I have the air suspension on mine and it is fantastic. I wouldn't have it any other way. However, I have driven a Defender on coils and the ride quality was still exceptional. JLR has some of the best chassis engineers on the planet. I've never driven a JLR product with bad suspension tuning. Despite this, every LR product I've owned has been on air suspension, and the Defender's is the best. The adaptive dampers keep everything in check - it isn't wallowy or excessively floaty. Plus, the adjustability helps with entering/exiting the vehicle and the raised setting offers an extra few inches of ground clearance for off-roading, and you get significantly more articulation, which is by far the biggest downside to the coil springs, as you have almost zero suspension articulation.

Let's just say if someone gave me a Defender on coils, I'd immediately take to the dealer and order one with air springs.

 

Maybe if you plan serious off road or you struggle to climb into the vehicle otherwise save the $2,000 and go with coil springs.

 

My P300 has coil springs and I think its a great ride. It's still soft enough on the highway and does a good job off-road as well. Corrugations aren't so fun, but are still decent enough.

I've had a couple GL450's on air and several S550's on air. I've always...always...always had to replace the bags at the least, and at least 3 air pumps. When one bag goes you need to replace the pair, and once one axle goes, the other follows soon after.

I purposely ordered with coils to eliminate another maintenance point. The difference in ride isn't substantial enough for me. In fact when I test drove a used Defender the sales guy was adamant it was on air and kept looking for the lift/lower buttons. He was convinced it was air. It wasn't.

That said, I'm sure the air ride is good, my opinion is not based on good/not good. To me it's a maintenance/reliability issue which is why I ordered what I did. It's a low spec, low option, coil spring, no sunroof, no e-diff, 18" rim, P300. I'm hoping I can run it for a loooooong time with few issues. So far in 20 months of ownership I've only had to do oil changes. That's it.

 

$ 1600,- = half of the price we have to pay for the same..... So please anyone in NAS consider this.