Everywhere on the web all you see is how unreliable Landrover products are. I cannot speak from experience because I have not owned any LR products. I have a 2025 130 P500 on order. Im thinking most people just hear about reliability and repeat it or have basic maintenance intervals that are too long. Please share your experience, positive or negative

 

My wife has a 2024 110 that is just over one year old. Over 20,000 miles. So far, so good. Only been to service for basic maintenance. She's rough on vehicles, her 110 has definitely not been pampered. Franky, I see more issues on the Land Cruiser forum than here. I agree with your statement "most people just hear about reliability and repeat". For years I heard the same thing about Ducati motorcycles. I've owned several and never had an issue. One of my Ducs was a track bike I beat to hell, and it just kept running.

 

The only one I owned a '22 Defender was not reliable IMO but it was new and under warranty so it didn't cost me anything to repair. With that being said you may have better luck and if nothing else this forum proves that people can still love and appreciate their Defender even if it develops some issues. It's very cool, it ticks a lot of boxes when you're shopping although I do think a person should come into the ownership experience with a certain type of mindset i.e. a higher tolerance for things to go wrong, some folks are at peace with it, at this point in my life I couldn't be. Buying it new though is definitely the right way to go with these things in my opinion so +1 . Good luck, enjoy.

 

From my experience, the build quality of the Defender is far better than the previous Land Rovers we have owned. Probably because Defenders are built in the new Slovakia plant, mostly by robots. Our 2021 has had zero issues other than a few dash rattles when new that I fixed myself with felt and foam. 2023 had 2 coolant leaks and some electronic module issues, plus it was missing features due to the chip shortage. Replaced the 2023 with a 2025 and zero issues with the 2025 so far.

The Land Rover bad reputation and constant poor ranking on Consumer Reports and other publications should be updated based on the Defender, and not based on vehicles they produced 25 years ago.

 

Bought my wife a '22 110 SE back in July. Since then we've put over 7000 miles (32k total) on it. We only had one problem (leaking windshield) which was fixed under warranty no questions asked. Like the @xplore 's wife, mine doesn't seem to understand the concept of "mechanical sympathy"... and routinely does things that makes me cringe such as not coming to a complete stop before switching from Reverse to Drive. Granted our experience isn't of the longest duration - but we've now taken the Defender on two separate east-coast-spanning road trips and its been flawless.

The best part is that my wife really, really likes the car. She's a tough cookie to make happy and at first she wasn't a fan of the "boxy" Defender but now she really loves it.

I find that the "Its a Land Rover therefore its unreliable" is a claim made by owners of other brands to justify their own purchase decisions. I know plenty of people who own Toyotas and have had plenty of problems - most notably corrosion problems. The new Tundras in particular are quite terrible - and thats not just due to the catastrophic engine failure. My poor 2008 FJ has about a year left on it before it rusts away into dust. I won't even go into the nightmare that is my other rig... lets just say that when I open the door to the garage in the morning, I'm not checking for leaks under the Defender... its the big red thing that I'm checking for pee stains on the rug.

TFL just released a good (and entertaining) video about LR reliability claims:

 

Jury is still out for me. Been pretty reliable so far but currently on its 3rd trip at the dealer for a recurring check engine light. Currently at 19k miles.

 

Apart from problems with a couple of Range Rovers around 2010 our Land Rovers have been great. Only exception is my 2025 130 p500 that I took delivery of in September. It broke down after 1 day and has been sitting at the dealer since then. Refused it in December and will be getting a new one towards summer......

 

All I can say is that they are as reliable as any other vehicles out there. As long as you take care of the recommended maintenance, you should be fine. I have owned Land Rover products since 1982 and I have been a pretty happy customer. All new cars nowadays are loaded with electronics and computers, and most issues are related to software updates and the like.

 

I've had my Defender for almost four years. I have two weeks of warranty left and so far it has been pretty good. Other than the DRLs going out, the ECU for the fuel pump going bad and the heated steering wheel quit working, it has been flawless. 39k miles and no mechanical issues whatsoever. Much better than my old LR4 that we sunk nearly $10k into the last year we had it. My old Discovery 5 was also rock solid other than the dreaded coolant crossover pipes.

 

Do you guys think some of the minor issues that have been seen over the past few years is a product of covid??