Defender has to be a “do everything“ vehicle, so it must be super comfy or the wife and in-laws complain.

We are empty-nesters and already have a 4-door SUV.

So what I am really trying to uncover is whether I would be sacrificing legitimate handling performance, or having to live with an annoying quirk by going with the coils.

I intend to use the Defender for what it is: a weekend utility vehicle.

For those that have seen me post on the Defender Source forum, I actually started my search 18 months ago thinking I would buy a 1990s D90 and then sink a bunch of money into it to try and make it reliable, so my starting point is very different from many who are trying to buy a family SUV.