Good morning guys.

I thought I would post an early review, impression and a thank you.

2022 Defender, X-Dynamic, HSE, 22’s, extended black out package, air suspension, 11.4, HUD, full tow package, convenience lighting.

This is my second JLR—first being a 2016 Range Rover Sport. Now, a week into this (and having moved from a 2019 BMW X5), I can only tell you that this vehicle has surprised me. I anticipated some loss in driving quality from the BMW, but, even with the 22’s, the air suspension has made the ride simply smooth and quiet. All passengers, including my very particular wife, love the ride quality.

The 11.4 screen with the updated 3.0 software works very well. Wireless Apple CarPlay an immediate connection, even before a full start of the vehicle. The screen touch sensitively is faster than the BMW and the graphics and resolution far superior. I strongly recommend the larger screen if you can find one with it. Apple CarPlay maps present in a really excellent size on this screen and, though some reports chide the slowness of the screen, I can only say it’s faster than the BMW by far. Perhaps the 3.0 update helps—make sure you download or got get yours flashed at the dealer. Mine arrived without 3.0 and, having read this forum, I asked the dealer to update the software and mine appears to have been the first one that they pushed out with the wireless CarPlay feature.

The car is surprising quicker than I anticipated. The engine not as smooth or deep as the inline BMW 6, but, that was to be expected. But, I find myself blowing off the stop lights leaving folks way behind. Perhaps a penalty of aggressive driving or a break-in period has left the MPG at a somewhat disappointing 15.8 MPG after the first 350 miles.

The height of the seats works very well for a nearly 6’3 individual. I am all leg and find myself just plain comfortable, even without the aggressive bolsters that I had parted company with. The bun warmers heat up super fast. I can’t say that I miss the massaging seats of the BMW—more or less a novelty that I could never quite get right and used once in a blue moon.

The thank you comes from the thread relating to rear boot rattles. This is probably the weakest link—the quality of some of the plastics and the rear gate. A combination of both the safety triangle in the flimsy rear cover and then the door guide. Both recommended solutions seem to have remedied the issue, although, I took the opportunity to tighten every bolt and screw in the rear that I could access and did find a few that needed a full turn or more. The squeaking from the glass seems directly related to the guide. The little plastic guide is also a week spot. The top is a piece of plastic that will rattle a touch. I wrapped tightly a thin piece of black electrical tape around the tip and this stopped that rattle. One can see this falling off—but, it’s a cheap fix from time-time.

Speaking of electrical tape—I opened up the foam covering under the parcel shelf (which stores the tire jack) and found the 48V system and battery. One thing I was surprised with—many of the bundled wires were just wrapped together with plain electrical tape. You can tell because they are also folded imperfectly in several locations as often happens when you are wrapping with tape. I would have expected complete sheathing.

I am not a fan of auto/start stop systems—however, this is the best one in any of our cars to date. I do not recommend leaving the auto-hold system on (the default setting) and the auto-start stop. I had it stall at a traffic light which I attribute to the need to come out of the start-stop and release the auto-hold. I have disabled the auto hold (which can be permanently disabled). The auto-start stop requires that you press the button above the shifter and hold it for about two seconds. I think as long as you have the auto-hold feature turned off, you will be better served.

In as much as I love HUD displays, this one is a bit weak and I think you can pass (I am told that they are pretty much gone due to chip issues thru middle of next year other than perhaps the V8 and super high-end models). The BMW HUD actually grabbed the Apple CarPlay directions and cast those directions and turns on the HUD.

I do miss the paddles behind my steering wheel when I like to pretend that I am a Formula 1 driver. Although you can move the shifter into sport mode, it’s a touch high on the dash to really play with it. But, again, this was an every now and then thing in other cars. There is no sport mode (that I have located) on the car to change the throttle shift points.

Plastics as I note in some areas like the boot are not high quality. The first two rows have this fantastic look, then you hit the boot and it’s like—guys, what did you save on the molding here—$200 to get a slightly thicker and textured material?

Overall, I am very pleased. Worried of the maintenance surprises with all Land Rovers—but, I prepared myself going on. At the same token, my BMW blew the transmission shifter mechanism at 18K miles, leaving me stranded on the highway while on the way to catch a plane and BMW was absolute **** getting me emergency help. Make now do doubt, BMW is fully of quirkiness. The Land Rover has thought thru the simples of things such as the stalk mechanisms, auto high beams and a better way to configure the driver’s screen. Not a week went by on the BMW where I did not turn off the auto-high beams as there was a tiny button next to another button to shift thru screens.

The family had secretly conspired that the BMW X5, even with the M-sport package, was a mommie car. I found them discussing why dad was driving a mommie car. That seems to have gone out the door with my middle son taking pictures of himself outside the car for posting and couldn’t wait to drive it. He couldn’t care less about the BMW. And, my wife completely approves.

More to come as I learn various nuances. I give the car and A- due to a few quirks and the plastic trim. Although, I think I only had the BMW at a B+ (And maybe less with the apparent mommie factor unbeknownst to me). I will be ordering some off-road rims and tires as the 22’s would be a disaster and way too expensive to even try.

Good luck, appreciate all of the information from this site.

BA

 

interesting take!
Did your bmw have the I6? Or TTV8?
Curious on your take between the bmw i6 (I had 2 before) and the JLR.
what wheels were on the X5? Bmw tends to put huge wheels on their M sport cars creating anus shattering experiences.

The 18”s are the proper wheels for the defender IMO, while the 19”s are the smallest wheels you can put on the I6 powered ones.

also how do you permanently disable the auto hold? It was a huge annoyance of mine. (The menu setting once you click into options seemed to do nothing ).

The 11.4” larger screen is now standard for 23. One of the only “added” features.

 

On the main screen, click the little start. You will
have 4 choices for screen and light setting. Auto hold is located on the right. On or off.

BMW I6 with 19. Run flats bounced us around all over. Terrible tires. But, engine was the strong suit of the car and transmission (until it blew). The BMW was very disconnected from the road in bad rain and was absolutely terrible in the mountains on gravel. I had to drop into low to just get up a slippery gravel road. Recent drive in the LR in a bad rain storm convinced that, even with 22’s, the grip was far superior.

HSE (with 6) only come with 20’s minimum. Front rotors will not accommodate 19. I would not have ordered 22’s and will swap out soon and possibly sell on this site. But, everyone in the ride this morning talked about the smooth ride—crazy with 22’s.

11.4 option has been pulled from the spec sheet for at least early 22. You will even find high spec SE with a $400 deduct for the missing central digital display screen. I looked at an $80K build that had this deduct down to base dials. Fortunately, they still have the wireless charger plate—I looked at an Audi SQ7 and they are out of wireless pads until mid-2022. BMW is out of a bunch of items and if you don’t notice on your build sheet, you will find a deduct on your sticker for all kinds of little things. Buyer beware on everything.

if you need pictures of the screen, I will send later today.

 

"I would not have ordered 22’s and will swap out soon and possibly sell on this site."

Which 22's? I might be interested.

 

I have a ‘22 XD-HSE that came with 20’s and swapped them out for 18”. They fit over the front rotors no problem. The rear is where the problems are.

 

Yep, and as others have shown you don’t even need to replace the parts of the rear calipers that cause the problem with the 18” wheels. They can be ground down to fit. It’s a shame you can’t specify a P400 with 18’s from the factory for those that want them, but if you do there’s a reasonably easy path to switching out the wheels.

 

@Sanctuary2325 Is your car set to normal or light load for the tires? All the ones I tested including the one I bought came from the dealer with tires set to normal load and had them inflated to close to 50 PSI. If you haven't already done so and generally meet the conditions, adjusting tire pressures down to the the light load setting will make the ride even better. It's good when set to normal, it's great with the tires set to the light load lower pressures (make sure you adjust the setting so the car knows you want the lower pressures)

 

For the record, the P400 models can option the 19" wheels. It's the 18's that don't fit.

 

Thanks for the review!

I agree with your JLR i6 vs. BMW i6 comparison. IMHO, BMW have been making the best inline six engines for the last 40+ years. The 1970-80s M20 being my favorite--incredibly refined

Last week we did a 1200+ mile trip in the Defender and overall we all found it to be an excellent long distance vehicle (3 adults plus a Labrador Retriever in the back). Averaged 18 mpg.

Some good observations:

• Relaxing car to drive on tediously long journeys.
• Seats very comfortable.
• Steering tracks well--does not need continuous input.
• Compliant ride (22" wheels)
• Plenty of storage for things (uh...except may be the door pockets). The front shelf particularly useful.
• Wireless Airplay worked seamlessly (two iPhones connected wirelessly and another on USB)
• Plenty of power (P400).
• We hit very heavy rain for about 20 miles and car was very stable. When I first got the car I noticed the wipers bounced across the screen in heavy rain. This has completely gone now.

Some not so good observations:

• Wind noise around the door mirrors more than I would like. It is the most dominant noise in the car at high speed.
• Crackling noise developed on the right-side A-pillar when we were headed home. There is a technical bulletin regarding this, but I will probably try and fix it myself if I get time later this week. Strange that this has only just started happening. We were driving at around 85mph much of the way and the noise starts at around 70 mph.
• Steering wheel has too many spokes and little room to hold the wheel at the 4-8 o'clock positions.
• Access height really needs to be lower.
• Door pockets front and back are too small.

So, after 5 months of ownership, the only blot in the copy book for me appears to be the very recent crackling A-pillar noise.

 

Great summary! Has me stoked for a long trip with our dogs.

We had our first little glitch today with my ride. Radio and cell functions ceased working—buttons on the screen non-functional. I did a system restore and then re-paired my phone like it was new to the car. Me thinks that they still have bugs to work out on 3.0. Also, although I set the windows in the global up and global down configuration, I can only get the windows to come down with the key fob. Bringing them back up by the key fob doesn’t work.





We did have our first off-road experience. Mud up to the lower sides (the picture was taken after the first 50’ as I wanted to see how much mud was there and then became bold enough to let her rip). Talk about a mud mess on the car. My wife thought I was insane as I had just gone out to pick up fire wood. To which I responded, that’s what you buy one of these things for. She will be a true believer when she gives it a try—but, only once I grab a second set of rims and tires.

I can only tell you that the X5 would have been stuck in what I drove thru.