gotcha! Well at least you are honest with yourself?

personally I am a Porsche nut so I get it.

 

Porsches are a bit over my budget right now but eventually. they are the pinnacle of driving. I went to the Nurburgring in 2018 and got a Ring Taxi ride by a former race-car driver in a 991.2 Turbo S and almost passed out twice from the G-force. What a machine...

 

Hi,

Not trying to be a jerk here, but what is your budget? That seems to be a huge pain point with you, as every feature you are not happy about having is available as long as you are willing to pay for it? I might recommend that you look at the Discovery, it has all of the items you are looking for, has just been updated to PIVI Pro and will do some pretty great things off-road. It will likely be the closest lux off-roader to the Defender. From there, a Jeep Grand Cherokee will likely be a strong contender that won't break the budget. A Land Cruiser will be too expensive and a 4runner will be less luxury than you may want.

Rob

 

get a chevy tahoe. they have the off road and adjustable suspension now and can bring you places.

 

didn't the dealership send you the official build order with the build codes listed along with the descriptions of each items/options?

if so, did you check and see if the build order is exactly what you ordered?

 

Here is something else I learned today when picking up my Defender. The Slovakia facility is only running at about 25% capacity. The issue is that many of the Defender components are in short supply and are arriving slower than needed. Dealers have a portal that is in direct connection with the Slovakia plant. When placing an order today, my dealer was told delivery is now 4 to 6 months. And by March they will start taking orders for the 2022 model.

 

OP, thanks for sharing your experience. I had the 12-way seats configured in my recent builds too, I'll be looking closer at the option now because I had assumed too that these were not largely manual seats. About a month ago I emailed JLR about my experiences configuring various vehicles on their website and the disbelief that you can configure 60k vehicles that don't have a rear seat armrest, don't have keyless entry, don't have power seats etc. You and me coming from German premium brands and looking at JLR vehicles as first time buyers I think we're a bit blind-sided that these pitfalls even exist for a 'premium' brand. I told them they're really opening themselves up for ridicule when people are buying vehicles at these prices with these premium badges that don't have options that 20k vehicles come with standard. If I ran the company I wouldn't even ship anything at these price points that had a manual seat in it, but to each his own I guess.

 

I came to Land Rover from a 15 year run with Audi vehicles. When my wife got stuck in sand with our 2007 Q7 we moved on to a 2008 LR3. British design and engineering are nothing like German engineering. For example, if you wanted memory seats in your LR4 you had to buy a HSE-LUX model. But if you want capability in all weather, terrain and conditions, you buy a Land Rover. But I know the British charm and "personality" that comes with it isn't for everybody.

 

i sent them the online configurator build and that was it. No description other than the misleading website information. It is the Sales advisors job to go over everything with me, not pressure me to send the order because he got the first order wrong as I SPECIFICALLY told him I want leather and cloth, especially after switching over from a different brand and system the past decade and a half. He gets paid hourly and commission on the sale. I expect some type of brand knowledge from people who are employed by a company like JLR.

 

its not so much a budget issue as it’s not wanting to pay upwards of 90k for an off-road vehicle. The Discovery was nice but is driven around by too many suburban housewife’s as I live in Orange County, California and I’m in my mid 30’s so I want something that looks a little rougher around the edges with creature comforts.