Ordered the soft close for rear door, was delivered door to door (UK-USA) in 3 days - how do they do that? Exactly as described in their video works perfectly. Great buy.

 

Great to hear. I'm anxiously awaiting my 90, which is being shipped from the southern US (we don't have a dealer in Vermont any longer). I really liked this feature on my '22 110 and won't know until the 90 gets here whether it happened to be built with this installed. If not, it'll be one of the first improvements. That spare tire is heavy!

I did get the loadspace lamp from them in 2022 and was very impressed by the speed of arrival.

 

Not quite sure what you mean by ‘that spare tire is heavy’. I have soft close too, and it is obvious in its use that soft close has absolutely no effect on making the door any easier to swing to the latching position, spare tire present or not. The door is as heavy as any Defender door with or without soft close, and it’s only effect comes into play when the door reaches the latching position, where instead of needing to push it completely latched, it takes over and ‘softly’ latches in that last inch of travel, making it more pleasant on the ears, or when closing it late at night and being respectful of my neighbor’s peace and quiet. If you had it on your ‘22 110 you are surely familiar with its operation. Unless they have made an upgrade unknown to me that takes over actually pushing the door shut. I’d be interested to know if that is the case.

 

Umm... all I meant was: it seemed to prevent the door from slamming shut.

I've had at least 20 Land Rovers with spare tire mounts that I recall, some with 'assistance' (i.e. my '22 110); my three NAS 90 soft tops, with rubber stop bumpers); others without (i.e. my two NAS 110s, '95 NAS SW, '84, '86, '91, and '96 ROWs; four Discovery 1s; my '64, '66, '68, and '70 88" IIAs; a '67 109" NADA; a '68 109" military 3-door; etc), so you're right... I guess I am vaguely familar with closing a door.

 

Forgive me, your statement was taken out of context. As I stated, I thought perhaps JLR had employed a different closer system since I purchased mine two years. And I thank you for sharing your long past history of over 20 Land Rovers. That certainly qualifies you for being familiar with closing doors.

 

I understood the comment about the spare being heavy. My driveway is on a slight slope and I always back in. When trying to close the door it is tough to swing uphill, but with the soft close I can get behind the door and lean into it slowly until it catches the soft close mechanism. This is especially handy with my hands full.

 

Soft close rear door is a nice feature, our 2021 has it but our 2023 does not. No idea how that mechanism is another 2023 chip shortage deletion. Just another reason we're keeping the 2021 and trading-in the 2023 for the 2025 we have on order.

 

Don't see many Defenders here in Asheville. Black 110, maybe? I have seen it twice in the airport / Fletcher area.

I'm the dark grey 90 with ditch lights and molle plate. RotoPax cans and locks came yesterday, will be toting water & fuel shortly.