WhatCar? Reliability.....

OK the Elephant in the room for all us new* to the brand is Reliability.

And this report isn't going to make us feel any more comfortable... except if you dig into the figures the one highlight of the LR portfolio is the Freelander 2 (from 2006) which is as reliable as a Honda Accord - now this is one association with the Evoque that I don't mind. As I own one of the cars in the bottom 3 - which I might add I've had no problems with - and love.... that comes as a bit of a relief. Or am I in denial?


http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/reliabil...car/258307

*(Or long term abstainers)

The Freelander 2 bucks the trend of typical Land Rover reliability problems, as stated in that report.

It's also the only Land Rover/Range Rover built in the Halewood factory alongside Jaguars. All the other Land Rover/Range Rover models that are shown to be less reliable are built in the Solihull factory.

As the Evoque is to be built in the Halewood factory with the Freelander 2 I'd be rather pleased if I was about to get an Evoque. It's not coming from the factory where all the models that have reported bad reliablity are made.

I've owned 7 previous Land and Range Rovers and only one has ever broken down and none have been unreliable

(28-07-2011 11:48am)FullFatTim Wrote:  I've owned 7 previous Land and Range Rovers and only one has ever broken down and none have been unreliable

Me neither, but the reliablility surveys also take into account niggles, trips to the dealer to look at silly faults etc...

While you may have been lucky there, I've had non-critical issues that are not technically breakdowns.

If LR Discoveries were reliable I would still have one. I had one last year for 5 months, 2 of which were largely spent with dealers trying to find the source of the problem which was wiring (as well as fixing several other problems that all happened at the same time). I have seen on disco3.com two reports of similar problems driving owners to distraction - it was the worst car experience of my life and I will never have anything whatsoever to do with the supplying dealer ever again

The Which motoring reports recently published show LR products (including the FL2) propping up the bottom of the reliability charts year in, year out. I know other people who have had hideous problems with D3's - which are extremely complex cars (the slightest electrical problem leading to system shutdown, ie, suspension drop, reduced performance etc) - but did meet one person who had no issues at all with a D3, and know another who had only niggly things over 5 years from new with one.

I also know someone who has had several FFRR's and never had a problem with any. And yet I think there isn't a car magazine that has not had some kind of electrical problems with Range Rovers on test in the last year or two

Full Fat Tim raises an important issue with respect to what "reliability" means - it seems to be measured differently in different surveys, with JD Power (I think) measuring customer satisfaction, of which reliability is just one element. I think the which reports measure reliability and satisfaction separately - with the D4 being unreliable but owners loving it. But the reports published hardly ever say what they mean by 'reliability' - is that 'breakdown didn't reach the destination' or 'something needed fixing'. I can cope with the latter but not the former, which renders a car useless

Land Rover is the bottom marque in warranty direct's reliability figures, with a 55% chance of breakdown in a year. But that is all cars that are bought second hand and so may not be representative of newer cars

And none of the above might actually tell us what the Evoque will be like

Still, I will be waiting to see what reliability figures are like before I buy one

I have had had a few niggling faults with various Land Rovers but I not had anything that stopped me from getting them started or driving them. The one breakdown I had was with a TD5 Disco2 Auto. On the day I was trading it in for a Freelander1 it shredded a drive belt on the way to the dealers to leave it on the forecourt............... local LRA man could not understand that I wouldn't need a loaner once he got me to the dealership! The most reliable LR I have owned is my Defender 15 years old and it's never missed a beat in 77,000 miles - it gets serviced every 4-5000 miles (once a year) whether it needs it or not and it gets used for what it was designed to do and isn't pampered. My last RRS was totally reliable but wore out it's front suspension bushes with great regularity (passed off by LR as a "characteristic" of the car" ) and my 1st RRS once kept going into limp-home mode on a journey and after the LRA man called to the roadside and couldn't find anything wrong it ran smoothly for the next 3 years!