https://www.autoblog.com/article/veh...power-results/

 

I can only laugh. My 16yo was offered to switch his Bronco order last year to a Defender. Roughly the same price. He heckled me ruthlessly and said he wanted reliability.

He now has a Bronco order sitting at the dealership ready for pickup. Well, except for the airbag light that popped 4 hours before we were about to get on a flight to get it.

Airbag is defective. Backordered. No ETA. Could be 2 months. It's not just me.

My Defender has been flawless.

I have yet to say "told you so" but the light in his eyes has gone out just a little.

 

Nuts because the year before Mitsubishi was in the bottom 3, a year later they are mid-pack? How does that happen, they are going to say in a 1-year swing they fixed their problems?

Personally I always feel these awards/studies are paid promotions.

 

I agree, money may well be at the root of it. Whenever anyone tells you Buick is reliable, turn and walk away, life is way too short for that kind of BS. This reliability ratings business must be lucrative because these bozos have been around for years now. I think it's a younger generation thing, people who don't know any better lap this stuff up. 15-20 years later they'll know better from actual experience.

 

Article says based on 2019 model years, so we're good 😃

 

These studies are legitimate and we have to pay a lot for them (JD Power isn't cheap) but the results are often misunderstood and the data not analyzed in detail. VDS does not distinguish between the types of problems. A bluetooth failure to connect with your new iPhone dings us the same as someone with a popped radiator.

Land Rover actually did well on the important stuff- engine, transmission, suspension, etc. However, the infotainment system was a mess driven by poor early software. The good news is it's not a permanent fault or a hardware design issues- just sloppy and underdeveloped software. We build everything in-house unlike a lot of other OEM's and this has its upsides and downsides.

In honesty- if you're looking to get a better sense of what's good and bad as a member of the public you'd do better with Consumer Reports. Most of you will never see the true VDS data and details (which would probably be embarrassing for some of the "reliable" OEM's).

 

Consumer Reports seems to have a big following with the senior and retired community. There were a few years where Audi was ranked at the top. My in-laws Florida condo parking lot looked like the Q5 storage section at an Audi dealership. But Lexus reclaimed the top Consumer Reports ranking so now the senior community parking lot is packed with white and silver RX350's. And my father in-law's current RED RX350. He already had a white and silver one before it.

As for Kia's JD Power ranking...they may have the least initial problems, but I know a few people that needed to use Kia's 100K powertrain warranty to get their engine replaced.

 

I don't recall a time when LR wasn't at the bottom of these reports. That hasn't stopped people from wanting them though. They have always had a dependability issue but so have other major auto groups, maybe not to the extent, but still so. I'd like to see the numbers on leases versus financing. I'd bet that most JLR vehicles are leased and the drivers don't care bout reliability because they are under warranty and will be turning them in in 3 years anyway. Defenders may not apply because they are an ownership type vehicle, but I could be wrong.

 

I can attest to that. The InControl touch-pro software in our first gen F-Pace was so wet, the code was seeping out of the center console. If it didn’t crash, it would just freeze— particularly with the nav software. Then you’d have to turn off the car lock it, unlock it and then restart the car to do a full reboot. E we drove one time with a completely black screen on a 400 mile drive home. The final sw update we had gave us a reasonably reliable infotainment system along with CarPlay. I think the Pivi Pro we have now is actually pretty good.

 

Well I recall plenty of times when we weren't at the bottom haha.


Again though-these scores don[t mean much without context of what contributed to them. Also, the age of the buyer contribute to how the survey is filled out. LR buyers are younger compared to many brands. Jaguar and Land Rover share many systems but you'll note that Jaguar ALWAYS does better than Land Rover by a large margin. In fact, Jaguar has scored very well in the past (see chart below).

As for leasing- yes the majority of luxury buyers lease their vehicles. Pre-pandemic the rate on some cars like the BMW 3 series hit nearly 80%. Most of us fall in the 55-65% range. Although the car shortage has caused the numbers to fall dramatically.

It's less about warranty, but rather owners constantly wanting to have the latest and greatest tech and features (along with that new car smell).