yes, i have the cold climate pkg. a must for me (us) in the pac nw. i do notice the heater element lines in the windshield, but it doesn't bother me. i think i know the video you're speaking of where the dude mentions it being a problem for him. if it's the video i'm thinking of i found him to be thoroughly annoying. i've not driven in in bright sunlight to see if it's more obvious then. sunlight isn't a concern in seattle during winter

i bought the x so it already includes many of the items optional on lower trims. and i didn't order mine. just happened one rolled off the truck close enough to my liking that i bought it before they even pulled the shipping wrap off. i would have preferred pangea green and walnut finishers. mine is eiger with dark smoke wood. still looks super nice. just not my ideal spec. if i could have changed the options mine came with i would have skipped the console frig and offroad tires. i won't use the fridge. and i already ordered aftermarket tires. luckily those were both low cost options.

 

Prepaid maintenance is something the finance department will offer you along with all sorts of other things to extract more cash from your retirement funds. I usually say no to all of them because of markups, but they came down so far on the 100K warranty that I said yes even though I normally avoid those like the plague. The prepaid maintenance on the other hand was pretty outrageous and they wouldn’t budge, so I said no. All depends on your dealer.

 

100k warranty on what? Power train or bumper to bumper? What’s the standard warranty, 4 yr/50k miles?

im looking at P300 soon and was checking out extended warranties and prepaid maintenance. I do plan on keeping this for the long run.

My biggest concern with this is that everything seems to be digital that, should something stop working down the road, it’s not like I can whip out a tool set to fix. You literally have to take it to LR and have your pants pulled down and bent over

 

It’s a 100K exclusionary policy, so everything is covered except wear items. Basically a platinum level warranty. Factory warranty goes to 50K. These are sold by dealers or third parties and pricing is always negotiable.

 

That’s pretty good. Did you go with P300 or P400? I have so many questions. I started another thread but light on responses. I’ve only ever bought a new car once and that was last year for my wife’s Tiguan which we got pretty loaded and a good warranty and even free servicing.

 

What is the ball-park cost for the 100k extended warranty, if you don’t mind me asking? I actually inquired about it and was shocked when my sales rep said they don’t sell extended warranties for their Land Rovers anymore. First time I have encountered this buying a car. I always decline these but wanted to consider it for long term ownership. Could they actually be losing money on them? He was only interested in pushing the wheel and tire protection which I declined. Sales rep promised to send me details and pricing on the extended warranties but I am still waiting on that.

 

I would be interested in what scheduled maintenance must be performed in the first three years. If it's only oil changes and if they're indeed simple with this vehicle then from the standpoint of leasing a prepaid maintenance plan might not be worthwhile. I always bought it with Audi but they had the dual clutch transmission service needed at 30,000 miles etc. Audi care was definitely worth it IMO to keep the out of pocket costs to a minimum.

Looking here for ballpark numbers I would guess a prepaid three year plan for the Defender should not be much more than $1450 USD with the 'Plus' plan coming in at about 50% more expensive. https://www.landroversantamonica.com...tenance-plans/

It's interesting the brake pad wear sensor is covered by the 'plus' plan and my 2018 Q5 just had that part replaced under warranty two weeks ago, it gave a false warning that my pads were worn but they were fine. I've actually never had to replace brake pads on either of my Audi's but I'm very easy going on my brakes.

If I decide to finance a Defender instead of lease it then I'd be keeping the vehicle for 4 or 5 years minimum, at that point I'd have to consider the extended warranty. My understanding is that would bump up the warranty to 7 years / 100k miles. I believe I heard something about someone paying $4500 for that at the point of sale (could be wrong). I forgot where or who I heard that number from online.

There are pros and cons to leasing, I hate my mileage cap at 15k on the Q5 because I've had to drive a lot for work and picking up my kids on the weekends then dropping them off is a haul that adds up, In fact I just checked last night I need to avg 1000 miles or less per month over the next 8 months to avoid any penalty but from what I can tell if I can keep my mileage reasonable 45k or less over the 36 months then leasing the Defender may be a better deal than financing one. I've been running the numbers and I think where I live it works out that way. 8% sales tax here is I think one reason why as well as what I consider to be a very solid residual. Of course if I had some really long road trips planned or some serious off-roading it to the point where damage is a real possibility then leasing would be out of the question.

 

You can go to any third party or other dealership to buy an extended warranty. Only reason I got it was because they can down close to $4K for 7/100 and since I’m buying for cash and plan to keep it to 100K, figured it might be worth it. Like I said, I usually avoid these because it really is a 50K warranty on top of a 50K factory warranty, and won’t make a difference for several years, but I tend to keep cars for ten years and drive them hard, so maybe it’ll be worth it. For $4K or so on a $75K car it’s worth a gamble I guess. Given the complexity of this beast, seems like a reasonable bet, though I was very close to saying no. Usually all the problems in a car are flushed out in the first 50K anyway, but I learned a lesson with my wife’s Audi when her timing chain went with one day left on her extended warranty. Would have been an $8K plus repair and it was fully covered. Then again my current Volvo hasn’t had one problem since warranty and I would’ve lost every penny if I had bought an extended. It’s a gamble either way.

 

In my opinion you made the right move, I think around 4k for the extended warranty is a great purchase if you're planning to keep it for the long haul especially given the electronics. Is it fully transferable? That would be a great selling point. For me, I'm at the point in my life right now where early 50's, post-divorce and with the pandemic uncertainty as it relates to my job, even considering the electric vehicle trend as they start to gain increasing momentum, I'm not sure that I want to make a commitment past three years anymore for any vehicle that's going to be my daily driver. I can see that changing as time goes on but for now that's kind of where I'm at.

 

Good questions on this thread here is my experience for what it’s worth

Heated windshield cold weather package-buy it absolutely elements are not a problem on sunny day-I am pretty picky and have had this before on other vehicles and now on my P300. Love the heated seats and steering wheel and for very light window fogging I use heated windshield frequently. Also in more snowy conditions it helps to get that ice off early morning. Remote start from InControl app works well to preheat as needed. No you can’t remote start from key fob but really I only did it for fun with my truck.

Did not buy extended warranty as I figured my 4 cylinder had been out a while and all of our 5 Landrovers have been good vehicles over the years-yes I said that! Might have changed my mind on the mild hybrid 6. In general the 4 year warranty seems sufficient for me. Only time tells on this. The only extended warranty I ever bought was for Ecodiesel RAM and it actually paid off after all the fussing with the pollution control system by EPA.

I special ordered to get a 4 cylinder S model without roof skylight (never use those) but put in upgraded interior and wood accents. A note on skylights -in hot weather I have always closed shades to escape sun and heat and in nasty rainy weather around where I live I close it so I don’t have to look at the rain. On a more practical thought if you plan to use roof racks it seems a bit crazy to load objects over glass (friend cracked his LR4 doing that). That said they are cool but if I am off-roading a lot I would wonder about flex.

Love the light green color leather which goes with the Pangea very nicely. I love the 14 way seats and am very happy with that decision. Would have put in tan if that had been an option but feel the leather will age well. I also added driver assistance and tow package to get all the driver warnings and the advanced off-road programs. Did not worry too much about second locking differential as I won’t be rock hopping. If you want one it seems disguised to me in options. It was associated with that differential braking option-query dealer to be sure. I will say I am very thankful for the software over the air updates process as they ironed out some initial bugs with extra features in the first couple of months I owned Defender.

The 4 cylinder has plenty of power in my mind-very zippy. Over the passes in Washington State it does quite well. I mostly drive around town on a diet of 2-3 miles each way. After the economy registers I seem to always have from 20.5 to 21. If I add some longer drives more regularly it creeps up to around 22 combined. Yesterday I came home from downtown Seattle to Anacortes and did not exceed 64mph on freeway except for a short while (stayed in right lane) and cut through farm country part of the way. I arrived in town with 26 mpg. Obviously it is situational for terrain and driving habits but for pushing a brick shaped object around the 4 cylinder is great in my opinion.

So in summary - it is my old guy country gentleman’s (even though I am not) wagon that can go pretty much anywhere. I hunt with it and yearly have a cross country pheasant hunt trip, tow a small trailer and have outings over mountains with wife. I added a Bedrug liner which I put in for yard waste hauling ( I had to pattern it) and some lumber for home projects and it has been handy. Anything serious I have delivered but I would say it is easier to haul a small amount of 8 foot lumber down the center pass through in my Defender than in my 4 door 5.7 inch pickup and keep it dry. I also would say I am picky about my vehicles and this doesn’t mess up the interior of a small bit of care is taken. I equipped with all season even though I really really wanted the all terrain for looks but reality is I have better tires for what I actually do with vehicle. Since I am retired now and don’t destroy cars with a commute my very short daily trips are really perfect use of a quiet smooth 4 cylinder. Actually if I did commute this would be my choice (maybe the plug in hybrid) but the gadgetry is done very well and with Apple Play I could have leveraged the text reading and voice sending features to my endless distraction while in stop and go traffic. Would never have bought air suspension a few years ago but I love it and I believe it will be fine from a reliability point plus a better option when towing anything. This Defender has the same road presence of my previous giant pickup with air. I am on 19 inch wheels a compromise I realize but I don’t want to worry about curbing rimes and I want enough sidewall to air down off road just a bit and also get a good highway ride with reasonable handling.


Way more than 2 cents worth but hope this helps.