Comparing cars made in the 2000-2010 era, and even those in the 90's - to any of today's vehicles (LR's included) isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison. Today's vehicles all have a complexity level that is off the charts when it comes to electronics, safety systems, emissions, efficiency, NVH... quite honestly modern vehicles are miracles of engineering. The vehicles prior to these mostly-government-mandated-changes were far simpler, easier to maintain (I mean, requiring a computer to do a simple brake job is frankly ab-freakin-surd) and overall more robust that anything made today. My aforementioned 2008 FJ - while rusting away parked next to the ocean in New England - has only had basic consumables, an alternator and two window motors (which were my fault) replaced. Oh and about 6 windshields. Its got 175k on the odometer and I don't hold any kind of illusion that the Defender will make it that far before I throw in the towel on maintenance. We tend to hold onto vehicles for a very long time in my house - the car that the Defender replaced - was a 2005 Honda Accord that had 245k on the odometer and the only reason its not still around is because of my state's stupid, idiotic, ridiculous laws regarding catalytic converters having to be OEM.
From what I can tell, the new Defender is right in line as far as overall reliability as other modern luxury brand vehicles - if not better. The only luxury SUV that I think has a better reliability reputation in the Defenders' class is the Cayenne. The most commonly reported issues are things like the DRL's, squeaks and rattles, parking sensors, and software issues. You do see some that just up and die - but from what I can tell that tends to happen early on in the vehicles' life while its under warranty. My neighbor has a GLE Mercedes that is 6 years old I think and has already gone through 3 sets of brake lines because of corrosion problems. One time they failed and he almost couldn't stop before running off the road. Another neighbor of mine has a BMW X6 and has perpetual issues with going through tires like crazy. Another neighbor's Rivian does nothing but complain to them about charging faults while plugged into their home charger that they paid $25k to get installed.
I know these are all anecdotal, but you know what you're getting when you buy a luxury brand SUV. If you want something simple, nuts-and-bolts and thats about it, go get a Subaru. Their cars are built the same way they've been for 20 years now - and it shows.

 

Absolutely! This is why we kept the 2021 and traded-in the 2023. (Both had 40K miles on them) Aside from being stuck with the 400 watt radio despite ordering the 700 watt, I think JLR turned to secondary suppliers to produce some of the 2023 parts. We had an XM radio module fail and I learned there were multiple suppliers of this module in the 2023 model year and had to get the correct VIN-specific replacement from the factory. There was something odd with the 2023 interior temperature sensor too...it would suddenly cause the fan to blow hot or cool air inconsistently. Our 2021 and 2025 do not do this.

 

2023 P300 with 22,000 miles. I tow race boats locally and do race support. Once a month we do 500 mile round trips to special events. I also use this as my commuter vehicle.
Here's the list of what I've had to do to it:
I've had 3 oil changes.
I had to put a 3mm x 200mm piece of 2mm foam in a door seal to stop the door from sticking. (which is the official TSB solution btw)
That's it.

No repairs, brakes were checked last month and are down about 1.5mm at the most, plenty of life all around. Even the tires haven't really worn much which is a bummer because I'd like some meatier tread, but I don't want to just throw out good tires just because I want something different.

 

2024 Defender 110 w/ ~11k miles. Only issues I've had were the infotainment screen going blank but that hasn't happened in almost 6-months now. They must have solved it with an over the air update. Other than that, I changed the oil at 1 year and ~8k miles – didn't trust waiting until 20k miles for a simple service.

 

I worked at the local Saab/Jaguar dealer as a teenager from 1991 to around 1995. Car washer, lot boy, court jester mainly. When you live in Birmingham, Alabama and you work at a Saab/Jaguar dealer, you are at the epicenter of the unreliability conversation in a very small market for borderline exotic vehicles (in Alabama) and for good reason. Jaguars at that time were trash. Saabs hardly better (end of the classic 900 model run, they sold like 5 of them all year at the dealer). Both marques however plagued by unreliability, were romantic. The uphill battle for sales and service was reliability -- then price.

My take, after having owned alot of these types of cars since then, that people perceive as either expensive, unreliable -- or both -- is that, if someone approaches vehicle ownership wanting to bitch and grouse about how unreliable a product is, they're going to find a way to articulate these concerns and pile on the popular bandwagon, whether or not the product is actually unreliable.

People have been saying Land Rovers have been unreliable since the Discovery 1 in the US, and that's been a popular opinion. And for good reason, The Discovery 1/2 was a ****ing nightmare to own from new, dealers couldn't service them properly, etc. Land Rover did it to themselves. I'd now claim that certain Land Rover models, specifically the L663 Defender, are no longer unreliable. But it's still popular to say that they are. So people still say that they are unreliable. There's really nothing more to it than that. The conversation and the product no longer align. I think that is what you are picking up on.

Is an Evoque or a full size Range Rover still unreliable? I have no idea - I don't own them. Maybe? This is a Defender-specific conversation here.

My Defender has been great with minor issues only. Far more reliable than the BMW's, Porsche, Subaru I've owned in the last 5 years. Or any of the other Land Rovers I've owned prior to the Defender. Based on my experience, it appears that Land Rover has built a solid product. I have been all over and around mine, torn it apart to install a winch, had the interior apart for various activities and installations, and I have yet to see one component, harness or other piece on the car that I've thought "well that's value engineered to a price point -- what a cheap piece of crap". I'd give it a full recommendation. And not go into it with the mindset that "it's unreliable" which ... if you do, it will manifest itself as unreliable.

 

This is almost impossible to answer as everyone's opinion of what reliable means is different. LR reliability seems to be very hit or miss but that can be the case with all cars. I or my direct family have owned many different makes over the years. To us GM vehicles have always been the most reliable and glitch free. My mom always bought Honda CR-V's and while I wouldn't call them un-reliable they have required more attention than our GM products. I've had two Ford products and while I would generally say they are reliable they have had a lot of inconsistent bugs, glitches, and I just don't think they are assembled well. I've had one Toyota product and it was by far the worst vehicle I've ever owned. The only reason Toyota has a good reputation is because they make the same thing for 15 years so naturally they eventually get it sorted out. Just like every other make though, when they release something new it really struggles. The current Tacoma and Tundra are prime examples.

The defender has a good reputation for now but it's not old enough to really start showing it's potential issues and therefore is holding its value very well. The rest of the lineup tanks in value probably more than any manufacturer aside from electric cars. Good for enthusiast that are willing to put up with the potential headaches for the unique brand.

 

Bought a 110 P400 in May. The engine was skipping right from the start, which was a cracked spark plug. Dealer replaced all 6 plugs as they found 2 others cracked. 14K miles later no issues.

 

From my perspective it's unreliable relative to other new cars that I've owned and I have owned new cars every 2-4 years since '05 including my ex-wife's cars of course. I can tell you we never had issues with any new cars, I think my 2018 Q5 lease is the only new car in 20 years that had something fail within first 30k and that was two brake harnesses in a row. Now fast forward to me buying a Defender I said all of these JD Power bulls*it ratings are almost surely paid off and scams whatever. I said these things look cool and check all of my boxes I want one. I ordered it custom and within the first year I had about 6 different things go wrong with it. So there's NO, ZERO reliability for these things in my personal first hand experience. Someone wants to say oh they're better than they were in 2022, yea that's nice, show me over a long duration, not oh I took a road trip and didn't get stranded or oh I have 6 different cars and this is my weekender for fun which hasn't stranded me yet in 15,000 miles. People when you buy new then nothing should be going wrong with it period. I will say this in its defense, it's the first off-roader I've purchased and maybe relative to other off-roaders it's perfectly acceptable to have multiple light modules fail and stalling issues etc, maybe with a G-Wagon all of these types of headaches come with the territory too, I can't speak to that, no experience with it, but maybe that's part of it is so many on this board are used to driving higher-performance stuff, off-road focused stuff and with so many issues with the LR4s and what not that these Defenders actually seem to be a vast improvement. It's all 'relative' I suppose.

 

2022 110 p400 with 39k miles. Only issue was a failed sensor so my nighttime driving lights never turned off durnig the day which was fixed when I replaced a cracked windshield. Other "issue" though I temporarily fixed it by adding weatherstripping is the famous A pillar noise - dealer couldn't replicate the noise so I'll wait until closer to warranty ends to have it fixed. No mechanical, software or other issues. By 25,000 miles my wife's BMW has had a recall, needed new tires and brakes and been more expensive to maintain. I wouldn't call that unreliable at all, heck my laptop has more software issues than my Defender, which has thousands more parts.

 

@SpyHop , precisely right. These are complicated systems and the health of the battery is more important now than ever.

Maintenance, and keeping on top of “issues” is paramount.
​​​if @Lasallen was hopeful for the owner experience of a Toyota…. you are looking at the wrong vehicle.
but if you want to get out there and have fun, this vehicle will go where few can.

Spend a weekend at Land Rover Experience and you will see what I mean.
Incidentally, after every exercise, our army vehicles were checked from top to bottom… for good reason. We drove the *&$#@‘jht out of them.
Unrelated, my LR4 is quite the capable beast as well. But I keep on top of the maintenance!