Thanks for sharing. Very sorry you and yours are suffering this !

Seems you are doing all the right things. At a minimum, the dealer should fund a rental car for the duration.

The heater core fault sounds as though it is a COVID-era production error from the supplier -- NOT a good thing. Others may need to be on the look out ......

 

Funny that you mentioned the rental car...the dealer told me to contact LR corporate and ask them to fund a rental car because they don't have any loaners. Just seems to be a mess all around at JLR...really hoping that we can resolve this. Fortunately, my wife works in the automotive industry on the corporate side, so we at least have some idea how to navigate this disaster.

 

Our 2016 Evoque left us on the side of the road near Washington, DC, having melted down the main power line attached to the battery. The cable needed to be ordered and we had to wait a couple of days, and I was shocked to find out there were Land Rover dealers which did NOT provide loaner cars, instead expecting us to rent a vehicle. What a loss of an opportunity to have their customers experience a different JLR product and support the brand !

Prior to this, I had used 6 dealers all over the east coast and midwest and never ran into such a non-customer friendly approach. I hope this lack of loaners does not become a standard approach.

 

I understand there can be faults and issues during the build process. People make mistakes right? Thats not your fault though, and when you buy a luxury vehicle at this price point there should be a certain bar set that if something catastrophic like this occurs they take accountability and ownership to make up for giving you a vehicle that was essentially dead from the start. Its like a 30 day return window. What a souring experience. I hope they make this up to you.

 

The entire dealership model in the USA is busted. There should be brand standards for service/repair. Some of the larger mega dealerships do better at this than others it seems.

I currently have two mercedes vehicles. The local Mercedes dealership is owned by Lithia. Their service costs beat the independent mechanic shops all while providing a Mercedes loaner. Many times they offer specials or 10-20% off coupons. Lithia bought this mercedes dealership rights from the company that owns the local Jaguar-Land Rover dealership.

 

First of all, sorry to hear about your experience and yes, definitely how they handle this will determine if it’s worth sicking with the brand.

Have a couple questions/comments for the broader community related to your situation:

- Considering dealers make their money on service (at least that is my limited understanding) do they really treat service customers differently based on whether you purchased from them or not? In my case I bought my D5 new from my local dealer, but ordered my D90 from a dealer in another state, but will be servicing at the local dealer. My experience with other brands (BMW) in a similar situation is that it did not make a difference since I had an established servicing relationship (and trusted SA) at the local dealer. Expect to be the same for my D90, but wonder what people think of this situation if there was no existing servicing relationship with local dealer.
- The loaner issue is a pain at my local dealer. Basically, if you want a loaner you need to schedule about a month or more in advance. Any unplanned stuff usually means no loaner (I got away with it once, because my SA is really good, but even with that I can’t count on it), but then again it’s a similar story (though with shorter waits) at my BMW dealer.

 

Thanks for sharing. Like Trio said, this may be a function of COVID and rush to get things done. Look at the Ford Bronco Sport where they forgot to bolt the rear suspension. I wonder if we will see more issues in vehicles in general as parts delays and profits continue to be squeezed.

 

Wow! Weird to hear that. Sounds like Jeep or Chevy or something. My experience with two Porsche dealers over the past 17 years has been: In-warranty car, absolutely definitely a loaner. Will probably be a lesser car than you brought in (base Cayman or base Macan, for instance) but still a Porsche. Once the car is out of warranty, 50/50 on whether they give you a free loaner.

 

The issue seems to be the small loaner fleets. If you are willing to wait to get your car serviced when a loaner is available you’ll get one.

 

LOL, it's a Land Rover. How many people have the luxury to "schedule" their visits to the service department.