Got a letter from the dealership where I bought my current and previous RRS telling me they have "some good news" about my existing vehicle. It has my car's reg and a reference number to quote. Apparently I am a "nominated customer requested by Land Rover from the dealership's records".

Given that the letter comes from the head of sales at the said dealership, it is fairly predictable it would be about offering whatever they see as a good trade-in price for my RRS against another car. As I am hoping to move to a different marque next time I change, "good news" for me would be a decent sale price not tied to another purchase but I am not holding my breath for that.

I rang them but the entire sales team was busy and I have yet to receive a callback.

Over the last few days I have also received a free Land Rover Half Day Experience voucher and a separate invite to a "VIP event" offering "generous" discounts.

Has anyone else received some/all of the above? Current: Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription Pro PHEV with some optionals on top
Gone: MY16 RRS2 3.0 SDV6 Autobiography Dynamic, Carpathian Grey & Santorini Black Sliding Pano/Ebony & Ivory 2 Tone
Gone: MY13 RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Black Edition, Orkney Grey/Ivory
Gone: MY09 RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE, Santorini Black/Almond

As I am hoping to move to a different marque ???
Please tell what is on the Short list
Syd In Spain - 2018 F Pace - Frightened away from the Sports due to crank failures
Gone - A couple of RRS, A couple of Disco's. However thinking of another Sport.

Even the long list doesn't exist yet Syd I haven't really thought about it much as I was only planning to change just before the 3 year warranty expires in Sep. My interest in cars (not just LR but in general) has somewhat dwindled over the last year or two as I only have capacity for one hobby at a time. Haven't been reading/researching at all but will need to start soon with only 6 months to go. Most probably it will be a downgrade. I said that last time too but the main difference is that Mrs. is on-board this time round  Current: Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription Pro PHEV with some optionals on top
Gone: MY16 RRS2 3.0 SDV6 Autobiography Dynamic, Carpathian Grey & Santorini Black Sliding Pano/Ebony & Ivory 2 Tone
Gone: MY13 RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Black Edition, Orkney Grey/Ivory
Gone: MY09 RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE, Santorini Black/Almond

I have had another Land Rover Experience sent to me. Also I get offered a VIP event a least twice a year with generous discounts but they cant let me know what they are until I show up. Just another marketing gimmick. I accepted the experience as they are really good, but cant be bothered with the "VIP" event, probably a sausage roll & high pressure sales so they can get rid off a load of stock cars. I have had this before, they ask what your wish list is, go into Land Rover database then come up with the nearest match, then try to persuade you thats what you need
You are probably a nominated customer if your new car warranty is due to expire
Be sure they are not doing it cos they like you

I am under no illusions and have no reason to believe they like me I also get invited to their VIP events once or twice a year but never bothered attending. Only mentioned it because the event invitation combined with the "good news" letter referring to the current car and free LRE voucher, all landing within the space of a week or so sounded a bit too much. Current: Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription Pro PHEV with some optionals on top
Gone: MY16 RRS2 3.0 SDV6 Autobiography Dynamic, Carpathian Grey & Santorini Black Sliding Pano/Ebony & Ivory 2 Tone
Gone: MY13 RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Black Edition, Orkney Grey/Ivory
Gone: MY09 RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE, Santorini Black/Almond

I have a letter from the same dealership as you FK, offering me all sorts of favourable things to swap my car............. I have asked many times to be removed from their mailing list as it is a bit far for an afternoon chat with uninterested sales teams. I haven’t received the LREm invite so am not that high up the favoured customer rank yet! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

I've started receiving similar invites some from dealers I dealt with over 10 years ago

Sales must be tougher now - a far cry from the days when I left messages and waited days for call backs that never came  Wanted a Series 2 LR since childhood but previously owned MY16 Disco Sport HSE TD4 Auto, MY13 RR Sport Black Edition TDV6 Auto, MY10 RR Sport HSE TDV6 Auto, 2007 Freelander 1 Freestyle TD4 Soft Top, 2009 Freelander 2 GS TD4 Auto, 2007 Freelander 2 GS TD4, 2004 Disco 2 Metropolis Auto, 2002 Disco 2 GS, 2000 Freelander 1 SE TD4 SW

Still hoping for a S2 one day!

To update this, I did try to speak to someone regarding the “good news” TWICE on Friday but no one was available to talk to me or had the courtesy to return my calls. This was me contacting them in response to the letter THEY had sent me so the communication was initiated by THEM. Nice!

I had booked an appointment online to attend the “VIP” event at a specific time yesterday. When I showed up and the receptionist took me to the saleswoman, she didn’t have any record of our appointment and was waiting for another customer for an appointment that was made directly i.e. not via that marketing website. So I showed her the email confirmation with time, date and her name and she took it to show it to her manager. Came back to tell me it must be a website glitch as she had received other appointments through the website but not mine. She suggested I rebook and come back as there was no one available due to two simultaneous events (VIP and Good News). At that point I stopped being cool and calm, to say the least, and asked questions like who was responsible for those events, who initiated them and shouldn’t it be their responsibility to cope with any increased customer visits as a direct (and expected) result of their own actions? She didn’t have any answers for me but agreed with what I had said. I told her I wasn’t exactly local and wasn’t prepared to make the 40 minute (each way) journey again and was about to leave when she went to talk to the sales head who agreed to see me after a wait of 20-25 minutes. There were other people waiting for even longer to talk to someone too and clearly weren’t happy about it. Had I not kicked up a fuss, they would have just sent me back with a meaningless apology and asked to come back later.

The “good news” was LR, dealer and optionally finance company contributing towards deposit for a car that I could choose from a pool of prebuilt and unsold cars allocated to them by LR and part-ex my current car (shocking price btw for a 2.5 year old 21k miles car). All brand new and unregistered but all MY17 and all Diesel so the discount wasn’t very appealing, given there are significant changes in MY18. It does look like LR are struggling to shift some of the cancelled orders.

Apparently I have been “extremely lucky” for my name to be drawn out of the hat for two separate events (plus LRE). I also brought up the crankshaft/extended warranty issue which he was unaware of (fair enough, he was new). I asked if I decided to go for an approved used car instead, the crankshaft snapped and warranty claim rejected, could I get in writing that I would be covered by LR or dealership in such a scenario? The answer was “no” i.e nothing in writing at least.

The whole mismanaged experience has pushed me a bit further away from going for another LR next. Current: Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription Pro PHEV with some optionals on top
Gone: MY16 RRS2 3.0 SDV6 Autobiography Dynamic, Carpathian Grey & Santorini Black Sliding Pano/Ebony & Ivory 2 Tone
Gone: MY13 RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Black Edition, Orkney Grey/Ivory
Gone: MY09 RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE, Santorini Black/Almond

Words fail me

No wonder so many previously loyal customers are leaving  Wanted a Series 2 LR since childhood but previously owned MY16 Disco Sport HSE TD4 Auto, MY13 RR Sport Black Edition TDV6 Auto, MY10 RR Sport HSE TDV6 Auto, 2007 Freelander 1 Freestyle TD4 Soft Top, 2009 Freelander 2 GS TD4 Auto, 2007 Freelander 2 GS TD4, 2004 Disco 2 Metropolis Auto, 2002 Disco 2 GS, 2000 Freelander 1 SE TD4 SW

Still hoping for a S2 one day!

I asked those at home to phone the dealer and decline the invitation. Yesterday another invitation came in from the local dealership too. So just how VIP are all those who have been invited? Not very if thousands of letters have been sent out. Both dealers reply to my mother who called to,say I wasn’t going was “oh thank you, people don’t usually bother to tell us they aren’t coming to these events, is there any reason why Mr Oiver isn’t going to attend?” She told them I’m not buying another Land Rover and why (she knows the reasons why) Like you FK the dealer denied there was a problem over extended warranty or snapping cranks. Land Rover really needs to wake up that this problem IS putting people off buying SDv6 engined cars. I was contacted by the guy who runs our Green Road club as he wants to change his 2003 FFRR V8 for a late plate used D4 and asked about the cranks issue that he has read about. He says that both Glasgow dealerships he approached told him that there is no problem for cars built after January 2015.......... I said to look on the D3, D4 and RRS forums and he will see cars built quite recently have still got the problem..... for the first time in his driving career he has decided that as he needs 7 seats he will not buy a Land Rover but will buy a used Q7 or XC90 instead - he isn’t bothered about lack of off road ability, he will run his faultless 2003 L322 FFRR into the ground as an offroad toy. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

lol, by the time they phone you back the crankshaft would have snapped and the car would be far too old for them to resell.

Jokers.  SVR 2018 in Santorini Black.

I will re-evaluate our need to have an SUV when I get some time to properly think and research. If we do decide to go for an SUV again, I might want 7 seats for occasional use and XC90 is something I will definitely consider. 7 seats (and bigger boot) was the main reason I asked about used cars/warranty/crank as I don’t like D5 so with D4, buying used is the only option obviously. A top spec 2015 D4 with 16-17k miles at £38k (before any discounts) seems good value compared to well above double price for a new RRS AB but not if you factor in self-funding a new engine during your ownership. I know the (un)likelihood of that happening but the outlay is too large for my risk appetite. If it was up to £3-4K I would just consider it cost of ownership of a used and relatively cheap car and if it didn’t break, it would be a bonus. Not at c.£15k unfortunately. Current: Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription Pro PHEV with some optionals on top
Gone: MY16 RRS2 3.0 SDV6 Autobiography Dynamic, Carpathian Grey & Santorini Black Sliding Pano/Ebony & Ivory 2 Tone
Gone: MY13 RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Black Edition, Orkney Grey/Ivory
Gone: MY09 RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE, Santorini Black/Almond

muddywheels wrote:

I've started receiving similar invites some from dealers I dealt with over 10 years ago

Sales must be tougher now - a far cry from the days when I left messages and waited days for call backs that never came

I have not had a RR for 3 years now, but still receive VIP invites. I don't mind having the Landrover Experience vouchers. Very nice half day out. I have done 4 in last 5 years  itisme

I've definitely noticed as I've got older that my tolerance for incompetence is virtually nil especially when they just shrug it off (a phrase in work is the I don't give a feck valve is wire locked open). In this case I'd have done just like you have, but my mind would be made up and put your hard earned elsewhere, why would you expose yourself to this?

Steve. 2006 2.7 TDV6 HSE in Cairns Blue.

I'm on my second RRS, the first bought from a LR dealer, the second one was bought privately. I never got any LRE vouchers the first time (obviously not the second time either!). I haven't used LR for work for three years but I still get sales emails telling me of "great offers". They all look to be expensive to me, to be honest. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed