Solid roof is you plan to install roof rack with accessories attached most of the time.

Panoramic if not. Even if you don't open it, the amount of natural light coming down from the panoramic makes the cabin very pleasant in terms of architectural design point of view.

Every single car I've owned were/are equipped with glass sunroof/moonroof and none of them failed and I've kept most of my car more than 100k miles.

 

Unfortunately in the US, you can only order a Defender with glass roofs . In Ireland and Australia you can order a fully functional and solid metal roof! But in the US, the thinking must be folks here don't use roof racks, so nobody will notice all the glass up there. I'm holding off on a Defender build until JLR has capacity to send us ready for adventure Defenders. I'd no sooner want a glass roof than 21" rims. Neither of those suggest off-road adventuring, and if JLR doesn't want the Defender to be an adventure capable family SUV, no better way to signal that to buyers than putting glass on top of a V8 turbo with 22" rims and low-profile tires. All that is basically JLR saying "yea, we give up: we will make Defender so ill-configured for off-road use, that folks will buy from Toyota if they want a durable off road SUV and not bother us!?" The sad thing is that it's JLRs to intentionally lose, and they will only lose if they withhold configuring Defenders correctly. A glass roof is not an ideal choice for an SUV that may be parked beneath pines at a camp site for a week.

 

Interesting - my 2023 110S has a solid roof; I chose not to add/pay for the glass panoramic roof. But I just played with the configurator and saw that now you have to accept the glass roof. You can't delete it.

Oh, well.

 

Your assertion of the presence of the glass sunroof making a vehicle non-adventure capable is absurd.

I understand that you preference of not having a glass sunroof for various reasons. But to say that a vehicle with a glass sunroof makes the vehicle not adventure capable is simply ridiculous.

In addition, unless the configuration has changed, you can certainly order a defender in the US with a solid roof

 

I'm in the US and have a solid roof...

 

...what year was your Defender? The solid roof - still available in other markets likely to use a roof rack - was removed from US builds for the 2024 model, and maybe it was gone with 2023? If you have a solid roof, you have a build that they did on the earlier model years. Feel free to post a pic! You can see from above what I'd order when the JLR figures out that folks in the US - same as other markets - actually do have some buyers that plan to use and load a roof rack.

 

You are correct - a glass roof Defender is still absolutely still an adventure SUV. I was being myopic - sorry. I should say that for my needs, given I'd be paying $85k, I'd prefer to not have glass up there. I've dropped enough ratchet straps on my current LR roof to make a solid metal roof option an appealing choice for me, but certainly it's a personal preference. Valid point. Unfortunately, the second point is not accurate. It is absolutely NOT true that I can order a solid roof Defender today. The 2024 model Defenders frustratingly only offer the mostly glass roof. Until JLR offers the solid roof option again, my ideal Defender is going to have to wait. My existing LR is about 9 years old and I figure I'll have a ND for a long time as well; for me this is a big buy, so I want it exactly how I'd want it. But your point is valid - folks that don't care about the glass up there are getting a fantastic adventure ready SUV. I'm like that annoying 1% that does care, so I'll keep my old LR until JLR offers the solid roof again in the US. Defenders have solid roofs in other markets, so I suspect it's a production problem: once capacity allows for customization, they will offer choices. But for now, demand overwhelming supply, they don't seem to have capacity to customize the roof option as they did at the outset of selling Defenders. I have to hope that in another 6 months to a year of production catch-up, solid roof Defenders will return to the US marketplace for buyers.

 

I got the fabric roof because I don't like the sun beating through a glass roof and I wanted a roof that could open as much as possible for those perfect days. The fabric roof opens "more" than the glass roof is my understanding. So far (1 year in) it has been flawless and fun. I matched it with alight interior headliner to keep the inside of the car light.

 

​​​ Incorrect.

My second point is accurate.

I wrote "In addition, unless the configuration has changed, you can certainly order a defender in the US with a solid roof"

That means a solid roof has always been available to be configured in the US. So obviously the configuration has changed if a solid roof can no longer be had now which coincides with my statement.

​​​​

 

It's precisely my point that the configuration HAS changed & why I started the post. You can no longer order a ND with a solid roof in the US - that was the point. For shoppers that don't want a glass roof, this change to Defender customization is a drawback. Other markets continue to offer Defenders with a solid roof (like Ireland and Australia). The post was about folks that want to buy a ND and also would prefer to order with a solid roof option. It was not about a hypothetical, or what Defender options used to be. Today, it's not available in the US on 2024s and that's the point of the entire thread - I think JLR should be offering customers a choice on roof selection. When the solid roof was in the US, the low end Defender was a 4 cyl. engine, which I thought too small. The 6 cyl. provides great power, but now that I'm looking to order, they got rid of the solid roof feature. My hope is that JLR gets the message that some percentage of buyers would prefer to keep a solid roof option available. I get why they JLR restricted choice: they don't have capacity to build both options in sufficient numbers, so in the US you get what you get and you don't get upset. That's where they are with Defender builds. When production and demand level out, I hope JLR brings back the solid roof option to the US market. A ND with a 75% glass roof top is not for everyone. I have seen non-luxury SUVs, like the 4Runner, some with glass, but some with no glass. If Toyota can somehow offer it on a mid-priced SUV, I think JLR should be able to eventually figure out how to offer it with Defender. I get the challenge. It's expensive to build some with a glass top if only some buyers would be willing to pay for it. JLR could have charged more for the glass option to re-coup the true cost of producing Defenders with a glass top, but instead they went with only offering glass and charging everyone for it. The fact that some buyers wouldn't be willing to pay for the glass roof was making the cost of providing it to others prohibitive, but that was partly due to JLR likely under pricing the cost of the panoramic roof option at the outset. If JLR said "panoramic window option $10k," then JLR would probably have been getting enough revenue to continue offering both choices. But the folks wanting the window didn't want to pay that much, and enough shoppers apparently didn't want to pay anything for it. This lead to the heavy handed decision to put glass on top and charge everyone for it (forcing a bigger denominator to offset the cost of a feature that couldn't attract enough buyers at cost). JLR could have made the panoramic window a Luxury feature - as who but big bucks would pay something like $10k for it? Not enough buyers saw value in the glass top where they would pay JLR what it cost, so not enough revenue to pay for the feature. If some buyers view the glass roof as a negative, they may still eventually buy Defender because of all the other positive features. But it's not lost on me that the positive interior features don't change the original problem that a glass roof is a negative for some buyers. JLR probably calculated not enough folks were willing to pay appropriately for the glass top to keep it as an option. To solve the problem they created by under pricing the glass top at the outset, they now make everyone pay for the install of glass, knowing that only some percentage of folks wanted it.

At the end of the day, things like rims, tires, paint, storage, skid plates, suspension, mud flaps, remote starter, tinted windows, roof racks, and even accessories like an extra battery or better radio - those can all be changed after market in the years after purchase. One thing that you can't change in the aftermarket (easily) is the glass on top. It's like the engine choice (4 cyl. vs. 6 cyl. vs. 8 cyl.) or seat option set-up - those are things you want to get right at the outset and then maintain over your ownership period. A roof design is not something that should be relegated to the aftermarket for a luxury SUV build. Part of being a luxury is to get it exactly as you'd want it. That's all part of the luxury of driving a personalized Defender, styled as you'd like it.

Hopefully JLR will bring back the solid roof for the US market, but that's the point of this thread - to get a discussion around the roof design feature: pros & cons.