Thread: LandRover build quality

So is LR climbing from behind Jeep (!!!) From 115th position to 110th or so on the JD Powers surveys?

There is also a large jump and no necessary correlation between tight fit and finish and reliability

People need to post some links when they make claims about reliability IMO.

Concerning JD Power, they have various ratings. Their reliability ratings cover three years I think, and they hence refer currently to 2012 vehicles which I think means they were 2011 vehicles, due to JD Power being an American sourced survey.

They also have quality and such ratings, which are not "dependability" ratings.

They also bunch models together into a brand label at times. This would hurt Land Rover I suspect because some of their models are less reliable. Hence why Land Rover them selves have said they are dropping the FreeLander name in favour of the Discovery ("Sport") name, due to the poor reputation of the Freelander.

Currently there are published details of the first 90 days experience with JD Power, and those rate Land Rover below average at 127 problems reported from 100 vehicles.

The least was Porsche, and second was - again - Jaguar. Which is close to being a Land Rover, since they are the same company and share much technology.

Brands that rated worse than Land Rover were Infinity (Nissan's luxury brand), Acura (Honda's luxury brand), Subaru, Mazda, Mitsubishi and of course, Jeep. Of course, quite a few others too.

To explain this with some figures, 5th place getter was Toyota, who of 100 vehicles sold, had 105 issues altogether in the first 3 three months. So one might say that each vehicle had on average, 1 issue.

With Land Rover, they had 127 issues for 100 vehicles, which on average, was also one issue per vehicle also.

Why is Acura more troublesome than Honda? If that is due to complexity, then it does not surprise me that Land Rover's Discovery might have some more issues than less simple vehicles. The Discovery is one of the few vehicles around which - IMO - benefit from reading the hand book. And with buttons that lower the ride which then pops up again while driving, and which can change the gears from low to high gearing, with pull gear shift controls on the steering hub and a switch which applies the "hand" brake, with a vehicle that can be bought to tow which adds complexity to various things, it doesn't surprise me that Land Rover gets more calls than Jaguar.

One wonders what the figures for each model are ...

2014 U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS) | J.D. Power

Its never 3 month reliability that gets them

With working on & with these vehicles for the last 35yrs or so I can categorically say with hand on heart that these vehicles have improved remarkably 😀
I don't need facts or figures or links to prove what I know😉

Sent from Sniegy's iPhone using Forum Runner

I still get dismayed when I see reliability figures that show Honda typically no 1 then Mazda etc and at the end of everyone's (not just Powers) list LR. I love the products nonetheless but they are still at the end of the pack for longer term reliability surveys. Having said that the 2012 gets an average rating in some reviews so it looks like the current shape is getting better than the start of d3. think we have to be realists about it. They are clawing up slowly. I hope the new ground up model is better again.

Cheers

My Disco is very reliable. It's also very high maintenance to keep it that way.

In my family we say it has a lot of "personality" - it gives not a hoot in conditions that would kill most vehicles (on and off road), yet always has some bizarre issue (eg. the buzzing noise that has been stalking me for about a year that has somehow fixed itself after I took half the interior apart for another reason; my third key that will not operate lazy entry ... etc). Wouldn't part with it.

You have to remember when comparing reliability surveys that the average Landrover or Range Rover is a lot more complicated than most cars.
Your standard Honda or Mazda is a front wheel drive four cylinder with a standard radio, mechanical seats, ABS, stability control (fairly recent) and semi automatic HVAC at best.
I was shocked when I first connected my IID Tool to see my D4 had 32 ECUs. Landrover has always been at the leading edge of car technology and that can result in problems.
However saying that my D4 has only had two problems the first caused by the idiots who fitted my long range tank and connected one of the vents to the diff breather causing a closed system to be open to the atmosphere and a check engine light. The second problem has been intermittent operation of the parking sensors which have now started working again before I could locate the cause.

Originally Posted by ADMIRAL

Very likely. One article I recall reading, cited Ford reading the riot act to LR component suppliers very early in their tenure. It seems that component suppliers were a part of the unreliability being experienced at the time, and that a high proportion of components were simply not to specification. ( but were accepted as part of the culture at the time )
I would think this was just one aspect of the changes initiated by them.

There is a name for it but can't remember what it is,Ford put the onus on suppliers to repair at Land Rovers price any parts that failed causing warranty repair,I think its the reason Wabsco got the boot and replaced with Bosch,they didn't want to know about problems their parts were causing to LR vehicles. Pat