New Defender: do electronics work, and help with dealers...
Discussion
I’m a long term Land Rover fan, having had 2 Discovery’s and a 2018 Range Rover Sport, and I’m considering a New Defender as our household daily driver.
I have 2 things that are making me pause:
- The Range Rover Sport has the worst electronics I have ever experienced in a car, ranging from non-working rear screen entertainment systems, touch screens which refuse to boot on startup, rear view cameras which get stuck in reverse even when you are driving forwards, heating that is stuck on full blast in summer and you can’t turn it off due to screens being stuck in an extended boot up sequence. Multiple visits to the dealer and we get software upgrades, but they never quite get a working system. At least that is how it appears to me as the customer! We have been told that “you have to wait up to a minute and a half for the car to boot up” by the service manager. Absolute shower.
- Dealer experience is dreadful, I think the dealer we are with is over-trading, too many buyers for too many cars with too many problems, and the customer service is frankly pi$$ poor. Due to the sophistication (complexity?) of the electronics now the service technicians are really at the mercy of the programmers and can only wait for a new patch to the operating system, and can no longer be expected to able to fix your car. I cant wait to throw the keys back at the dealer when the plan comes to an end, they have been so useless and uncaring.
I love the driving experience of all the Land Rovers we have had, and I would love to invest in a New Defender, but unless I get comfort that the car is not going to be another over-complicated lemon, with a dealer network to back it up, I may have to go elsewhere!
Any real-world experience of the drive out there, and specifically the electronic systems, and what about decent dealers?
Cheers!
I have 2 things that are making me pause:
- The Range Rover Sport has the worst electronics I have ever experienced in a car, ranging from non-working rear screen entertainment systems, touch screens which refuse to boot on startup, rear view cameras which get stuck in reverse even when you are driving forwards, heating that is stuck on full blast in summer and you can’t turn it off due to screens being stuck in an extended boot up sequence. Multiple visits to the dealer and we get software upgrades, but they never quite get a working system. At least that is how it appears to me as the customer! We have been told that “you have to wait up to a minute and a half for the car to boot up” by the service manager. Absolute shower.
- Dealer experience is dreadful, I think the dealer we are with is over-trading, too many buyers for too many cars with too many problems, and the customer service is frankly pi$$ poor. Due to the sophistication (complexity?) of the electronics now the service technicians are really at the mercy of the programmers and can only wait for a new patch to the operating system, and can no longer be expected to able to fix your car. I cant wait to throw the keys back at the dealer when the plan comes to an end, they have been so useless and uncaring.
I love the driving experience of all the Land Rovers we have had, and I would love to invest in a New Defender, but unless I get comfort that the car is not going to be another over-complicated lemon, with a dealer network to back it up, I may have to go elsewhere!
Any real-world experience of the drive out there, and specifically the electronic systems, and what about decent dealers?
Cheers!
In the nicest possible way, you sound like the typical Land Rover buyer. You know it's going to give you grief, you know any dealer is probably going to be useless, but you want one anyway - they know that, you know that 
I was a Land Rover owner a few years back, and I knew this, bought one anyway, and proved myself right with constant niggles that they could never sort. I miss that car.
Does that stop me looking at buying another on a weekly basis? Of course not. Will I buy another? Probably at some point. I'm even hanging around here in the Land Rover sub-forum, probably looking for 1 person to say a Discovery Sport is reliable (despite 100 others shouting its not) to give me a reason to justify getting one.
It's a disease
I was a Land Rover owner a few years back, and I knew this, bought one anyway, and proved myself right with constant niggles that they could never sort. I miss that car.
Does that stop me looking at buying another on a weekly basis? Of course not. Will I buy another? Probably at some point. I'm even hanging around here in the Land Rover sub-forum, probably looking for 1 person to say a Discovery Sport is reliable (despite 100 others shouting its not) to give me a reason to justify getting one.
It's a disease
Tbh, with it only being launched a few months.
It’s hard to tell what long term reliability is going to be.
Main dealers are by and large, rubbish.
A good specialist is a lovely thing.
However, even they can be useless as I’ve found out.
Buy one, keep some money aside for repairs and just accept that’s part of ownership.
Even though I’m selling my D3 to boost the house deposit, my gf has stated that she wants another landy as the daily at some point.
So a new Defender will fit that bill.
It’s hard to tell what long term reliability is going to be.
Main dealers are by and large, rubbish.
A good specialist is a lovely thing.
However, even they can be useless as I’ve found out.
Buy one, keep some money aside for repairs and just accept that’s part of ownership.
Even though I’m selling my D3 to boost the house deposit, my gf has stated that she wants another landy as the daily at some point.
So a new Defender will fit that bill.
yellowbentines said:
In the nicest possible way, you sound like the typical Land Rover buyer. You know it's going to give you grief, you know any dealer is probably going to be useless, but you want one anyway - they know that, you know that
I was a Land Rover owner a few years back, and I knew this, bought one anyway, and proved myself right with constant niggles that they could never sort. I miss that car.
Does that stop me looking at buying another on a weekly basis? Of course not. Will I buy another? Probably at some point. I'm even hanging around here in the Land Rover sub-forum, probably looking for 1 person to say a Discovery Sport is reliable (despite 100 others shouting its not) to give me a reason to justify getting one.
It's a disease
Haha. Are you me?!I was a Land Rover owner a few years back, and I knew this, bought one anyway, and proved myself right with constant niggles that they could never sort. I miss that car.
Does that stop me looking at buying another on a weekly basis? Of course not. Will I buy another? Probably at some point. I'm even hanging around here in the Land Rover sub-forum, probably looking for 1 person to say a Discovery Sport is reliable (despite 100 others shouting its not) to give me a reason to justify getting one.
It's a disease
IMO most of the Franchise dealers are s
t and dealing with them is the worst part about ownership. Even the good ones appear to have been absorbed by the larger groups and have become target driven with little or no appreciation of the product they are selling.
If you find a good one, it's worth going that extra mile to stick with them.
M
t and dealing with them is the worst part about ownership. Even the good ones appear to have been absorbed by the larger groups and have become target driven with little or no appreciation of the product they are selling.If you find a good one, it's worth going that extra mile to stick with them.
M
yellowbentines said:
In the nicest possible way, you sound like the typical Land Rover buyer. You know it's going to give you grief, you know any dealer is probably going to be useless, but you want one anyway - they know that, you know that
I was a Land Rover owner a few years back, and I knew this, bought one anyway, and proved myself right with constant niggles that they could never sort. I miss that car.
Does that stop me looking at buying another on a weekly basis? Of course not. Will I buy another? Probably at some point. I'm even hanging around here in the Land Rover sub-forum, probably looking for 1 person to say a Discovery Sport is reliable (despite 100 others shouting its not) to give me a reason to justify getting one.
It's a disease
There must be a collective noun for us - people who love Land Rovers and put up with the problems in the delusional belief that the next one will actually work... maybe a “Hope” of Land Rover owners?I was a Land Rover owner a few years back, and I knew this, bought one anyway, and proved myself right with constant niggles that they could never sort. I miss that car.
Does that stop me looking at buying another on a weekly basis? Of course not. Will I buy another? Probably at some point. I'm even hanging around here in the Land Rover sub-forum, probably looking for 1 person to say a Discovery Sport is reliable (despite 100 others shouting its not) to give me a reason to justify getting one.
It's a disease
I test drove one last week. I had it for an hour and the touchscreen was a bit buggy. I synced my Android phone, for example, and when I was on the screen showing recent calls it wouldn't let me switch to the phone book screen. But, when I was on the screen for a specific call, the phone book button worked fine.
Not confidence-inspiring. Car is generally pretty good but the reviews are a bit over the top - most car journos are Defender fanboys and are desperate for it to succeed, and their reviews are a bit over the top. I thought it was OK but if you're spending 50 or 60K and not going properly off-road then I think a Q7/X5/XC90 is a much better bet. Albeit not as cool.
Not confidence-inspiring. Car is generally pretty good but the reviews are a bit over the top - most car journos are Defender fanboys and are desperate for it to succeed, and their reviews are a bit over the top. I thought it was OK but if you're spending 50 or 60K and not going properly off-road then I think a Q7/X5/XC90 is a much better bet. Albeit not as cool.
Gassing Station | Land Rover | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff