discovery

[DJ_374371907]

John L. Thank you, but we bought 4x4 for 4X4 attributes. our experience is of two brand new Discovery 3 and of LR loan cars!

Then there are the others we've met at dealers and the people writing reports on What Car. I now believe that to be a sister magazine to PC and this site. That's without any other web reports.

We bought a flat screen TV that had a defective digital TV problem. The dealer uplifted it and supplied us with a slightly superior model to compensate for the inconvenience.

All we got from Land Rover dealer was trouble for daring to ask for a car fit for purpose. To get the first car replaced we had to act with two other customers with similar problems and stamp are feet and add the weight of threatening legal letters.

Our second car ended up costing us several thousand lost pounds to get rid of it.

Anything we got from Land Rover came after a fight, at one break down a service manager even suggested the problem was probably our fault as we were using the car off road.

The car failed on a moderate slope in a mowed grass field 300 matresfrom where we left the road, being the supreme British off road product seemed to go right over the guys head!

If the Discovery 3 is truly such a great reliable car why did we have so much difficulty trading it? Why did other makers sales teams when checking the car know what problems we'd had without us mentioning them?

All we asked for was a car fit for purpose and a little help,respect and consideration when they went wrong. Buying a car that cost 40+ times more than a TV and being treated like some modern day leper is not acceptable where we come from.

John L our two car experience may not be indicative of what others may experience but then again others fault free fuel efficient experience is just as unlikely to be indicative of what another buyer may experience if you go and look at others reports and creep around the back of you local LR dealers service area to find the truth.

 

[DJ_374371907]

I hate to say this and its by no means personal,but i do agree with DJ,uk manufactors and dealers,have shot them selves in the foot,with bad service out of date products,and now it shows,very little or maybe none uk owned car manufactors,most surely no uk truck makers.its gone a bit sad.as for LR people spout on about freelander 1 ,surely not petrol k series,forget carring spare wheels ,spare head gaskets more like it.LR just carried on churning them out.research and development?

200 and 300 tdi funny enough ive got one in my workshop(latter) still suffering with the same faults as 20 years ago.

Disco 3 should be good,borrow someone elses engine,(2.7 hdi)

so at least thats sorted ,now its just everythink around it.

after all it was LR parent companie(BL)who destroyed the uk vehicle industry.

Thank you Seth. I appreciate that.

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

DJ, I did not suggest that your predicament was in any way funny, my reply was mainly tongue in cheek at the previous poster.

The LR debate crops up from time to time on this forum, somebody contemplating buying one - from our experiences of LR, and they go back many years with various models, we have yet to have a dud one, none of them have ever let us down, and apart from regular servicing etc, have never cost us copious amounts of money. If somebody asks us, could you recommend a LR, then the answer would undoubtly, have to be yes! :O)

 

[Garfield]

I may be a Luddite tecnophobe but this post sums up what I dislike about modern cars, whilst I would not want to go back to the rust bucket death traps of the 1970's, at least when they went wrong you could usually fix them with a large hammer, adjustable wrench and a bent screwdriver! (well, maybe not quite but at least you didnt need a morgage for spare parts)

although the head gasket went on our Sharan at 110000miles, mechanically it was sound but it was the "frills" that went into system failiure, Central locking, wiper motor (

 

[Dexter1]

DJ, It appears that the answer is simple. You should never buy another LR product and probably quite rightly so, based on your exeperiences. I, on the other hand, shall probably buy another D3 based on my experiences to date although I would veer away from some other marques for exactly the same reasons.

As always it is not so much the vehicle problems that are the issue but more how these are managed and dealt with. It appears that you experienced an unfortunately poor dealer who did not do what you expected. Usually there are two sides to all stories and it would be interesting to hear their version of events (although not possible) to allow a balanced view.

Should anyone have any doubts further queries etc can be answered on a specific D3 forum - disco3.co.uk

Gordon

 

[RogerP]

In 25 years of motoring I've own many different cars and motorbikes.

British , german , japanese , french , italian etc etc I've never experienced the kind of failures DJ is detailing with one Brand / model across the 30+ different vehicles I've probably owned.

My biggest failures were a Alfa 156 ECU that controled the sequential gearbox. Dealer fixed and returned the car in 3 days , which included getting the part shipped from Italy.

The other was when the fuel injector on my wifes Freelander failed. The only reason that caused me grief was to do with the warranty from the non LR dealer , the warranty company insisted it went into the supplying garage (Carcraft for those who have ever had the misfortune) they couldn't fix it in nearly 3 weeks so I had it taken to LR Dealer who got the problem fixed within 24 hours.

I dont dispute DJ has had a torrid time with LR. For me I'd never buy an Audi. I've worked in the Breakdown industry for 20 years and they are above and beyond the worst marque , for me , minor failures and lack of dealer / factory support.

Some Audi and VW owners of a few years ago may remember the dreaded light switch relay problems they had. Dealers had 20-30 cars , and more , sat in compounds for months waiting for a replacement relay. VWG would not even sanction a temporary fix , which one dealer found could get cars back on the road , and opted to keep customers in hire cars.

Then there was a coil problem and the same happened.

DJ out of interest what car have you settled on since your LR debacle?

 

[DJ_374371907]

Thanks for the laugh.

I just loved the Disco3 forum, 49% of owners suffered parking brake problems!

As for suffering a poor dealer, our two Disco 3 would break down an develop faults at any time and any where. They rarely had the decency to go wrong near to the local dealer.

Apart from LR Assistance the AA and Green Flag and continental break down services we must have been to about 17 different dealers. Some were better than others, but nothing you could really cheer about.

One French dealer was the only one who really gave service and he also lent us his wifes X5 diesel so we could move camp sites. I think he was trying to tell us something, when we collected the Disco it had not only been fixed but had been fully valeted and was topped up with diesel as we had to wait for the car as they had to order parts in.

 

[Dexter1]

DJ, with the best of intentions, it sounds like you need to laugh more

Actually 49% of those that answered the survey have experienced EPB problems which doesn't necessarily equate to 49% of owners. As we know, owners are more likely to shout about negatives than positives.

What vehicle did you eventually settle on, I hop ethat it is a good one.

Gorodn

 

[ed1]

hello everyone,

i asked earlier,DJ, what car do you have now, and i feel that you have had a bad run with landrover, but you will not change peoples minds by your experience, only make them aware of some problems, i will continue buying landrover regardless of what your experience is, until maybe one day it catches me out, but as for saying people making positive comments may be part of the lr mafia, dont think so, but surely you are no longer with your landrover, so you should not be feeling this bitter, so what car do you have. regards ED

 

[emmerson2]

Never had a Disco of any series, always been a Range Rover Classic fan, personally. However my mate has only ever had Land Rovers, from series 1 upwards for the last 52 years.He now drives a Hyundai Terracan, because his Disco 3, after a list of faults, finally caught fire, whilst driving, and burnt to a pile of ash in less then 15mins. Absolutely terrifying for him and his wife, but almost as bad was the attitude from both the dealer and from Land Rover.Total apathy about describes them. Terrible experience for them, but I'll still extoll the virtues of pre 1995 Range Rovers. After that year, Land Rover began to go off course, and imo have never recovered. However, they must please some of the people, as sales keep rising, year on year.

 

[DJ_374371907]

Sorry Ed but I do also have to work, I currently drive an M5 Touring and my wife has the tow car a Toyota that will be replaced by a BMW next year.

Emmersons post is interesting. As for smiling and humour those traits are hard to keep up after being warn down by LR dealersand I fully support Emmerson's friends view "but almost as bad was the attitude from both the dealer and from Land Rover.Total apathy about describes them" Having witnessed more than our fair share of bust ups between digruntled owners and LR dealer staff as well as reaching the depths of despair ourselves I found the following interesting from the What Car Discovery 3 reviews many that are of quite recent cars.

" I was worried about the catalogue of woeful stories by many Discovery owners.

I wish to point out that the WHATCAR review of the Disco baffles and worry me. Its reviewer completely ignores numerous concerns by owners, which may be understandable; but why does it award an overall rating of 5 stars to the Discovery when in fact, the average score calculated from all 9 criteria assessed is less than 4 stars (i.e. 35 stars divided by 9).

Perhaps WHATCAR wishes to argue that its' overall criteria are weighted in favour of safety/security, space/practicality and equipment levels. My further question would be: why not apply same to other cars in the group, in particular the Volvo and BMW?

Most cars in your reviews are correctly awarded overall ratings based on what appears to be simple arithmetic average; but not the Discovery."

I feel that having had so much of our time and money wasted by LR and much of our time in the UK and our leisure time spoilt by LR and their poor products and service we have every right to feel bitter.

If ours and others who have experienced faiings of LR prevent others from falling in to the LR Spin then we have saved others from the hell of LR as well as saving them money.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello all,

I expect that most of us would be as appalled as yourself if we had suffered the same stream of bad fortune as DJ. Whilst I can sympathise with his predicament, clearly there are others who have not had such a demoralising experience with LR's, and are entitled to their own point of view.

I am sure Mark now has enough information to garner his own view on the subject, and further correspondence with ever increasing tales of good & bad will not help, but hinder his decision making process.

Personally I feel this thread has run its course. And I encourage everyone to refrain from further posts here.

 

[ed1]

hello.

totally agree with john l, its run its course, never mind dj, its now off your chest, and youve made more people aware, good for you, im sure everyone in exactly the same position would do the same, but not everyone is, and im also sure some people would be greatful of the advice, then they can make their own minds up, happy caravanning dj and wife, (by the way, i do like the touring, but its not big enough for my needs, ), regards ED

 

[Steven_374224300]

Get a Series II Land Rover.

It will pull any caravan anywhere. Insurance is

 

[DJ_374371907]

Fair enough but I would just point out that our two Discovery 3 were not isolated cases!

Others here have posted of other problems with the car and there are very many others with problems and many like us with recently built cars. There seems to be some sort of line that it was only the early build cars that were a problem. Not the case.

As for Steven and his series 11 Landrover. On one of our first UK caravan trips we did a day out in Cornwall to a place with taditional horse drawn caravans. Would we swap our modern caravan with double glazing fridge and other modern comforts for days of old?

I think not! Having bounced and rattled around Africa in a Landrover on a year out I wouldn't want to caravan in a Bean Can again and expect to travel in a car that equates to modern day living standards.