Hi All,

I joined because I realized the mother-in-law needs some option like running boards to get in our Defender 130 SE The dealer is asking 10k+ for retractable and $5k for fixed.

Thought I'd look around and see what other folks have and how they would look on this beautiful car.

 

Those prices are way too high. I just priced out the same two options at our local JLR dealer and they were both 30% less than the prices you were quoted.

 

If it were me, I'd get the fixed steps over deployable if you require something for egress.

I had retractable "deployable side steps" on an older Range Rover sport SVR and they broke 3 times and malfunctioned. Also they were somehow possessed by demons and would sometimes not retract, sometimes do the opposite of what they were supposed to do, etc. I wasn't impressed... and it could have been a dealership install issue (JLR Buckhead in Atlanta added them). There was also an ECU that had to be replaced once because the button on the dash never actually worked right to "deploy" the steps or "set the steps to deploy when door was opened".

Maybe they're better on the Defender but I think it looks like the exact same system.

Another option would be rock sliders... which can be used sort of like a side step depending upon design (chk out Lucky 8, New Defender Mods, etc), but if you aren't offroading, it may be that the LR genuine fixed side step accessories are your best bet. The LR steps provide a better "step" than the rock sliders.

Another thing you can do is reset the heights with a Gap IID tool... when I do things on my roof rack, I use the Gap IID tool to lower the car to the bump stops. Not sure that's something you'd do every time you stop for a passenger to get in and out, but I do believe there's a way to make access height way lower by coding the car's CCF files in Gap IID tool.