Had been considering LR over my Explorer at some point in the future. After reading the following, I'm wondering if this is common and what you LR owners would say to this negative review.
My son had one, $60,000 + for junk. Less than one year old and all the power steering hoses, metal ends, and A/C hoses were rusty under the hood. GPS quit and the thing leaked water all over. He had to give it away as resale is so poor, good for the dealer but poor for you at sale time.
Perhaps alt.FAN.Landrover is not the best suited for a totally impartial view ;-)
Steve. Suffolk. remove 'knujon' to e-mail
Next time you 'give ' one away, keep me in mind :0)
It sounds like something odd was going on in your son's car. Most of us here have (had) LRs of 5, 10 or 20 years and haven't had this sort of rust problem. Did he buy it new or off a boat launching company?
Like all manufacturers, there are rogue cars which are nothing short of a disaster. I know several people who have had recent Jags and now wouldn't touch the marque with a bargepole. Land Rover's newer cars (Rangie, Disco) are built to quite a high standard (thanks partly to the BMW influence), but then again they're complex vehicles.
On the whole I'd say that Land Rover's build quality & quality assurance isn't in the top percentile of all manufacturers. They're not junk, but neither are they engineering masterpieces.
If you want to minimise your risk, buy a Toyota, which will probably give you trouble-free motoring for years (although I don't doubt there are Toyota owners out there who have had nothing but problems). But if you want something which is capable, fun, stylish and characterful, buy a Land Rover!
David
I assume you are in the USA? We have had a few others over the years from there complaining about their vehicles and in nearly all cases it is a problem with their dealer/garage not with the manufacturer. And we thought we had some useless dealers, mind you we also have some bloody good ones too, especially outside the franchised dealerships.
That persons vehicle must have been a "strange" one, probably been very damp, even drowned for a while, at some time (and no mention of which LR it was), again I suspect the dealership. They don't normally get like that even over here with all our dampness, neither of mine are and check out their ages. If you are worried about resale value check out what older ones are going for in your area and deduct a couple of $1,000 for the dealers mark-up. LR is now part of the Ford group in case you didn't know, they bought it from BMW.
Now, which LR vehicle are you interested in? Range Rover, Discovery, Freelander, Defender** and we may be able to give you some more pointers.
**(don't think they send them to the US although we have seen on TV your Special Services in Iraq using them)MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.