Land Rover propping up the rest again no31 out of 32 with WHATCAR reliability survey 2017 only Jeep were voted worse.

That may be so.... but I’ve owned two full-fat RR Vogues (back in the 80’s and 90’s when they may not have been as well made as the current lot) a ’55 plate Freelander1 and two Freelander2’s - one of which I still own and love to bits.
Since I bought the first Freelander1 in 2005, I’ve had a total of 2 unscheduled visits to an LR workshop plus 1 Mfr’s recall. Total of over 100k miles. I can live with that!
Incidentally, the first RR Vogue was faultless for <50k miles and the second was close but for a problem with the air suspension compressor. Faultless if you ignore 15-18

Click image to enlarge

With my own September 2017 registered Full Fat having been in the garage for 6 weeks on the trot, I’m probably not the man to ask at the moment

Surely if they have had the car for 6 weeks for a fault you should have good grounds to reject the vehicle.

I initially had a great deal of faith in leaving it with the finance company, a company who have been unbelievably slow in reacting to my complaint and would appear to intent on taking their whole 8 week legal entitlement to respond. I asked LR to exchange it for new but, despite what initially looked like a generous offer, they still required a £25,000 contribution for the 10 1/2 months’ use that I’d had from it!

So, here I am, with the hope that I’ve been given that I’m going to see it before the end of this week. But, despite being pretty patient, for the first time yesterday, the Service Manager wouldn’t take my call so I can’t be sure what’s going on.

We absolutely love the car and have been loyal supporters of the company for 7 years (see below) but, with over £100,000 of new Range Rover stranded at the dealer’s workshop and the support that LR provide proving utterly dire, this will be our last (and I can’t tell you how sad it is to say that ).

If their latest promise of being back by the end of this week doesn’t materialise or, worse still, it comes back less them completely fixed, I’m going to have to get nasty. Unfortunately, a colleague of mine, who got a new Disco Sport largely due to my own previous good experience, has attempted to get out of his contract hire 8 months early due to such regular breakdowns but has had to give up and lump it. It seems that, unless it’s less than 90 days old, LR will fight it and their own finance company will just leave you waiting for a reply.

Arrrggghhhh!!


PS: A dilemma on rejection is that I’ve no idea what I’d ever replace it with; there’s nothing else out there and I wouldn’t want to throw more good money after bad by contributing to a new one either...

Have you tried sitting in their office with plenty of reading material, food, plenty of water, bucket & toilet paper & saying extremely politely that I am not leaving untill the car is fixed.

Do not ask them when the car will be ready. Tell them I will come in & pick it up on X day & bring above mentioned tools with you & sit quietly down in their office!

I have done this to get cheques out of people & it is very effective! But always be extremely polite, it annoys them even more & you are more than happy to stay all night untill the car is ready. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

And while you’re about it, alert the local paper to your plan  I've decided to stop being a good example and will now just be a terrible warning.....
2008 TD4HSE - gone but much loved.
2014MY SD4 Metropolis - very much loved.

Unfortunately this is the way things are going but whilst alerting the local paper of your plan the local radio station would probably have a radio car sat on there forecourt as well wanting to do a live OB.

LR were the same with my 1st Evoque... once it was pointed out to me after all the initial problems started it was obvious it had been involved in an accident requiring major reconstruction (underside damage, inside wheel rim damage, body panels, poor respray, ++++ )

It also wasn't serviced or MOT'd prior to me getting it.

all of the bad points should have been picked up on the approved 165 point inspection, and I asked the relevant questions before signing on the dotted line (has it been in accident, has it been serviced and MOT etc)

none of it was picked up by the dealer, resulting in 3 months in the garage before I got rid of it after 7 months of ownership.

all the dealer would offer was standard p/ex price to swap as they insisted it wasn't their fault as they had done the 165 point and met all the criteria. they refused to move on this, refused to speak to me, and basically treated me like a piece of dirt. LR Customer relations contributed (who also had a hard time contacting the dealer) eventually contributed a whole £400 to a swap deal. and the dealer then sold me my last FL2 ''at trade price'' (they still managed to screw up that sale)

so I am with you on that Tigger, the dealers are generally a complete bag of A-holes who are not bothered about customers in the slightest once they have secured a sale and I probably wont buy another LR/RR direct from a main dealer ever again.

Tigger wrote:

With my own September 2017 registered Full Fat having been in the garage for 6 weeks on the trot, I’m probably not the man to ask at the moment

I would email WHATCAR, Auto Express & all the car publications they love to run horror stories like yours & just mention it to the dealers service manager they just might get it sorted then.

Terrible service. Whats the problem with it that they are unable to fix?
£25k depreciation in 10 months  Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

It’s lost the total value of a Freelander XS (when they were new) in 10 months

Last edited by Jack frost on 3rd Oct 2018 8:56 am. Edited 1 time in total

It will be difficult when talking to anyone not to let them know that a Land Rover drops £25k depreciation in 10 months! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Try getting a regional technical manager

My dealers having no luck, LR customer services say they are chasing it up.

I have a few on going issues with the Velar, both headlights are cracking, it’s been a battle but my dealer has agreed that it’s not right but as the claim is £6k they are nervous to order the parts in case LR reject it, so need the approval of the above. Plus I’ve got a passenger door needing realigned and a bonnet bump stop needing replaced. I was hoping to have all the work completed before I go back to work on Monday. This is on top the EGR issue, leaking rear shock and the terrible software bugs.

As with Tigger, I really don’t know what I’d replace it with, I keep looking at Volvo but I just don’t get the same feeling. When I see another Velar I’m just drawn to it, they are just fantastic cars to drive and to look at but let down by LR and their bull support. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200