The dealer called and said she wasn’t sure but she was getting an error when trying to add the rear recovery eyes. She suggested she might have to add the bright exterior pack to add the recovery eyes which I wasn’t aware of.

Anyone have any pics of the bright exterior pack? I can’t even tell what it is.

 

from my understanding its body color lower cladding instead of black.

 

The above is incorrect I'm afraid. ^


Ok so I know in the past the Black Exposed Rear Recovery Eyes needed the Bright Exterior pack for certain trims, not sure if its the case now. My '23.5 130 SE order has both the Bright Exterior Pack and Black Exposed Rear Recovery Eyes added as separate options, but that's because I wanted both; so don't know if its required.

However, The Bright Exterior Pack essentially is Gloss Black (Narvik not Santorini Metallic and certainly not body color like mentioned above) Body Side Lower Cladding, Fender Trim, and hood plates with Silicon Silver Bumpers. Think of it as X-Dynamic exterior trim without the badges (because it's standard on the X-Dynamic and X [And I believe the V8 models too])



The Extended Bright Exterior Pack is the same but can only be added on certain trims/models with certain exterior colors, its essentially identical but instead of gloss black, it's matte silver cladding (think of it as the discontinued XS model with more options as far as exterior color and option flexibility).



A normal defender, say base, S, or SE with no options has the standard black plastic-look cladding, with ceres silver bumpers cheaper but more rugged look.



Black Pack (like my old '22 90) is identical to that but blacks out the top grille piece, badges, and hood plates.



Lastly, the Extended Black Pack also only available on certain models/trims, is identical to the normal Black Pack but includes all gloss black bumpers and lower body side cladding and fenders on top of that.



Hope that clears it up! Personal preference really, I had the normal Black Pack on my '22 90 which meant flat black plastic lower cladding, and I didn't like it at all; just looked cheap. Definitely prefer the narvik gloss black you get on those other packs, or even the silver look on the EBP.

 

Very helpful, much appreciated! One more question if you don’t mind; is it all plastic or is the silver on the bright pack/extended bright pack metal?

 

As far as the bottom part of the door, I think its metal just painted but it may just be plastic cladding tacked on, regardless of gloss or cheap flat black. Bumpers I have no idea, I'm guessing plastic, I never really paid attention to mine. So short answer, no idea material haha.

Regardless, the Bright Pack/Extended Black Pack Gloss looks way better imo, and the Extended Bright Pack looks unique. The flat black on the Black pack and normal Defenders just looks cheap, but some like the offroady look.

 

Your dealer is incorrect.

This was true up to MY22.

Rear recovery eyes are now a stand alone option for $250 for the MY23.

Check out the build site to fact check me.

 

Partially correct. I ordered a MY23 and could not order the recovery eyes as a stand alone. I think it's for the MY23.5

 

Word of warning re: the gloss black lower trims... they ding/nick/chip up quite readily. I've already bought a new set of them all from JLR and am having them covered in thick protective film and will install the replacements. The amount of cosmetic damage on my X model's lower trims is quite shocking for 14,000 miles on the Defender.

 

this reduced the chances of me getting the bright pack from 1% to 0%, thanks!

 

This is interesting result. We had a JLR sales guide on here last year who said the bright pack was body colored paneling. His explained this is why they removed the XS model and that online configurator was incorrect when it was showing what looked like chrome cladding. Now that they have pictures of them, per your post, we can see that is not correct.

Strange choice I must say. The silver on the lower side looks horrible.

The configurator is sorta tough. I ordered an XS model when it first came out and it showed the rear lights the same as the X model. A few months later they changed it on the configurator to what the rest have and that is what it showed up with. In this case it looks like the configurator was right and the sales guide was wrong.