My 2006 LR3: The Cautionary Tale

in Land Rover
This is not a flame. It is a recitation of facts. My lease is up in 7 months. I had intended to do a lease to buy--because I run up a lot of mileage; but instead I will give LandRover of Massapequa back the vehicle and pay the overage. My LR3 sits in the garage and I rent cars to travel on business and to go to the mountains. The saddest part is that once the LR3 was ON the mountain, it was everything a LandRover should be. However, the following components (read: Big hunks of the vehicle) have been replaced under warranty with not even a sheepish look. Getting towed in is a real pleasure.
At two weeks: Entire driver airbag assembly needed replacement. Took 8 weeks and a hissy fit to get one. Had a faulty drivers' airbag in the meantime (that's for caring about my safety guys)
At 7500 miles: air suspension fault leading to highway blowout while waiting for replacement air suspension compressor; Air suspension compressor (and rear tire) replaced.
At 20000 miles, entire fuel assembly/fuel tank replaced due to "known issue" with fuel entering vapor uptake line.
At 30000 miles, suspension settings (design flaw for which there is a class action suit in California) causing uneven wear on two rear tires. Without explaining the problem, LR says "Oh get two new tires and put them on the front". This is because, once the problem begins, it is chronic and the front tires, once rotated back, will experience the uneven wear as well.
I can't get on the road with this vehicle because I no longer have faith that it will get me from NY to VT to MA safely. So I don't. Quality survey's have already rated this vehicle as the bottom-of-the-barrel. And they're right.
Please be forewarned.
Sherry
At two weeks: Entire driver airbag assembly needed replacement. Took 8 weeks and a hissy fit to get one. Had a faulty drivers' airbag in the meantime (that's for caring about my safety guys)
At 7500 miles: air suspension fault leading to highway blowout while waiting for replacement air suspension compressor; Air suspension compressor (and rear tire) replaced.
At 20000 miles, entire fuel assembly/fuel tank replaced due to "known issue" with fuel entering vapor uptake line.
At 30000 miles, suspension settings (design flaw for which there is a class action suit in California) causing uneven wear on two rear tires. Without explaining the problem, LR says "Oh get two new tires and put them on the front". This is because, once the problem begins, it is chronic and the front tires, once rotated back, will experience the uneven wear as well.
I can't get on the road with this vehicle because I no longer have faith that it will get me from NY to VT to MA safely. So I don't. Quality survey's have already rated this vehicle as the bottom-of-the-barrel. And they're right.
Please be forewarned.
Sherry
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On the other hand, I don't think it's appropriate for you to make light of these issues, nor to make gross generalizations about other vehicles that you do not own. If you have only driven 22000 in two years, you are not the same type of driver that I am. I put on 28500 in one year. I spend more time on the road. What to a local driver might be an inconvenience that gets serviced and goes away, to a distance driver renders the vehicle unusable over 400 miles of travel at a pop. (And once you leave a metropolitan area, it's not like Landrover dealerships are a dime a dozen.)
The service manager and I have agreed that this vehicle was, metaphorically speaking, built on a Friday afternoon before a three day holiday weekend and Joe Blogs was well into his first Guinness. Apparently, there are lots of those types at the Land Rover assembly line.
What made it worse is that you drive a huge amount of miles a year(ever thought of leasing two less expensive vehicles? It might work out better in the long rung)and that there are not many Land Rover dealers around.
Secondly RE: The fuel system: Are you sure you did not get a 2005 LR3? The fuel tank recall was limted to certain 2005 MY LR3s.
Thirdly RE: Class Action Suit: Cali's law suit regulations are so linent almost anyone can sue for any reason there. The tire problem has been aknowledged by Land Rover through revised rear suspension settings and a prorated tire program.
I even posted the details of the prorated tire bulletin on this board once. I could go track it down again if you like.
And you are right, but I can't afford to do the mileage I do and do the prorated tire stuff--that's just plain silly.
While bad cars "happen", my need to post this on a board is my only recourse from a dealership that should be working with me to salvage their reputation and get me out of this vehicle. From a sales perspective, they are not smart enough to recognize the value of saving one customer and asking me, in return, to acknowledge their salesmanship/customer service. They are blithely permitting me to wave in the breeze until my lease is up.
Thus, they deserve their bad press. (And this is easier than me taking out a permit to picket the dealership.)
Also, bear in mind that, acknowledged or not, there ARE gender issues when assessing the reliability of a vehicle for a person who travels a long route on a highway. I don't care if the recalls/roadside assistance/accommodations are top notch. I do not want my safety compromised in anyway by being on the side of the road. I was dreadfully disappointed to discover that a Jiffy Lube in New Hampshire didn't stock the oil filter for the LR3. And I posted, when it happened, about my horrid experience trying to find a replacement tire in Hartford on a holiday weekend. These types of little inconveniences render the car only appropriate for soccer moms and the Joneses. I, honest to goodness, got the vehicle to climb Killington, stick to a wet highway in the Northeast, and handle sand in Montauk. In addition, the seat was far more comfortable than the XC90, as I'm short. My point here is that, if I had purchased the car with faulty criteria or on a whim, I'd just chalk it up to an error in choice. But I'm doubly determined to post this message because, other than knowing what I know now, by my buying criteria alone, I'd be at risk to make the same choice again. And statistically, there are enough lousy Land Rovers out there, that it should remain a car of only enthusiasts and soccer moms in my (newly derived) opinion.
Sherry
It strikes me as a litte weird that you would read that post and still have the gall to say, 'you call that a problem vehicle'?, like if its normal for a vehicle to have to have that all replaced and the companies you listed afterwards have the same things happen to THEM ALL the time.
Bizzaro!
To be fair, neither should one make generalizations about a model based on a single ownership experience.
tidester, host
Sherry
I had one last month with 19k on the clock. It reminded me of an Explorer my buddy once had with over 150k on the clock. It was that noisy and loose.
As far as "they all do that"??
In the past year, my RR has had over $8000.00 in warranty work done on it.
My sister bought an LX470 at about the same time. Her warranty bill over the same time period? $0.00.
Of course. I wasn't taking a position.
Click on the "Consumer Rating" link near the top of this page for additional perspective.
tidester, host
There was a L-T test in Car & Driver on a Disco I in the mid-nineties--I think they needed almost every single component on the vehicle repaired or replaced in the time they had it.....
Land Rovers look good on websites and at autoshows. However, their reliability is on par with the Russian automobile, LADA.Why can't the British learn engineering skills of Japanese?? Land Rovers has been in the business longer than any Japanese car makers yet, they can't design simple things. These are disposable vehicles for the rich who want to dump their cash into the sewers.
Well bless his little cotton socks, the GM ate 7 months of lease, $2500 in mileage and moved a car. (Which just serves to point out that there's no money in the individual cars--just the volume and the financing.)
Older and wiser for my experience. Want to give a great shout out to Volvoville in Massapequa NY.
Parking brake solenoid failed and burned up the rear brakes.
Sun roof drained into car and carpeting now has mold and smells with no dealer help. Dealer has automatic car wash and washes car every time you take it in. However it doe not get the tailgate of the LR3 and the wash guys just dry the dirt left into the paint!
Is the class action suit in California settled? I'd to find out more about it.
My lease is up in 16 months and I am looking at repeating or upgrading to a Range Rover Sport HSE
All of the mechanics I know said Land Rovers are the worse cars on the road. I should've listened to them. Just bought a 2007 Mercedes S550, now that's A WONDERFUL VEHICLE!!!!
Interesting you bring up a Mercedes. My family has owned several C and E classes. The C230 spent more time on a flatbead tow truck than on the road. Had the transmission replaced not once, but twice within 25k miles ! Now have a BMW 750i ('06) and the tires/brakes last about 20k miles, lots of wind noise from the sunroof when closed (dealer says 'that's the way it is'!) and when starting cold, the engine shakes the car so much would spill your coffee.
Happy when I get back in my LR3 given the experience with 'German Engineering'.
While the current generation S-Class W221, has done fairly well Knock on wood the previous generation S-Class W220 did not do well at all. That Mercedes was one of the lease reliable luxury vehicles produced in recent memory and severely damaged the reputation of Mercedes.
The W221 has been much better but after how poor the W220 was I wouldn't give Mercedes a pass yet. Just keep that in mind.
can you advise as to the details of the prorated tire bulletin for the LR3, I purchased my LR3 in Dec 05 and we have had air suspension issues, which the dealer has fixed 2 times, though we still get a an air deflating noise from the rear of the truck when it is parked. We have had uneven wear on the rear tires but the dealer said it was alignment issue, but a re-alignment has not fixed the problem...The tire surface is uneven, do we still have any recourse....we have 22000 miles on it
Tej
Any thoughts? Third row useful?