Hi All. So I have had the new Defender for almost 2 weeks (already 1,000+ miles) and thought I would give a nerdy review & a few first impressions:

1) I absolutely love the styling. It looks great in photos but even better in person. You get all sorts of looks and thumbs up when driving; people will talk to you when filling up at the gas station—almost like driving an exotic care.

2) I like the way that it drives/handles. It feels much more firmly planted on the road than our Discovery 5. The engines sounds almost like an 8 cylinder rather than a 6 cylinder. Brakes work great. I am dying to push the vehicle to its limit but the owner’s manual is very specific about the “running-in” period (aka break in phase). It states that during the first 2,000 miles to avoid fully pressing the accelerator pedal, avoid high engine speeds (rpms) and to avoid off-road driving, etc. It states longer journeys are more helpful during the running-in period—which I am doing. The dealership doesn’t stress this when you buy it but the manual is very specific about it.

3) Because this is a first year model, I was expecting a few electronic gremlins and there definitely are. SiriusXM dies on you a couple times a week. Another member figured out you can fix the dead Sirius with a radio reboot--you just hold down the radio power button for about 30 seconds. It’s a tad annoying because you then have to reprogram all your favorite stations after the reboot (but at least you don’t have to drive to the dealer to fix).

4) Sometimes the clock will be inaccurate for the first 5 minutes of your drive and then it will display the correct time. I have not had it happen in the last couple days, so maybe they did an over the air update/fix. According to their brochure and articles I have read, there are 2 LTE modems in the vehicle that support over-the-air updates, so I hope these various electronic bugs will be fixed remotely w/o a trip to the dealer.

5) I got a low coolant level warning on my second day. When the engine was hot, it was indeed at the low level marking, but after letting it cool off for 90 minutes, it was at its max level. I basically just added a tablespoon of coolant and I no longer get the low level warning.

6) Also on my second day I got some warning about the radar system or something not working, but when I turned the vehicle off and back on, it was fine (and has not happened again).

7) There are some nice features that are defaulted off. For example, on my Disco and on my previous Range Rover Sport, auto high beam assist is defaulted on. But in the Defender it is defaulted off. At first I thought it did not come w/ the vehicle, but after playing around with the screen menu (and reading the manual), I found it. I also like satellite maps on the navigation system, it’s also defaulted off (and took some time to find the satellite view option in the various sub menus) but this is just a minor gripe as I am sure many don’t like the satellite map view. Also, in my Discovery 5, it came pre-programmed in its default setting to lower (access height) when parking and getting out of the vehicle. The Defender is not defaulted to auto-access height, but you can add this feature by playing around on the touchscreen menu.

8) When driving at night, if you like your cabin to be dark, you can turn the screen off and it goes very dim, but it took me like 5 or 10 minutes to get it to come back to normal light when I needed to see the screen. I am not going to dim or turn off that screen again because it was annoying.

9) I’ve had a couple of episodes where the camera buttons were not working when in park position, but maybe I was doing something wrong (but other times they did work when in park).

10) The vehicle does come with forward collision alert on the First Edition Model so I assumed it would come with adaptive cruise control but it just comes with regular cruise control (so maybe forward collision alert uses different radars/sensors as the adaptive cruise control). Not a dealbreaker but I do like adaptive cruise control.

11) On all my previous Land Rovers (and current Disco 5), the vehicles came with a heated front windshield. This one does not, nor did I see it as an option when building your vehicle for the U.S. market, but on the owners manual it does reference the front heated windshield button (but that button is blank in my vehicle). So maybe it will be an option for future vehicles or in non-US markets. Curious to see how the vehicle defrosts with the regular ventilation system during the wineter.

12) My vehicle came with the “basic rear seat convenience pack” which is basically the “click and go” hangar plus hook. My vehicle came with the hangar but not hook. I emailed the dealer to see if they will mail me a hook—just waiting to hear back. It’s a $140 option, so you would want both the hangar and hook. We actually use the hook a lot in our Disco.

13) The front center console refrigerator compartment was in the “on” position when I purchased it but I discovered that within a few hours (it was very cold by the way which is nice). In prior Land Rovers, it was delivered in the off position. It would just be a waste of energy to have it continuously on if one had not noticed.

14) The 3D surround view is very cool when working (95% of the time). The clearsight interior rear view mirror is also very cool—just takes a day or 2 to get used to it.

15) I find that the driver’s seat is more comfortable than the Discovery 5.

16) The air conditioning system works well. In the Disco and in my former RRS, I could turn the rear AC system off, but I don’t think you can turn the rear system off (or at least I have not figured out how yet). I did figure out how to turn off the 3rd row AC though.

17) The button on the door handles to unlock them is on the far right. In all the other Land Rovers I have owned it was on the far left--which makes it much easier/natural for right-handed people. If you are right-handed, you have to twist your palm up to unlock and open; however, you get used to it after a few days. So this vehicle is a total win for lefties.

I know it is always a gamble getting a first-year model because of all the glitches and hiccups that need to be worked out, so I did purchase an extended warranty to boost my confidence (and because I plan on keeping the vehicle beyond the standard warranty period). I also like the fact they state they will do over-the-air updates to fix the electronic gremlins. I consider all my various complaints/issues above to be minor (and frankly I expected them) but know that many of you like these types of details, so I decided to share. But I have no regrets and really love the vehicle. Feel free to ask any questions if interested in more details.

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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)

 

Excellent review. How is it on the highway? Quiet? Wind or road noise?

 

Thanks. My vehicle came with the off-road tires but it is still surprisingly quiet on the highway. There is some wind noise above 70-75 mph because of the big mirrors but it really isn't too bad.

 

In a year or so you can trade up to a new one that has all the typical LR gremlins worked out. The very first release of most new vehicles always have kinks, but certainly so for LR. GREAT REVIEW!

 

Really interesting and useful review, thank you Tucker!

 

Is there start/stop on the 110 and if so is it easy to turn off ?

 

There is an auto stop/start system in the vehicle. In my old RRS and my current Disco, it was very noticeable when activated. In the Defender, it is much less noticeable and much smoother. To deactivate it, you just hit a button (see below) next to the driver side AC temperature gauge. Also, the owners manual states that the auto stop/start feature must be deactivated if wading in water, but if you select wade from the terrain response system or press the "wade aid" feature from the touch screen, it disables the auto stop/start.

 

Do these new defenders come with locking diff or lockers ? Or is that a option

 

The new Defender has auto-locking center and rear-differentials; the Defender's two diffs are capable of acting as both limited-slip and locking-differentials. One review I read said that they frequently (and more importantly, quickly) lock and unlock while driving. The article said that they actually lock and unlock so quickly that you end up using them far more than you would with manual lockers, which could be a minor inconvenience to toggle on and off. The Defender is missing a locking front differential and instead relies on a brake-based electronic "differential" that automatically grabs the brake of a spinning wheel to force power to the wheel with traction.

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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)

 

In the U.S. and Canada, for other than the X and first edition versions, you must buy the off-road package to get the locking rear differential, you also get off-ride tires and some other items in that package.