No way! Oil change is every 2 years or 21K. Other than that it is rotate tires and everything else should be warranty.

 

It definitely could be a coincidence that the brand with the longest service intervals (please correct me if I’m wrong) is rated as the least reliable, but idk it seems like there might be something there.

If you have timing chain issues at 41K miles having done only ONE oil change you should not be surprised. There are going to be a bunch of 8 year old Defenders out there with 83K miles on them and only 3 oil changes in the life of the vehicle. I cannot imagine this is going to end well.

 

I would pass. Here’s why:

They apply the hard sell routine when you meet with the finance person - whether you are paying cash or financing. They give you all of the worst case horror stories.

Here is the sad reality:

Most of the prepaid items are a ripoff considering you don’t need as much service as you used to. Defenders don’t need frequent oil changes and most other items are covered under warranty.

The real issue is here in the US, most dealers are owned by either the god awful Sonic Automotive or AutoNation. If you move, chances are you won’t have the same corporate-owned dealer and your service contract won’t be honored by the other corporate-owned dealer. I had this happen with Land Rover West Houston. Never told me I could only use their service contract at an AutoNation-owned dealer and I moved to Colorado. None are AutoNation around here.

You can go to a different AutoNation dealer, such as a Ford dealership, but do you really want to take a Land Rover to a Ford or Toyota dealer?

 

I would suggest getting a price on the first three or four years of scheduled maintenance visits and then ask what the cost is to prepay. Either pay upfront by rolling it into the loan or pay as you go. Six of one or half dozen of another IMO. For me it's far better to have it rolled into the payment than coughing up lump sums at regular intervals but to each his own. Some people pay cash for cars upfront to save on financing. They're saving money. Can't argue with that but it's not for me.

The downside to prepaying is if they won't refund unused services. As I said my local dealer will refund so that may be different for everyone. Besides that, unless they're way inflating the cost I don't see the downside of prepaying. My local dealer just raised their hourly labor costs so by the time you do get in for years three and four do expect to pay a bit more on the fly.

There's also the people who don't get the scheduled maintenance done on time or at all until maybe something breaks, so yea those folks want nothing to do with this.

 

Except in very specific circumstances (Ferrari, Aston, etc.) these are never worth it. It’s a way for the dealer to pad deal profit gross and they have already calculated the pretty high odds of abandonment (vehicle totaled, vehicle traded or sold, etc.).

Why tie up your cash at a dealer when the capital could be working for you?

 

There are lots of folks advocating for more frequent oil changes. Based on experience, knowhow, prior JLR vehicles or a feeling of it just seems wrong and 21k can't be right.

It's contrary to what JLR advise. Even a member here who is a JLR insider advises following the prescribed 21k schedule.

These engines take a huge amount of oil and I'm inclined to follow the user manual on these things.

I had a very unscientific look at mine the other day. Still seems nice and pale in color at 14k miles and 9months. Would be nice to get a oil sample done but I'll not bother.

Prescribed schedule or a more frequent schedule; either way, there's no way I'd pay for a prepaid maintenance.

 

Less than a $20 bill per month in payment isn't going make much of a difference tbh. We're talking about payments way over $1000 per month, it's not a $350 car payment. The alternative is literally walking away paying several hundred with every scheduled maintenance visit on top of your payment, all of which needs to be sitting there in the bank anyway when they swipe your card. You could invest the $1200 upfront I suppose and then withdraw a chunk of that with each visit until it's gone. The net profit on that strategy with labor costs increasing every year anyway is going to be very minimal unless you're one hell of an investor.

There's really no reason why anyone has to buy an official LR prepaid 'plan'. In fact when I bought my 2022 Defender, JLR didn't even offer a prepaid plan for the 2022. I don't know about now but at that time they didn't, I called up JLR corp to complain about it. At that point they reached out to the dealership and they put together a plan for me by figuring the costs for four years prepaid maintenance. Any dealer will likely do the same thing, they aren't going to turn down money. Again I'd never do it if it wasn't refundable. If any dealer is telling someone non-refundable I'd steer clear of that dealer in the first place. What they did tell me is that the maintenance had to be done at that specific dealership, which I was perfectly fine with.

Score one for the Jaguar line, when I was thinking about buying an F-Pace the EliteCare was included. Too bad the rovers don't have the same.

 

“Was told by my dealer.” If it’s not in writing, don’t count on it. Just went through that with a lease for my girlfriend’s son. Was ‘told’ it came with all scheduled maintenance, but when he took it in for its first oil change he had to pay for it. He’s young and doesn’t know how to push back just yet, and lives halfway across the country, otherwise I would have paid a visit to dispute it. I had an extended maintenance on the vehicle I traded in for my Defender, but when making the deal, I made sure I saw the language in the contract stating a prorated refund on the unused portion. Dealerships make very little on the sale, most of their take comes from upcharges, service, maintenance, accessories and other packages.

 

For me, the math doesn't add up. Given the very long maintenance interval there are few opportunities to take advantage of the agreement. Secondly, the dealer is most likely quoting their own maintenance charges for comparison. In reality, a competent independent shop will be significantly less expensive. For example, my recent oil change was $140 in parts and $65 in labor. I've seen posts quoting dealer fees for the same service north of $600. Another is my dealer quoted $6k for a brake job - total BS. Again, an independent shop will charge significantly less.

 

It's in an email. So 'told' in this case is a poor choice of words on my part. There is no contract that I'm aware of for this prepaid scheduled maintenance. Maybe there is with an official land rover plan but then you'd likely be able to use such a plan at any LR dealer.