Hello Chaps

For many years now i have been a background stalker on this site and i have read a million stories regarding Range Rover problems, along with some occasional happy posts regarding RRS ownership.

I purchased my car through a member here (Russ) as he was about to part exchange it against a new model and i offered the same as the part ex value and a deal was done. At the time (Jan 2011) it was a 3 year old TDV8 HSE 33k on the clock with lots of lovely options such as dynamic control, adaptive headlights, heated steering wheel, leather upgrade etc... and i adored it. It was a peach to drive and was a truly lovely car to own and be proud of, "Was" being the past tense now.

Over my 4 years of ownership the car was serviced and and maintained by an approved Land Rover service centre with any work it needed doing done straight away, such as front ARB which started knocking, and general wear and tear issues such as hand break, discs, pads etc... i have full service records that total thousands of pounds over my ownership.

Last september (2014) it was due its annual MOT, which having new rear discs and pads just a month prior i wasn't to concerned about any nasty surprises or massive expense. The car had done 75k and passed the MOT without an issue, the next service was due Jan 2015 so everything was still wonderful in the world of Range Rover ownership, until about a day after the MOT. I started the car as normal on my way to work and could here a small squeak that picked up and dropped with the revs, no warning lights or anything just what sounded like a loose fan belt. So after inspection it was obviously not a fan belt and upon investigation from the same Land Rover service centre it was diagnosed as a snapped stud on the manifold and it was the exhaust gases leaking out under pressure. The body had to be lifted off to resolve the problem and after 6 weeks (yes 6 weeks) and £1800 worse off the car was returned. Whilst the body was lifted i had my pants pulled all the way down when i was shafted for the alternator also as these can be notorious on the TDV8 model and i didn't want any further issues coming into the winter when the demand from the battery would be higher, so that was totted onto the bill also...... nice!!!

So two days of happy Range Rover ownership again and this time "bing" lit up like a christmas tree "Slow Down and Stop Engine" was displayed with suspension lights all over the dash. Luckily this was whilst i was local to my house and only about 3 miles from home. However i pulled over and after i had stop and started the engine it was still showing the warning message. I called the Land Rover service center and spoke with them and informed them of the message to which was asked "is it driving ok, does it feel normal to drive" to which i had said "Yes, just on my way home was feeling normal" so i was advised to bring it down to them as soon as i was able for further investigation. However the next morning when leaving i noticed a big stain under the car, and upon closer inspection of all the fluid levels it turned out to be the DSC fluid was empty, so after a call to the Land Rover service centre again they sent a feller out to my house with some fluid and i drove it back to them.... again.

The diagnostic this time was that the DSC had been leaking and allowed the pump to run dry and destroy itself and i was raped for another £1200. This was frustrating to accept because i personally believe this was due to the issue related to the body lift.... however it was my word against theirs and they don’t touch the DSC to rip the head off an engine and helicoil every fecking stud on it....apparently. So now on the second week in December i was just glad to get the bloody car back and be mobile again.
During its first little jaunt to have the body lifted in September i had raised a issue with Land Rover customer service regarding the cost and inconvenience of having manifold issues on what in my opinion is a relatively young car with full LR Service and this should just not happen to a car that has seen only 75-6K and had an easy and well cared for life. They disagreed at first but after listening to the issues LRCS did on the 18th October issue a goodwill payment of 25%, now that in my opinion was acceptable, it restored a little faith in the brand and took the edge off such a whacking great bill just prior to Christmas. It did however take from the 16th October when LR customer services issued the authorization for the 25% and the 6th Jan 2015 for the service centre to actually issue the cheque, after weekly phone requests to ask what the hold up was, only to be fobbed of with crap about LRCS not having authorized the payment to them, cheque was in the post, must have been lost in the christmas mail etc... However the cheque was mysteriously found and signed when i turned up as i was passing on my day off..... go figure that one out?

So new year 2015 and after investing a fair old whack in the car the family decision was to keep for a further year and look for a replacement Range Rover Sport for the back end of 2015. This would have allowed a little more time for the current model to become more readily available second hand and less of a depreciation hit from buying new. I prefer to buy my cars this way as i feel i can keep a high residual in my cars by looking after them and then after 3/4 years part ex again or sell and not get hit with as much loss ( i have all the receipts for my HSE and it cost the original owner in the region of 80K, to which i paid just over 30k 3 years after.... no brainer to me.

So the decision to run for another year was made and because i really liked the car still i wasn't unhappy to do this..... until Saturday the 3rd of Jan when after a brief meeting at work i got in my RRSport four hours later and when i started the engine it was smoking badly and was a knocking coming from what sounded to me like the timing chain. I had a gut feeling about this one and after recovery i got the car taken down to LR service centre. After a week i got a call stating that the engine had blown and the oil was full of swarf and metal, so in a nutshell it was shagged and needed a new engine.... which would cost in excess of 6k with them (actually closer to 8 if were splitting hairs)

So i find myself on the phone again to LR Customer services ranting and raging about the product and its poor quality and if they thought it was acceptable to have to replace an engine on a vehicle with 76k on the clock full LRSH etc... etc... and to answer that question directly....



yes. Its and old car (7 years is old apparently) and they are not going to offer anything (even an apology) as to resolution or customer satisfaction regarding the brand that is Range Rover. I purchased the car privately and thus i am not a Land Rover customer apparently... and the seven years of stamps in the book and LR maintenance count for all of nothing. I how have a scrap value vehicle which would have been valued at 15 - 18 thousand if it had an engine that worked.

I have a small family business (along with a day job) that leases 4 Land Rover vehicles and has done so for the past 2 years... and i still have no accreditation with LR? i’m genuinely gobsmacked that LR feel this is acceptable and will do nothing to help assist the repair or replacement.

Please read all this and make of it what you will. I have never believed all the stories of pain and misery from TDV8 owners... now i must join you in the growing list of of people that bought a bloody Range Rover instead of a German Audi Q7 or BMW X5.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DONT BUY A RANGE ROVER SPORT!!!

its just not worth the hassle 08MY HSE 3.6 TDV8 Stornoway Grey, Twisted performance cat back... and shed loads of extras!!!

Terrible story to hear, I did a lot of homework before buying ours and decided on a super charged after the horror story's with regards to the tdv8 and the tdv6, I had the vogue ff td6 that was forever needing money throwing at it, rebuilt gear box, eas pump and most of the suspension replaced, new brake pipes etc,it's the best car in the world when its running with no issues and a pile of when they let you down.

It's a brand you buy with a knot in your stomach

Yea I got a £4,400 bill there on my service last week. Same as he as yourstatus and same colour and engine lol. But I love it so much. Driving anew x5 or audi or cayenne would always leave me feeling a want for a sport.

They are so sexy; commanding and it turns heads even with it being the old model now.

My mates in work live it and it makes me feel proud and a sense of achievement every time a working class lad gets in it. I've grafted my way to owning one and would buy another in a heart beat.

Very sorry to hear what has happened to you and it was not resolved. Land rover are cap in that regard. They just got lucky creating such a darn beautiful machine.

I had an alfa romeo GTV cup. Beautiful machine. But so so so bad to keep in your driveway  

Yet countless ads for this model with way over 70k miles on the clock. So, granted, not as reliable as some makes (so says JD Power and us), but let's not imply every piece off the production line was / is a lemon or lost cause.

But sorry for your loss because this truely sucks. I hope you can get a half decent price for it so you can out it behind you. L405 P400e Autobiography (MY2020)... Silicon Silver / Espresso
RRS TDV6 HSE Lux (MY2011)... Nara Bronze / Arabica - now gone!

Exactly the same as me "designboy" (real name unknown) i to have worked frigging hard to get what i have and yes just like you it was a massive pride factor driving arround in it and giving mates lifts always to be greated with "i love this car" when they got in it or "heated rear seats, you flash tw@" was another of my smug grin moments.

However now its the hit on the life style change, with two kids and grandparents living in Gaydon and Doncaster it is a fair old journey to make in a smaller car eapecialy when its full of baby parfinalia, dog, wheelchair etc... Its just wrong of Land Rover to shrug this off in my opinion.

The car would have been my deposit for the next modle, but now starting from scratch again when i have got the money for a heafty deposit it aure as hell wont be getting put against anything with a LR badge on. I have been looking at the Cayenne, and im sure that i wont be looking at a new engine every few years with one of those..... And that on its own is enough to hold water over the kerb appeal of a RRS. 08MY HSE 3.6 TDV8 Stornoway Grey, Twisted performance cat back... and shed loads of extras!!!

I guess LR don't like the "twisted performance cat back" that you have fitted.......

Sorry to hear about your RRS problems.

I'm now on my second RRS, and both of them have very reliable.So there are some good ones out there  2014 L405 SDV8 RR Autobiography

2012 RRS SDV6 HSE -Orkney Grey with A/B bodykit - Now Gone
2007 RRS TDV6 HSE - Zermatt Silver - Gone

The cat back exhaust system (that was fitted by the previous owner in its first year of life) is as relevant to the cars performance as the CD's in the stereo.

The issue now is trying to find something that is as comftable as the RRS with a fair amount of perfomance, and big enought for my personal situation..... The market isnt exactly flooded with choice.

Q7 is ugly (IMO)
X5 has equaly as many horror storys when it comes to servicing.
And the Cayenne just doesnt do it for me.

I drove a Quattroporte the other day but was only the 4.2 and i dont think i could fit in it with the full tribe, then i have the Panamera which was nice but pricey for what it was. 08MY HSE 3.6 TDV8 Stornoway Grey, Twisted performance cat back... and shed loads of extras!!!

Tommy boy

+1 on the choice of alternatives- I drove a new X5 last year, it was an awful ride, bangy and crashy, there just isn't a comparable alternative to Range Rover

Take your chances on the car that you buy and hope you have a good one

Reecy

Tommy - boy it sounds like you loved your RRS just as much as the rest of us when it was running good and maybe any other car will be a disappointment to you.why don't you bite the bullet and put a secondhand engine in the one you have got and PX it against another RRS and keep the new one under manufacturers warranty as long as you own it . Just an idea...........

This is a real horror story but surely a decent warranty would have taken most of the drama out of it.

Just to clarify

Im not wanting a new engine for nothing, just some recognition and acknowledgement from LR. And maby a cobtribution towards the parts? After all it is the product that is a fault IMO not the vehicle history. It just makes you think twice when investing hard earnt cash. 08MY HSE 3.6 TDV8 Stornoway Grey, Twisted performance cat back... and shed loads of extras!!!

Mine did something similar, required a new engine which finished up at £16k with turbos and labour. Well documented on here but what isn't was the resolution as I was sworn to secrecy over the settlement. Mine had 49k miles in the clock, full dealer history having just been serviced weeks before it lunched itself. PM me and will give you few pointers and contacts to get some help  2x TDV6. SE and HSE. Both returned to sender with issues👀
TDV8 Sport HSE...... Gone. Loved it but it didn't love me!!
Now rolling in MY10 Fullfat TDV8 Vogue. Slammed it to go round corners🙈
Cruising daily #56 mph in a Volvo V8. 😱
Lots of other toys in the cupboard...😜

That's a shocking tale and is unfortunately all too common with RR. One element of almost all the horror stories is the way they escalate from a single fault, which after attention by the dealer leads to a completely new and unrelated fault, and after they fix this, another unrelated problem.

It is therefore difficult not to conclude that the basic cause of these scenarios is that many of the dealerships are ill-equipped to do proper repairs. This may be due to weak support by JLR or poorly qualified mechanics. Whatever, it seems that the original fault is often mis-diagnosed and that careless work or a poor understanding of the proper repair procedures leads to mistakes in the re-assembly process which causes another failure, often of an unrelated system.

JLR must be aware of this and it would be interesting to hear their response. Right now they seem focussed on new products and the first owner; and to hell with those who come after.

Meanwhile, the indie route is probably the best way to go unless you are near one of the proven good dealerships.

FWIW my local dealership workshops are open fronted bays and very cramped and dark. The local Merc and BMW workshops are in a different league - large, light, enclosed, clean floors, big wide bays. If I was a mechanic I know where I would rather work! 2011 TDV6 HSE Stornoway grey, ivory trim

Life's too short to drive an ugly car.

tommy-boy wrote:

Exactly the same as me "designboy" (real name unknown) .

Chris is my name, I'm a Belfast lad who designs stuff for a living.


Honestly really sad to read what happened to you mate, I hope your next motoring repays you with a good investment. I always tell my wife every car costs money, you never make anything off them. Like taking a train, you pay your way for it but get the addition of having it parked at the door. It will always charge you for the rides you take in it and you never ever will come away with cash in your pocket over one.

But I hope somewhere you enjoyed the memory of owning one, driving it on the first day and remember it most. The crap that happened is mental. But don't have it ruin you from buying your dream. I'm worried mine is going to cost me a fortune, but hanging onto hope.