I'm in the same buying matrix: good enough off road for what I want, yet also good for wife, family, and passengers. I have a LR and tested the new Defender - it's very comfortable & tons of space for all your stuff. The new GX 550 Overtrail seems to hit alot of what I'd want for off road, and it should be tech rich and have lots of space inside. We'll see. I tested an older GX and didn't find it wonderful inside, but this new one is a bit bigger in all directions, and it will allow 18" rims for some KO2s. For all the marketing cred Defender wants to show for itself, you can't configure 6cyl with 18" rims and KO2s; plastic hammers anyone? IMO the GX is positioned well against the Defender: likely to be more capable off road than Defender, but not likely to offer as much space inside for the passengers. Grenadier seems to be designed for enduring driving related abuse over long periods of time - stronger parts are a good investment if you are depending on the vehicle and driving long distances from service points. The mall car is clearly Defender. If JLR wanted you to take Defender into camp sites, you'd be able to configure it with KO2s and delete the almost complete glass top (if you want to park a glass roof car under pines trees, OK, but not my type of roulette). JLR doesn't imagine camp site Defenders, so the new GX is going to attrack those folks turned off by Defender only offering mall trims. I think the new GX Overtrail is going to surprise folks with its off road ability. The LC 200 tech was withheld from the GX, which is why a LC was $30k more money than the GX and the LC was the better SUV by far. But the new GX will get the old LC tech for off road, so it's a game changer in what it will have the ability to do. The GX will offer a lux trim with big rims and you can go park that at the mall. But what is different this time is that besides the mall offering trims, the GX will have 2 trims for off road preference buyers. Lexus didn't do that with the prior GX; JLR doesn't do that with Defender. Only with the GX can you get a mall oriented SUV or an off road oriented SUV - so they are really broadening the buying base. JLR is going the opposite way and narrowng the focus: Buy a RR! If you can't afford the RR, how about the RR Sport? A Discovery? Really low on cash & just want a nameplate... have you seen the Evoke? Pure gold; 24 ct, 18 ct, 12 ct - what's your buying point... JLR marketing Defender to be just another RR trim limits buyers. I think if JLR wanted to make an off road Defender, it could. But 21" rims paired to a V8 is JLR laughing at off road folks, and so it's those folks likely to show up at a Lexus dealership. Lexus, in contrast to JLR, is not laughing; they are about to stick the landing after 3 spinning backflips off the beam. The GX Overtrail is aimed squarely at the Defender buyer that wants a high quility and luxury SUV for both on and off road driving. The new GX is nothing like the old one. It's not updated version, or really similar but a bit changed. It's a totally different SUV. Once the off road community has a chance to bash them up a bit, it's likely going to be that the GX was designed for off road, and the Defender was designed for the parking lot. I think the Grenadier is sufficiently different from all else that's out there, they won't lose out much to the GX. It's really Defender that's will lose a sale. If you really love the Grenadier, I don't think a heated steering wheel or back seats on the GX is going to win you over. The Grenadier seems like it's building a distinct ethos and buying population, like Wranglers have done.
![[ Adam ]](/data/avatars/m/9046/9046040.jpg?1705937698){kind=avatar}
