I respectfully disagree with your opinion. The Defender of today is a lot more complex vehicle than the cars you owned since 2005. Any new car you buy these days will eventually have issues. What are the 6 different issues you had with your Defender? Were those 6 issues so bad they left you stranded in your Defender? Please elaborate as the OP is trying to get a feel about the overall reliability. I wish your statement that nothing should go wrong with new vehicles is the case with any car brand. Name me one car brand that has no issues at all. Have you read about the catastrophic engine failures of the recent Toyota and Lexus cars?

 

I don't think when people are asked about reliability the focus is so much about being stranded. If that's the gold standard for a new car then every brand has acceptable reliability. Some people have lower standards maybe, that's possible. I expect headlights and taillights to not blow with a new car because they never have in any new car I've ever owned before, only used cars and then it was simply bulbs in those days not $4000 headlight assemblies, you wait until you're out of warranty and all of these people start having issues with these lights, it's coming believe me.

One entire headlight assembly and then later the entire taillight assembly needed to be replaced before it was a year old. Am I the lucky one? They're all using the same parts. Then I had low speed stalling that was intermittent, only left a code once, other times no code. Dealership was given two different attempts to diagnose and fix, unsuccessfully even the one incident with the code, they got nowhere with that. I was about as close to being stranded as it gets, the car stalled while going 30, wouldn't restart. I let it sit, still wouldn't restart. Ended up getting out of the car, closed the door, locked it, unlocked it, got back inside the car and it restarted, then I was on my way with a CEL which cleared before I got it in to the dealership the next day but it was still logged. That was what I did every 4-6 weeks or so when it stalled like that, get out of my new car in the hood like an *** and lock/unlock, get back in. You can't make this stuff up omg for 1200 per month? It's cracking good alright. lol

I had seat track issues with the manual seats, the tracks developed an issue when coming to a stop sign or red light and upon driving away from it the weight transfer caused the tracks to click as if they were defective. I mentioned it to the dealership and they blew it off, never fixed it. This was a 60k car and I'm going to tolerate the dealership not caring about this clicking sound I'm forced to hear every time I hit the pedal from a stop? Brutal. There was in fact a recall on seat tracks for certain model number VINs which i mentioned to the dealership, my VIN was close but not quite, I told the service manager that I ordered the basic seats but was upgraded to the leather without being asked (that was the very first indicator of covid shortages) and I suspect that's why my VIN wasn't on the list because I absolutely DID have those defective seat tracks. Dealership blew it off. Wouldn't touch it. Had I kept the vehicle I would've had to escalate that issue to JLR corp and the stalling as well.

Maybe I just got a lemon who knows, I'm only sharing my personal experience with it, definitely not made up believe me. I still might have pics on my phone of the car and all of the rear lights when they suddenly remained lit all the time etc, yes even the brake lights stayed lit when the brakes weren't being applied. It's a dangerous situation for anyone behind you when they can't tell when you're slowing down or stopping so that obviously had to go back in for service immediately. It seemed like every time I turned around it was something new to bring it in for and take note several of these issues were never addressed which hastened my desire to get rid of it. I remember when one of the front headlights went out it took almost two months of driving around with it like that for the part to come in. To be fair some delays were most likely covid-related at the time. The a-pillar flap I had from the first day that I owned it and I remember being disappointed that two model years in it still had the same crap going on as 2020. Anyway, I'd suggest not being too critical of Toyota, they have an issue now and they're doing something about it. These bozos? when they have simple stuff like the A-pillar for example they take several model years to sort it out (if they ever do). You might want to consider recalls as being a positive outcome since someone actually cares about making it good for you, by contrast these guys with these headlights have been 'crickets' when it's clearly a serious issue given the cost.

The other issues were less mechanical and more related to some of the heated bits not working with remote start, plus no remote start from the fob which puts everything on to the phone app working which also worked poorly, no control over heated bits with the app either, it was all amateur hour stuff, phone app even logged me out every day so I had to manually type my password in every morning in the winter to do a remote start. Just a lack of attention to detail. As for the OP he wants one, I say go for it, I wanted one and went for it. They're cool cars, but the way I would look at one if I were buying a JLR vehicle today is I'm buying a new car but getting the reliability of a used car. Doesn't mean it isn't cool and it doesn't mean you can't get great joy out of it. I wish everyone well with theirs and I hope my experience was an anomaly but when looking back at it in light of the longstanding reputation it certainly falls into line with everything I was warned about. I just figured those quality numbers were the usual pay-to-play BS.

 

It sounds like you may have gotten a lemon which can happen with any car make. I wonder why you did not pursue a lemon case with the so many issues you encountered. I know I would have at least gotten an attorney to write a letter to JLR and the dealer. It also sounds like your dealer did not care about your issues. Having owned more than 15 Land Rovers since 1982, I only had one lemon -a 2006 Range Rover- which the dealer took back and replaced it with a 2007 Range Rover. That 2007 Range Rover had over 240k miles on it when I traded it in without any issues. The 2007 Range Rover I had was a very reliable go anywhere vehicle. If you browse through these forums, you will see may new Defenders have passed above the 100k miles with very happy owners. Upkeep and regular maintenance are the key to reliability with any car make.

 

I have to throw Honda under the bus in this discussion. I drove Accords in the 80's and early 90's. Over 60,000 miles a year in my sales job so I swapped them out every 2 years. Zero issues, just change the oil and replace the brake pads once. Now our family motor pool includes a 2019 Honda Passport that our kids drive. Just after the 3 year warranty was over at around 24K miles, the AC failed which was an $800 repair. Then some battery power management module failed a month later that cost $600. A recall letter just came in the mail for a defective a fuel pump that needs to be replaced. Hopefully that fuel pump keeps working until May since the Passport is away at a college.

 

I agree, at the end of the day quite honestly my heart just wasn't into fighting a battle like that. Several factors influenced my decision, if I were retired then I think I would've definitely taken up the lemon law battle and tried to have them make good on the whole thing. All of the going back and forth to the dealership was starting to impact my job, I can work remotely from the dealership and they set me up with a small desk but it's more difficult working off the laptop screen versus my usual dual monitor setup. Other factors in play were my payments honestly were a bit high for my budget and also trade values during covid were elevated so I wasn't underwater much. Cut and run came to mind. When I traded it in for the '22 Passport/Trailsport I was only 1k underwater and with no sales tax that transaction made better sense to me. The new car has been great, payment dropped by a third, haven't had a single problem with it in 2 years 30k miles, simply take it in for oil changes and they've done a recall or two, with the prepaid scheduled maint (Honda Care) my out of pocket costs are just putting regular gas into it. The only thing upcoming is it needs a set of tires soon, that'll be about 1k. However I'm looking to lower my payment even further due to taking on higher mortgage expenses so I will likely be trading it in soon and buying something cheaper outright with cash. No car payments for the next couple of years is the goal, then start saving some money. That's the plan anyway. I have nothing but good things to say about the Passport, the new model when it's released should make a great daily driver. I just want to reiterate that I'm not anti-JLR, I probably did just get a lemon and I have to believe most new ones are probably not nearly as naughty as mine was, I'm not even ruling out buying a used JLR vehicle over the next several weeks quite honestly, unfortunately the lack of extended warranty options make it a no-go for some of the older rovers on my radar.

 

Mine has been good. I bought it used and it had a couple issues on the lot - a loose sway bar end link and the nav wouldn't update. The dealer replaced the nav and end link under warranty. Nothing else of note after 27K miles. Service experience was outstanding at my dealer FWIW.

I have been a long time Toyota truck guy (two 4runners and a LandCruiser) so it was a leap for me to go Land Rover. In fact, the used Defender was to hold me over until the new Landcruiser came out. Instead, I am keeping the Defender and selling the 2014 Landcruiser I still have.

 

I’ve been very happy with my 2023.5 110 P400 X-Dynamic, now at 20K miles and going in for 21K service soon. It’s been flawless mechanically as a daily driver. As a first time LR owner I was nervous, but I have much more faith in the brand now that I’m 1.5 years in. Forums by nature will have discussions about problems, and mentally I was prepared for them - but it’s been great.

I’ve owned several BMWs, Audis, and a Porsche in the past - my supposedly “bullet proof” 2022 Macan was littered with issues and rattles. I have a 2022 BMW for my other car, and while I love it - it’s had its fair share of problems, including frequent software issues and a front differential needing a replacement at 18K miles. It’s still a great car. As others have said, I think you risk getting a bad vehicle at any brand, but I would encourage anyone considering a Defender to not let the bad LR reliability reputation scare them.

For what it’s worth, my only minor issues have been a dash and rear door rattle, both fixed - and an occasional black screen (maybe once every 3-4 months, usually when running errands with frequent on/offs). No big deal. I’ve done oil changes every 8K miles and will follow the service intervals. If it’s still in good shape at the end of its warranty, I’ll probably keep it and buy an extended warranty… which I’ve never done in my entire life.

There are certainly folks who have had problems on this forum, so I don’t want to pretend it’s not something to consider. My gut is the Defender in later production years is generally a reliable vehicle for most… as long as you don’t buy it and expect zero probability for something to go wrong. Happy shopping!

 

I previously owned a 2011 LR4. I put on 100,000 miles in 7 years with zero issues.
I now own a 2023 Defender P400 with 35,000 miles. zero issues other than the XM radio presets seem to stick meaning you switch to a new station, and while the station plays, the display shows its on the old station....its a minor annoyance.

 

I don't know what kind of extended warranties are offered but with any Land Rover product it's probably best to purchase a very slightly used one and spend the price difference you would have spent on a new one for an extended warranty. Or just lease one, then who cares how unreliable it might be!

 

My 2020 Defender 110 S P300 has 68K miles on it and I have not encountered any substantial problems. I have suffered a couple of broken windshields (plenty on this forum regarding that topic), a leaking auxiliary radiator (replaced under warranty), and a recurring problem on my front windshield, driver-side trim (thoroughly chronicled in this forum).

I have been very strict to change my oil with the specified synthetic every 5k miles and I have changed all the other fluids early (including the transmission, transfer case, braking, and differential fluids).

In my experience, the new Defender is much more fundamentally reliable than the LR4 (a vehicle which was pioneering much of the technology which is in the New Defender), and one much less expensive to own.

Enjoy!