Hi all,
So Today I was invited to test drive an ECD, which is a heavily resto-mod Defender 110. They are based out of Florida and cost around $275,000 USD. Most have Chevy Corvette engines and are all ordered the exact way you want them.
TL
R: My Grenadier drives far better, only losing out in turning circle and speed. Everyone on this forum loves old Defenders, and these are beautiful models, but I could not be happier I chose a Grenadier right now.
The drive:
I like my Grenadier better! I'm not the guy who says stuff like that easily. I like to first think "if both items are $1 which do I like better." Then I decide if the price difference works for whatever the item is I'm thinking about. I don't plan on spending $300K for a car in my lifetime, but I might have been talked into it if this was the best product I had ever driven and it would be my last truck for a good long time. I hopped into the green one pictured below in the classic color combo I do wish we had for the Grenadier. It has custom leather seats that were super comfy with custom cloth inserts. The steering wheel was a classic wooden wheel, but so thin I didn't feel I had a good grip on it. It came with those Rosen Sun Visors that Owl sells, I am sold on those bnow and just ordered a pair for my Grenadier. It had a built in screen with a radio/GPS, but it was smaller than ours and down low on the dashboard. It did have amazing old-school gauges that I dearly miss having. The entire vehicle was done in a soft brown leather with actual wood paneling on the floor in back. If our vehicle is like an airplane in theme, this was more like an Italian wooden motor boat.
Upon starting the engine I was surprised. It was loud and reminded me of my old Jeep 392 in a good way. As I pulled out I nearly ran into a pole because it jumped forward with so little pressure, or because I'm used to our acceleration now. It was very fast and got into the roadway with no issues or lagging. I also had to do a 90 degree turn into traffic and it just did it. I don't care about the power anymore, but that turning radius was really nice! I pulled onto a long straight road and gave it some gas. Immediately I noticed
I was correcting back and forth to keep going straight. For reference I was worried when i picked up my Grenadier about that same thing after the reviews, my thoughts after 30 miles were "oh, these reviewers never owned a jeep" and it was fine. The ECD was not fine. They told me they replaced the steering with power rack and pinion and I think they might be lying. Next I had to slow down and it was terrible. They said it uses hydraulic braking and I believe that one as it was slow and mushy. I drove on and found I missed my safari windows but did love the real shifter. It had no lockers to try out and I didn't want to feel low range so we went back to the pop-up dealer trailer in Santa Monica.
I looked at all the options, and they had some very nice ones including a remake of the Specter Defender which I drooled over. I also love the exterior roll cage as a look and was pretty jealous of that. However I thanked them and walked over to the Grenadier to drive home. It drove better, braked better, was more comfortable and had more light from my safari windows overhead. It was simply a better car....and it was 1/3 the price.
So Today I was invited to test drive an ECD, which is a heavily resto-mod Defender 110. They are based out of Florida and cost around $275,000 USD. Most have Chevy Corvette engines and are all ordered the exact way you want them.
TL
R: My Grenadier drives far better, only losing out in turning circle and speed. Everyone on this forum loves old Defenders, and these are beautiful models, but I could not be happier I chose a Grenadier right now. The drive:
I like my Grenadier better! I'm not the guy who says stuff like that easily. I like to first think "if both items are $1 which do I like better." Then I decide if the price difference works for whatever the item is I'm thinking about. I don't plan on spending $300K for a car in my lifetime, but I might have been talked into it if this was the best product I had ever driven and it would be my last truck for a good long time. I hopped into the green one pictured below in the classic color combo I do wish we had for the Grenadier. It has custom leather seats that were super comfy with custom cloth inserts. The steering wheel was a classic wooden wheel, but so thin I didn't feel I had a good grip on it. It came with those Rosen Sun Visors that Owl sells, I am sold on those bnow and just ordered a pair for my Grenadier. It had a built in screen with a radio/GPS, but it was smaller than ours and down low on the dashboard. It did have amazing old-school gauges that I dearly miss having. The entire vehicle was done in a soft brown leather with actual wood paneling on the floor in back. If our vehicle is like an airplane in theme, this was more like an Italian wooden motor boat.
Upon starting the engine I was surprised. It was loud and reminded me of my old Jeep 392 in a good way. As I pulled out I nearly ran into a pole because it jumped forward with so little pressure, or because I'm used to our acceleration now. It was very fast and got into the roadway with no issues or lagging. I also had to do a 90 degree turn into traffic and it just did it. I don't care about the power anymore, but that turning radius was really nice! I pulled onto a long straight road and gave it some gas. Immediately I noticed
I was correcting back and forth to keep going straight. For reference I was worried when i picked up my Grenadier about that same thing after the reviews, my thoughts after 30 miles were "oh, these reviewers never owned a jeep" and it was fine. The ECD was not fine. They told me they replaced the steering with power rack and pinion and I think they might be lying. Next I had to slow down and it was terrible. They said it uses hydraulic braking and I believe that one as it was slow and mushy. I drove on and found I missed my safari windows but did love the real shifter. It had no lockers to try out and I didn't want to feel low range so we went back to the pop-up dealer trailer in Santa Monica.
I looked at all the options, and they had some very nice ones including a remake of the Specter Defender which I drooled over. I also love the exterior roll cage as a look and was pretty jealous of that. However I thanked them and walked over to the Grenadier to drive home. It drove better, braked better, was more comfortable and had more light from my safari windows overhead. It was simply a better car....and it was 1/3 the price.
