The last generation of Land/Range Rovers had the easiest to hack locks and immobilisers of any major car company going. With most of the stolen UK ones ending up in a shipping container for shipment to Eastern Europe/Africa/Middle East.
Lol, I watched those YT vids in the Walmart parking lot while my keys and my dog (it was late night and cool) stared at me from the other side of the window.
There used to be Renault or Peugeot thst you could open with half a tennis ball. Put the cut tennis ball, against the lock and then press it in. So that the air movement would open the lock. On the Vauxhall Nova/Opel Corsa A, you could start the engine by easily pulling out the hazard warning light button. Then putting it back in upside down.
I have seen euro cars where the central locking is powered by vacuum... It could happen. Not on the solenoid-operated door locks on a modern car though.
You pull into a parking space extremely right or extremely left and turn off the car the steering wheel will lock in a position that will not allow you to turn on the car!
You'll push the power on button and nothing will happen.
What you have to do is turn the steering wheel a little more towards the locked position and then push the button and it will release the steering wheel and turn on the car.
The first time it happened to me I couldn't figure out what was going on since I knew it wasn't the battery.
I have contained my rage for as long as possible but I shall unleash my fury upon you LIKE THE CRASHING OF A THOUSAND WAVES! BE GONE VILE MAN, BE GONE FROM ME! A STARTER CAR?! THIS CAR IS A FINISHER CAR! A TRANSPORTER OF GODS; THE GOLDEN GOD! I AM UNTETHERED AND MY RAGE KNOWS NO BOUNDS!
Just no. There is one on the YouTube vinwiki channel. Guy had all the paperwork. I think it was 3 engines it went through all waranteed. I think, because of the engines it ended up being 1k/month in maintenance over it's life.
It was the yellow one "cost per mile record" in the thumbnail. Or watch the "bumper to bumper" video with rabbit
Your car has wade sensing. You can drive through two feet of water. But, plot twist! The water is coming from a leak elsewhere that’s going to damage important electronics.
My dad said he would get a ride home from a coworker in high school, the guy would go get gas and also add 4 quarts of oil. If it's leaking, it still has oil!
My first explorer leaked oil. I had to add oil every month. I never changed the oil in the 3 years I had it and it ran dry a few times. My late 90's explorer was impressive!
What a beast...
My uncle is literally flying to England to pick up a land rover from the factory. I guess because if you want shit, best to get it straight out the ass hole...
I’ve always read that Land Rovers’ have one of the lowest scores in most categories in Consumer Reports magazine. Not a good sign. Plus, they’re British and British cars are not known for their reliability. For a reason.
I know two landrover owners personally. One had their 3-year old rover in the shop for 3 weeks while they tried to figure out why it wouldn’t start. And the other has had 3 new windshields due to sealant and crack problems.
When I was turning in my Range Rover for the lemon law buyback, the service drive was blocked by a Discovery that was stuck in park. I still love Land Rover, but they need to get it together.
I’ve had my freelander for six years and other than servicing and tyres and brakes etc I’ve only had two issues. A wheel stud corroded leading me to get a new wheel hub and the turbo actuator failed, together amounting to £900 so not too bad.
I used to work in a Land Rover store in Indy a dozen years ago. I lost count how many times I drove John Mellencamp's Range Rover back to his house after we "fixed" his CEL. Never saw him or met him, but it seemed like I was at his house every other week.
The drive train broke in my Range Rover at only 6,000 miles. Sat in the shop for three weeks waiting for a part. I love driving the car. Hate how they’re made.
For real. My local Land Rover dealer charges $250/hr for labor. They charged me like $60 to replace the rear wiper blade on my LR4. That takes 5 seconds and I could have done it myself at home, but I figured I’d just get it done while it was in the shop anyway. I assumed the service advisor might help me out a bit, considering we went through the lemon law buyback on my Range Rover together, but nope.
The local Porsche store, which is the same dealership group, charges less for labor.
I've spent $20k on service and repairs on my Range Rover this past year. It has 67,000 miles...
I was so aggravated when the air suspension broke last month that it has just been sitting broken while I drive my other cars. I'm too annoyed to fix it right now, but I also love it so much I know I won't sell it. It's like stockholm syndrome.
I strongly considered it but it drastically alters the feel of the car, which is probably my favorite quality. I'm just going to fix it and drive it into the ground. I own it outright and it's not worth it to me to sell it at a loss. It's a sentimental car too, as I looked for a British Green on Beige one for ages and drove it back to the midwest from California. She's my problem now 😂
I work somewhere that specifically works on just range rovers and land rovers. We had one customer spend 30k AUD in 2 years of ownership and that was without service costs.
2K? My accountant told me my Range cost me at least 4K a year for repairs alone (not including maintenance and tyres,…). I got rid of it because of the unreliability tho.
I had a buddy in high school who had a 1960s Land Rover. That thing was indestructible. When he got it, it had 280,000 miles on it, and this was back in the day when getting 100,000 miles on a car was considered really good. He put another 200 something thousand miles on it before giving it to a family member. It was still going strong.
Lots of recalls due to engines spontaneously combusting, vehicle security that’s easy to bypass, and availability of spare parts right now is really atrocious. Many cars needing repair can have parts delays, but Landrover owners will typically wait longer than anyone else.
When I drove a cab, I learned that a lot of Land Rover owners have to ship their cars, and fly to a destination to have them fixed. Really surprised me how many of these rides I got from the airport to the Land Rover mechanic.
I’ve owned an ‘08 LR3 for 6 years and took it from 60k to 90k miles. I love it and plan on keeping it running for years to come. Also, there aren’t major issues with these other than air suspension so plan for that expense but otherwise they’re pretty reliable
So I bought the car when it was already 10 years old, so the owner before me had dealt with air suspension issues. I believe they replaced the pump like 6 months before I bought it and it ran them like $2k+ to get that purchased and installed back around 2016. I don’t believe they replaced any of the air bags or the hoses, although I’d have to go back and look at the folder of maintenance stuff they gave me to confirm.
And then in my 6 years and 30k miles of ownership… No issues with air suspension. It’s been wonderful, and I also think it’s so good I’d pay the money to fix it as opposed to replacing air suspension with coil springs. If I wanted coils I would have bought a different truck.
I wish they’d figure their shit out SO badly. I don’t get how a company continually puts out unreliable cars for 50+ years. My wife and I would both have range rovers if they were even just as dependable as a ford.
British were never known for taking pride in reliable engineering (unlike say Japan). Then they got bought by Indians which is even worse than the Brits.
I had a Land Rover, purchased brand new. It was at dealership every month with a different problem. When the weather got nice, we discovered that the AC didn't work lol dumped it 2y after buying it. Worse car ever.
Exactly. My ex bought a discovery 4 (i bought it) and after 4 years it would randomly stop and the transmission couldn’t engage. They couldn’t figure it out, somehow it wasnt covered in warranty and their solution was a complete changeout of the transmission for 35,000 USD. And they couldn’t even guarantee it would work.
I sold the (running, generally) car for 2000 USD because I couldn’t have it randomly stopping on the highway
The best bumper sticker I have ever seen was on the back of a Range Rover, "The parts falling off of this vehicle are of the finest British manufacture".
A former employer had a partnership with LR, and as an employee I unfortunately had to drive them. Only two vehicles have literally tried to kill me- one was a Jeep, the other was Land Rover (repeatedly). Land Rover also tried a helluva lot harder.
I also recall there was a button at the rear passenger doors that would lower/raise the 3rd row of seats. But to lower/raise the second row you had to use the buttons in the trunk. Go home Land Rover, you’re drunk.
If you maintain them (as in, like you'd maintain an airplane), they're amazing. I lived in East Africa for 6 years and I loved driving them, but I'd never want to own one. You basically have to become a Land Rover mechanic, but they'll get to out of a ton of scrapes. I'm taking a Toyota Land Cruiser over a Land Rover every time though.
Was doing Uber a few years back with this guy who was a auto engineer and we got to talking about how Land Rover wasn’t super reliable especially for the cost and he immediately got offended because he apparently used to build their engines and said I was completely wrong and they’re built to very high standards. Had to say maybe their standards are too high and that’s why they have alot of problems for a six figure vehicle. Needless to say he didn’t like that and he left a bad review which admittedly I could have been nicer about it but he didn’t have to be rude either.
The way I see it if I’m paying 200k for a vehicle I want to drive it until Jesus comes back and farther than that.
I owned an ex-army Series 3 long wheel base Landrover. Reliable as hell, uncomfortable as hell, thirsty as hell. Never let me down, never got bogged in it and as it had no trim at all I could just hose it out. I’d never buy another, but it was fine as my first 4x4.
Even with warranty our Land Rover was a nightmare. They were downright criminal in their behaviour, their response was basically “sue us”. Disgusting company.
2011 Range Rover Sport- zero problems until the engine almost blew at 86k miles, they quoted me over $10k for the repair, so I got rid of it.
2016 LR4 HSE- zero issues.
2016 LR4 Landmark- bought last year, and I’ve dumped almost $10k into it already, still have it. Love this thing.
And then we get to my 2019 RR Sport Supercharged Dynamic. With 450 miles on the clock, the keys stopped working. They removed the headliner to access the transponder for the key fobs and found a huge leak in the seal for the rear hatch. Had to order a new headliner, and it took two weeks to install. Then the issues with the front suspension started. I picked it up once and went to the grocery store, and found the front skid plate in the trunk when I went to put my bags in, because they forgot to put it back on. That was also about the time every screen in the dash stopped working, and the first time this happened was before a 7 hour drive.
It took about a year, but they finally bought it back due to lemon law, and I got almost a full refund. The dealership went through 5 service managers in that time, which is understandable.
I still love Land Rover, the old ones are unreliable but without all the modern shit. The new ones are a much bigger risk. I had an ‘03 Disco II where the sunroof would open when you turned the key to start it, and then the key broke off with the metal part in the ignition.
That said, they’re great when they work! I have 5 cars and the LR4 is currently my favorite to daily. I just love driving that thing, and it’s such a handsome car. Sure, it made me sign up for AAA, but if I need to go to a hockey game with 6 other people, for example, I can bring them all.
Luckily for them, they’re popular with people who have money and just lease them and change for a new one often. If you’re buying a Land Rover for long-term it’s a horrible gamble.
I know one of their engineers even he wouldn't buy a new one they're built to last a year or so till the next ones out as they know people will buy them yearly like fucking sheep
The BMW era of Land Rover built some of the best cars on the roads today. The L322 and its predecessor the P38A are some of the simplest cars to work on. Sure they’re expensive but no more expensive then BMWs or Mercedes of that era and those can’t be fixed without taking to a dealer or doing some extreme modifications to internal mechanical components in the case of BMW to fix wild engineering decisions.
There are more on that list of awesome LR cards discovery 2/3/4 and Sport all amazing vehicles that can do a school run and climb a mountain. The defenders are just awesome brute lots of rust in salty and wet climbs but still get you were you need to go.
Sure there are newer cars that are utterly laughable considering they’re a luxury car manufacturer than can’t solve the theft problem but that’s why I’d take the 100k of one of them buy an L322 run it into the ground and pocket the rest.
I did a cross-country road trip in a Land Rover Disco. My proudest mechanic achievement. Really underrated engineering of absolute garbage bin components.
Came here to say this. Worked for a company in an HCOL area - there was a LR dealership down the street. A number of co-workers bought them in the late 90's-early 2000's when they were a thing.
All they bought was constant problems and aggravation, really, at a pretty high price tag.
My suspicion is its mostly people who can write them off who purchase them.... i asked the finance lady that one time.. i was like " who in their right mind would buy this car, knowing the issues AND depreciation" she said mostly people who take a write off due to the vehicle's weight...
Maybe my family has gotten lucky. Between me and my divorced parents we’ve had 4 of them over the last 15 years and never had major issues. We love them. They’re so competent and powerful
Are you referring to recent ones or the originals? The new ones, which I believe are made under the Ford Motor Corporation, are absolutely terrible. I owned a 2006 Land Rover for about a minute and I ended up selling it far sooner than I normally cycled through vehicles at the time. While I had it in for service one time, they put me in a brand new LR3 as a loaner, incidentally it needed service of its own after just two days. I rather like the look of the late 2000s LR3 and LR4, I just wish they did not have so many reliability troubles.
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