I'm glad the suits have acknowledged this issue and have made addressing it a priority. Apparently this guy just became CEO last September. Time will tell if he can deliver.

It makes me think maybe I should wait a year or two. With only 30k on my 4Runner, that's an appealing option. I would be in a different place if it were 15 years old and had 250k on it.

The only problem with waiting a year or two is that I wouldn't get a Defender for a year or two. There's a little kid inside my head screaming "I WANT IT NOW! NOW! NOW!"

 

I had the same situation, I had a 2019 4 Runner TRD, that was my wife’s car that I got stuck driving for 10 months as she purchased a new gladiator. I went to my dealer and test drove both the P300 and P400, it amazed me with all the technology! I went with the P400. The 4 Runner reliability is bullet proof, however it is a primitive design and seemed small and severely underpowered! This was my first ever Land Rover product and so far, it hasn’t disappointed! It is a pavement princess, only off road conditions it’s seen in the 2 months I have owned it is the snow and ice in northeast Ohio, like my other vehicles, I would recommend going for it if you like it, you only live once!

 

I finally washed my Defender for the first time and I noticed that the assembly quality from the Slovakia plant is far better than our LR4s built in England. Body panels fit perfect and panel gaps are much smaller on the Defender. Then again, being a new facility, I'm sure much of the Defender assembly is done by robots. Actual LR quality does continue to improve despite CR ranking them at the bottom year after year.

 

I don't think a decrease in warranty claims in 2020 over 2019 means anything. People drove far less in 2020 than they did in 2019.

Speaking of not meaning anything, the JD Powers initial quality survey is about as meaningless as it gets. They don't have a strict definition of "problem." I recall a while back people reported "not enough cup holders" as a problem and that model dropped way down the rankings. Even if something is working as designed, if people don't like the design they report it as a problem. There's a big difference between not enough cup holders and leaving a trail of engine parts on the road behind you, yet JD Powers makes no distinction. This is one of the reasons I'm on this forum. I want to see what the real, actual, problems are. A good starting definition would be things that break and require some sort of intervention to return to the working state.

Didn't increasing the warranty to 10 years do wonders for Hyundai's bottom line? I'm not all that familiar with Hyundai... I'm not sure if it would work for Land Rover though. LR attracts a different sort of buyer than Hyundai does. If extending the warranty from 4 to 8 years means going to the dealer to get something fixed under warranty 4 times a year for 8 years instead of only 4 years, is that really an incentive for the kind of people who buy LR's?

 

I think the Hyundai model is a great example. They had a bad stigma for cheap unreliable cars. They turned it around by improving build quality and offering the longer warranty as a marketing tactic to provide assurance. I think JLR could go the same route, assuming they can improve their reliability. It would be interesting to note what the average length of initial ownership is for JLR owners. Perhaps the 4 year warranty provides enough time incentive for people to swap out vehicles so they are always under warranty. Lots of things to consider including percentage of repeat brand customers etc.

 

The problem with forum data, vs JD Powers, is sample size. My LR4 was a great trouble free vehicle for 10 years and our Defender has been flawless through it's first 4 months of service. This data is purely anecdotal, I still opted for a 10 yr/100k extended service contract as insurance against any future defects. I also read this forum when trying to decide, I did not hear of people being left stranded, but complaints of wind noise and Infotainment issues (btw almost all infotainment issues can be solved with a restart, much like any other computer). I am absolutely in love with this car, it's great on the road, it's great off road, it's great towing a trailer, it looks incredible. If you like the car buy it. Even though we also considered the Land Cruiser, I can not honestly imagine owning anything other than this incredible vehicle.

 

My son just sold his Toyota 4Runner Pro and got himself a 2021 Defender Base Model.........18" Steelies, Off-Road Pack, Advanced Off-Road Capability Pack, Tow Hitch and put on a set of Cooper Discoverer AT3 XLT Tires.........so far, so good. The 4Runner is great for reliability and even better for resale. My son figures, if the Defender turns into a turd, there's always the California Lemon Laws to get his money back!!