2026 DEFENDER VS URBAN KIT: FIT CHECK & FIRST LOOK

Hi guys, welcome to this week's Urban Uncut. As you can see behind me, I have another Defender, but it looks slightly different. This is the model year 26 Defender. Let's have a look and see what's different. So I'm pretty sure that the media team trusts in the fact that I have got impeccable Land Rover product knowledge. But Cammy, he obviously thinks I'm an idiot. He's gone on the interweb and he's looked to see what differences there are on the model year 26. Of course I knew already, but he's just done this for me. So firstly, redesigned LED headlights. You're going to have to look very, very closely to see the difference, but they are different. So gloss black front bumper, lower section. Now, usually you have to spec that with the exterior black pack. It looks like it's standard on this car. This is an X Dynamic. Is it? Is it even an X Dynamic? I'm just making it up as I go along. This is an X Dynamic HSE. I don't even know whether that's standard or not. You've got these different top vents and side vents, slightly smoother now, new design. Now you may notice this beautiful green color. This is Wallstone green, brand new to the Land Rover Defender range. You've also got Brasco gray, spec limited. I don't think you can get Brasco gray on the hard top, but you can get it on the five and seven seaters. Whereas the Wallstone green is on both. It's a beautiful color. It's very similar to the Lamborghini Verde Hermes, which is a very popular color that our customers like painted on their Defenders. I have noticed a new center cap, which is just Defender in the middle. It looks like they've taken off the Land Rover branding now and it is just Defender. I think that's a rebrand that JLR are doing. So you just have Range Rover and Defender. And to the rear, you've got the smoked, smoother rear back light. So a lot of our customers, when they're modifying their car, they like the NAS rear lights to be added. Now they come as standard in this more flush fitment on the new model year 26 car. So exterior wise, there's not a huge amount of difference, which is great news if you've got a 2020 Defender because all the urban parts will fit from 2020 all the way up to the new model year 2026. Right, so one thing I have noticed already then, the screen's bigger. So that's the same size as a Range Rover L460 and L461 screen. I'm trying not to have a joke about your big TV in your house. Don't do that. It's not a 75 inch cinema screen, is it? No, but you are right, it is bigger. And that was my first noticeable difference. What is that thing above the steering wheel? Driver attention monitor, that's it. Driver attention monitor. So basically you snooze or pass out, the car, I'm hoping to try and test this out, but I believe- On a private road. Yeah, of course. I believe it jolts the brakes to try and wake you up, puts the hazard lights on. So like a lane assist kind of safety feature. So it pulls you over into a safe zone. It does say on that list that has been provided by us, by the media team, because we don't quite have the product knowledge of this model year 2026 Defender yet, that the gear stick is in a slightly different position and ergonomically better. It looks exactly the same to me. I've done probably 50,000 miles in a Defender. But if you sit here, does yours feel that nice? It feels like in a good position. It does, this is different. So it is moved slightly. And the cubby hole, has yours got that? Yeah, mine's got that. Model year 25. So that's not new. Oh, okay. So we've got the bigger screen. Yep. The moved gear shifter for ergonomics. Yep, the new safety feature. The new safety feature. Anything else? Adaptive off-road cruise control. Off-road cruise control. That's a thing. So is that just not like- Hill descent, you're thinking. Yeah. No, off-road. I mean, the chances of, you know, if we sell a hundred cars, maybe one might go off-road. But we don't modify these cars for off-road use, do we? So that's a cool feature, but it probably won't ever get used. Right, so all joking aside, we were having a little bit of a joke about our product knowledge, but we have heavily looked into this car because obviously we need to. I'd like to think that Urban are the leaders in Defender modifications in the UK, if not the world. So this is a very, very important model change for us. And it's nice to know that it hasn't changed so much that we need to redevelop parts. And again, from 2020 to 2026, with this new model year, all our wide track, all the wheels, the exterior components, even the interior components all still fit. So depending on whether you're buying a used car, 2020, 2021, 2022, and you want to bring it to us to have the conversion done, or you've got a brand new model year 26 car coming, you know now that everything Urban fits. You may remember a couple of weeks ago, we took our XRS Sport to Switzerland on the Sustenpass. That is a 600 brake horsepower performance SUV. What I have behind me is a vehicle that we have available for sale, and it looks similar, but this car is a lot more practical. It's a D350 three litre diesel, but as you can see, it's got our full Urban wide track kit, including this stunning carbon bonnet. It's Santorini black. It's got satin carbon everywhere. It's got 24 inch UC8 alloys. It looks unbelievable. So if you want a car that looks as aggressive as the XRS, but is practical and economical, this could be the car for you. So we have two high spec Defender Octa builds here. We've got this one, which is Charante Grey, which is Simon's car that he's driving at the moment. It's got this beautiful four by four carbon, more chunky weave. So he's gone for the XRS style bonnet. He's got the roof light bar, he's got the spoiler, and he's got 23 inch WX2R alloys, which are our new alloys, which are being released soon. Yeah, by the end of the year, they'll be readily available. And Si has added a few little bits and pieces on here as well, which ties in nicely. So he's got this beautiful bronze stripe. He's got these bronze tablet badges, and then we've got the gold, bronzy gold tow hooks to go with the pinstripes. That's a really, really nice example, this one. He hasn't even run it in this car yet. So with these Octas, they do have the BMW engine, the 4.4 V8, and BMW Land Rover, like a running in period first. I don't think he's even enjoying it yet, but it looks cool. I'm with Heather, my colleague in parts and converters. She's also got a Defender Octa build that has come from far and wide, hasn't it? This has come thousands of miles away. So what have you done to this car for your customer? So we have the bonnet with forged satin carbon. We have side vents and spoiler, and then we've changed out wheels as well. So 23-inch UC9s. Yes, yep. Looks fantastic on the outside, but this is a first at Urban. It is. We've done a full interior trim, haven't we? Yeah, finally. So with regards to the pattern, was this your idea then? Because it's very Octa-like. Yes. Was that the plan? I would love to take responsibility, but I actually went to Si on this one and asked for a bit of help. Right, okay. His mind works. Well, he's a visionary, isn't he? Exactly. I said to him, look, got an Octa build, want to do an interior, can you help me out? Want to do something a little bit different so that it stands out from our normal Roccaros. So that's the only difference. We haven't changed out to Roccaros. We've kept standard seats. You don't need to, because you've got these sport body and sole seats, which are really, really cool anyway. So yeah, we've done the pattern on the middle. What he did was made it look a little bit like the Octa pattern. Had to be a little bit more stretched just to fit within the seat. And then embossed UAs. And then the closest match we can get from stitching to body colour. It just looks so good, doesn't it? It's still OEM, but looks special. And I love the embossed shield logo here, and then the urban rectangle logo here. And the steering wheel as well. Every Defender needs a flat bottom steering wheel. And you've got this nice new chunky grip as well. Looks unbelievable. Well done, Heba. You've done a great job. Thank you. So yeah, the Octa programme is well underway. We're seeing loads more come through. And it's nice to show that you can have different weaves of carbon. So two by two carbon, four by four carbon, the crushed carbon that goes with the Land Rover OEM carbon. And now we can do interiors as well. So keep getting them booked in, Heba. Good work. So here it is then, the first urban model year 26 Defender. I absolutely love this wall stone green. I'm sure it's going to be popular. But look, as I said before, it's business as usual at Urban. So whatever Defender you have, whether it's a 2020 model or the brand new 90s model, year 26 Defender, Urban have got you all the parts fit so we can make it look as cool as this one.