In my old RRS (2015), they folded in a similar manner and when you pushed very hard, you could hear them lock into place--but still not fully flat. I actually sat on them to see if they would click or lock into place but no such luck. The manual does say "move the seat forward until it locks in the lower position" but I could not get it to do so. Luckily, I also have a Discovery, and if I need to haul a large amount of stuff, I can use that--those seats go totally flat (and all with a push of a button in the vehicle or on the phone app).
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2020 Defender 110 First Edition Indus Silver (Current)
2020 Discovery HSE Luxury Si6 Fuji White (Current)
2015 RRS Autobiography Fuji White (Former)
2011 RRS Supercharged Fuji White (Former)
2008 LR2 Fuji White (Former)

 

Did you get the seats to go completely flat?

 

Tucker - your 7 seat should fold flat if you pull up the lower portion of the 2nd row before lowering the backrest

 

I just got a 2021 Defender 110 7 seat and I don't see any cloth tab to pull the lower half of the second row forward

 

Same, just got a 2020 Defender with the third row and the second row doesn't have a tab to fold the seat tops forward. I tried to manually flip them and they wouldn't budge and tried to search around to make sure that tab wasn't buried in the seat. Would love if they would lay flat like the 5-seater but it doesn't look like it's happening.

This section of the manual makes it pretty clear that the 5 and 7 seat configurations use a different mechanism: https://www.ownerinfo.landrover.com/.../proc/G2408625

Guessing it has to do with the sliding capability of the second row in a 7 seater.

 

The second row in the 5 seater is fixed (won't move forward and back), the bottom cushions are made to flop forward. The 7 seater's have moveable 2nd row where the bottom cushion is fixed to the moving assembly. I suspect the could make that row with floppable bottom cushions, but suspect that they'd need to fix the slider in a specific position and then allow the flippy-floppy, which is just too much trouble...

 

so i played around with a 7-seat D110 at my dealer last week and it looks like the second row does fold down *flatter* if you give it a good shove (meaning, with most of my weight), but it wasn't a "completely flat, completely easy" situation like my old LR3/LR4 or D5 offers.

all that being said- when it does come time to replace my D5, i am considering the D90 (which, to my dismay, has a fixed "ledge" at the second row which prevents a flat loading surface- see attached photo i found online) because the instances where i used the third row in any of my current/previous vehicles isn't enough to lock me into the D110. i'll cross that bridge when i come to it, i suppose!

 

Hopefully, someone with 90 experience will help us understand the purpose / need to design that step into the vehicle? Surely this compromise is driven by some geometrical problem?

 

They say they need to have the bar their for structural support

 

Yes, right, of course. Me not thinking ... lol.

The 90 geometry does not provide the space opportunity to design in the floor member which supports the big, thick vertical member at the end of the 2nd row(behind the plastic doohickey on the rear side windows) of the 110.

Unprecedented Torsional rigidity ..... a critical design and marketing spec difference between the D5 and the Defender. The list of design compromises to NOT compromise off-road capability continues to grow.....