The problem with their explanations and a lot of advice you’ll read on the internet is that no evidence is offered to justify what sounds like loosely scientific justification.
Many people continue to change oil every 3,000 miles because grandpa used to do it and he never had a problem. Well, he may never have had a problem if he did it every 5,000 miles either but we’ll never know. I mean, you could do it every 1,000 miles then, or every time you drive the vehicle, where’s the harm? Anything other than the manufacturers researched and tested intervals is just spending extra money in the hope (and it is hope, there is no evidence to support the rationale) to not have to spend extra money.
The manufacturers test the vehicles in the desert and in the arctic. They normally give a schedule that works out fine for everyone (as in you could get away with longer intervals under certain conditions just as you may need shorter ones ideally in extreme ones). If you do a lot of short journeys and live in extreme cold or you do a lot of towing in hot ones you could do it more frequently if the manual says so.
As for corroded cables, do you know how long that takes from humidity?!
You’re being robbed as you’ve recognized.

 

Got to love their explanations!!!

The D5 comes with an AGM battery in the cabin, I have yet to see an AGM develop corrosion on the terminals.

They want how much to put a can BG44K in the tank??? Fuel system treatment is just code for wallet padding, you can buy a can and DIY for a tenth of the price.

If they are so concerned about moisture in the drive train, why is the front diff not on the list?? Front diffs do more on these than the transfer case anyway, permanent 4WD still does have the center diff nearly as much as the front diff. You can easily spot it on the fluid when changing.

Surprised they didn’t try a transmission flush 😂

 

Despite the fact that I’ve fought with them on about 5 occasions in a year and a half I kinda feel that’s how they view me.

Vehicle on delivery had sticky terrain control dial. Salesman said they often stick from lack of use but that if it didn’t clear up it would be replaced. It didn’t clear up, service said there was pop spilled in it so not covered. Repeatedly told them this was a sales commitment, they just fogged that part and kept refusing to fix it. Went to dealership service manager privately, got apology and work done free.

Had leaking windshield, they couldn’t book it for month, fought at length to get it in after a few weeks, refused to give a loaner, end up sending the truck to a local glass place as they aren’t set up to do windshields anyways... hmm could have sent me there directly two weeks ago?

Drivers door touch locks not working very often, told me they work 100% wet or not in their testing so no issue. Involve service manager and send her multiple cell phone videos of door locks not working, oh now they can replicate and the handle needs replaced.

Goes in for incontrol update, and to fix the drivers door handle touch lock again, they have truck for 2 days due to multiple corruptions of the install (figure this not their fault) but told by service advisor prior to pickup the truck is 100% done and he personally checked. Show up and the door handle was completely forgotten by everyone to the point where the part wasn’t even ordered. Advisor dances around the fact that he outright lied about having checked.

First year free service is slightly late due to them resetting the reminder wrong, they refuse to apply the credit and direct me to corporate who was astoundingly rude on top of refusing to apply it. Again contact service manager and get abject apology and a credit for the service.

Been in for a few other issues and they never have loaners, always have a 2+ week wait for any problem even if it’s an engine light on (that was a bad o2 sensor) and just never seem to go smooth.

Am I expecting too much? We have several Lexus and a Mercedes that all were bought used/CPO and get way, way better service. The LR people are all really nice (aside from corporate) and the Service Manager has told me twice that she knows they have a poor service experience and was brought in to improve it but I’m kinda staggered that even with me, a guy that’s had to go to her x3 for issues out of maybe x6 visits total they are still jerking me around.

 

I don't even wpork for LR, but you have my apologies for having to deal with that. Luckily I've been working on cars since I was too young to drive. I let them screw me on rear brakes at the 32K service, though I don't know how ANY car can go through rear brakes in 30k miles. I also figured out how to reuse the LR urea bottles so i don't pay their exhorbitant DEF fee when I cant wait for an appointment. Which btw a 10 minute job takes 4 hours at the dealer. The service advisor is good, but I have a couple pieces of exterior trim that don't look like santorini black to me, but blue. He says that's normal sun fade. Wow, my 20 year old boat hasnt faded that badly.

If I was having that many problems with the door locks, I would put them on the clock and start the lemon process, that should get their attention.

BTW. I bought a LR "Reacquired" vehicle, meaning a lemon. Got a great deal on it and, haven't had the first problem and I've put about 17k miles on it in less than a year. Once the do the CPO examination and repair all findings it seems to resolve a lot of these issues. Just finished putting on an aftermarket set of roof rails to carry the kayaks while I'm got our bikes on the back. Looking forward to some time out west this summer and fall.

 

To be honest a lot of what you mention sounds like my local dealer, namely never enough loaners and backlogged service. That said my dealer just built a massive new service dept and are naturally now promising the world so let’s see what happens.
None of their work is checked either. I had a paint problem that no-one picked up on in PDI and when they fixed it it came back far far worse than when it went in. I kicked up such a stink that I had the body shop manager, sales manager and service manager all on the call while I read the riot act. The fact the work wasn’t done right is one thing, the fact that nobody checked or even saw it from the driver who brought it back from the body shop to the service manager at the dealer or even the car washer means failures at multiple levels. Work simply isn’t checked by anyone. So I got the service manager who said he would personally check it when it came back from attempt number 2. Now, I don’t know if he checked it or not but I did point out to him that if i am handed the keys and I see it less than perfect I want a full refund on the spot. I honestly don’t understand how nobody checks anything, I’ve never worked at a company like that, heck even back street garages have the owner of the business normally give the work a quick once over before they give you your car back so a high end outfit like these have no excuses.
In some ways I feel sorry for Land Rover, well, at least the engineers, because the quality control checks from the factory just aren’t there, and the dealerships don’t do any either. All this is so easily and cheaply resolved I just keep scratching my head as to why they’re still in the same mess they were 20 years ago...
I had a CPO Jaguar XF that admittedly had no problems (one slight rattle in passenger door from an unclipped cable which they tracked down and solved immediately for free) and the dealership service dept was great. And Jaguar and LR are the same company! I despair...

 

If my dealer treated me like yours does I'd find another dealer. If there were no other dealer I wouldn't own a Land Rover unless it was off warranty and I had a good independent mechanic that specializes in LRs.

 

I'm with you! My LR dealer is terrific. Flexible, friendly and quality is great. So it clearly depends massively on the particular local dealer you have

Sadly LR seems to have too many of the poor dealers out there. If yours isn't performing and you have an alternative I'd suggest you try them.