Curious which vehicle the product experts at Land Rover rank the highest? We tasked our product manager Paul Ricketts with the job of designing his perfect Defender using our online configurator.

What’s your favourite part to the Defender you configured?

Paul: I love the colour combination. On no other vehicle would I choose to have green exterior and khaki interior, but the new Defenders iconic design pulls this look off well. I’ve optioned the white contrast roof which makes the exterior pop. The same goes for the interior cross car beam that I’ve selected in white, it really brightens up the cabin.
I’ve also added the Explorer Pack which is perfect for weekend adventuring. The Explorer Pack gives you front and rear classic mud flaps, matte black bonnet decal, spare wheel cover, wheel arch protection, raised air intake, expedition roof rack and exterior side-mounted gear carrier.

What features do you think will appeal most to Kiwi drivers?

Paul: The Defender is a vehicle that can be heavily personalised depending on your requirements and lifestyle. For families, I think the flexible seating options will be very popular. There’s a jump seat option which will give an extra seat across the front row, or the third-row seating option which provides an extra two seats.

For active people - surfers, mountain bikers - there’s a plenty of accessories that can be added to ensure they get the most out of their Defender – the Explorer Pack and Adventure Pack in particular will be in demand. There’s also the Activity Key - a waterproof wrist band that allows you to lock/unlock the vehicle.

What else have you chosen on your Defender?

I optioned my vehicle with 22” black Alloy wheels. However, my next choice is the polar opposite, the 18” gloss white steel wheel. Once again, not many other new vehicles could pull of this wheel, but there will be customers who want to stay true to the iconic design and the steel wheel looks perfectly at home on the new Defender. It will also perform well off-road.

Given it is the ultimate off-road vehicle – those wanting to put it through his paces off the tarmac should add the Off-Road Pack option which includes the Electronic Active Differential.

Check out Paul’s configured Defender here: https://buildyour.landrover.com/lr2/r/summary/_/en_nz/l663_k205/47sdr/a-110_a-d240-110_a-l663_sp2/a-explorer-110_n-031sz_n-032mb_n-047db_n-080am_n-088sh_n-1dj_n-245ab_n-300ns

Design your own dream car here: www.landrover.co.nz/c/def