After having 2 cars for me and downsizing to one (excluding my wife’s car as she has what she wants) due to reduced garaging, I went from an L320V8 and an F80 M3 to an L494 V8SC. Logical choice, power, comfort, quality, luxury, driving position etc. I was so looking forward to owning the L494, I had started to really like the shape looking like a modern step up from the L320, which is still a good-looking car. Pano sunroof, 22” wheels, nice big tyres, decent (ish) stereo and the power, performance and fabulous sonorous growl of the 5.0 SC engine, well, it all pointed to love.

But so far, the ownership experience has not really lived up it where it needs to be. If I didn't have such an excellent dealer with an excellent service department, I would be ropable. As it is, I am just very disappointed. I probably haven't had a huge number of serious faults, leaking Dynamic Response pipe, numerous software issues, new brakes due to squealing and now a new telematics control unit which is on order from LRUK, these faults are very annoying, no, unforgivable actually on a £100k vehicle which is 11 months old and has 5000 miles.

My car is spending a fair amount of time in the workshop, almost 4 weeks since new.
My wife's ex demo Mercedes A Class which cost about £20k has had 2 scheduled services, and spent 4.5 hours in the workshop in 18 months. My L320 with 60k miles only spent 1 day in the workshop in 6 months for servicing, likewise the M3 only ever required routine servicing and my specified oil changes, total 2 days in 2 years, mostly done on time and not miles as it wasn’t my daily driver.

The 10-inch touch screen in the RRS is like something out of the 1970s in terms of functionality, try scrolling through the phone contacts while watching the road, look up for a second and you have inadvertently pocket dialled someone, maybe its my poor scrolling technique. But any system which requires this amount of hand to eye coordination while driving is poorly designed. Not to mention the sticking song titles which even the loan car suffers from where 1 song is playing via BT but the song title 5 songs ago is still displayed. Whether its Audi’s MMI, BMW’s I Drive or whatever MB calls their system, all of them are streets ahead in terms of stability, reliability and usability.

I can only imagine the potential nightmares faced by Velar and MY18+ owners as they try to work all the functions now controlled by a touch screen. Technology for the sake of technology, sometimes you can’t beat a control knob.

For the price of the car, there are some cheap part horror stories. The door bins are worse than those on a Kia, so close to the driver’s seat that barely anything can be put in them with the door closed and mad of such cheap plastic that they scuff with the slightest touch of the foot and don’t even mention the half size driver’s mat, the most heavily used footwell and a pathetic mat which would allow all kinds of mud etc to pool around the pedals. £100k car, half size mat, really.

So, all in all, not an inspiring 11 months, although I have probably escaped with fewer problems than some.

I have had enough, the prospect of long-term ownership even with warranty is not enticing. I wanted to love it and I have tried, even yesterday as I was driving the loan car, I wondered if I was being too critical and that that the V8SC really was worth the £100k price tag. I continued to wonder all the way to the BMW dealership and even while I was signing the papers for a very heavily discounted M3 Competition. After 2x P38s, and 4x RRS over the last 18 years, I won’t be buying another LR product ever. Oh yes, I have taken quite a haircut, owning my RRS was even more painful than investing in global equities 3 months ago and selling today. LR, surely it really stands for Load of Rubbish. Gone - 2008 Stornoway Grey RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2009 Buckingham Blue RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2010 Alaska White RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Gone - 2017 Chawton White RRS 5.0 V8 Supercharged
Current - 2010 Java Black RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Current- 2024 RRS P400 SE Dynamic

It seems that all JLR are interested in is “conquest” sales and take no notice of what patient multiple repeat buyers have to say about the product - I suppose it’s easy come, easy go just like with so many other products like insurance - the loyal customer is only considered suitable for a right royal shafting, after all what do they know? 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

Nail smacked firmly on its head there Tim. LR are all about the new customer. The customer who buys the marketing and the on-the-face-of-it luxury and prestige. They aren't interested in the person who has bought several vehicles over a long period. They are obviously going to keep buying aren't they?

Aren't they?



Hello?





Oh, he's gone.

Ah well, never mind, his loss. Here comes another newbie.
Hello sir, lovely day isn't it? 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

I'm afraid I can echo the same sentiments.

My first was an original in 1974 and over the 40+ years since we always had a RR or RRS (sometimes 2) a total of over 10!!

Three years ago a JLR dealer tried to sell me a 1 year old RRS V8 in showroom. Test drive revealed, leaky anti-roll bar, knocking front roll bushes, missing spare wheel, missing tow-bar, a mixture of cheap Far East tyres and drive-line thump. Document checks showed dodgy mileage, hire car ownership.

Sales crowd couldn't care less so I walked and not returned since. Unreliability and dealer survey scores show their decline. JLR sales in China have dropped off a cliff. The company needs to wise up at +£80k there are much, much better products - and there's a lot at a lot less!!!

The sale has been finalised.

I went to the dealer today to collect a few things from "my" car. I'm glad its not coming back. Turns out its not the Sim Card reader or the Telematic Control Unit, its a wiring fault. One can only imagine the state of disassembly now required. Of course, the fault has not developed in 5000 miles and 11 months of ownership, it would have been present from manufacture, very poor quality control on a £100,000 vehicle.

To summarise, at purchase I spent £99,673. I got back £71,986 or £2,517 per month depreciation or £5.53 per mile. I am going to have to work very hard to earn back the money to neutralise the JLR experience.

I will never even think about owning another JLR product again and I will tell everyone else I ever talk to about cars not to buy one. In the last 10 years, this is my 5th RRS and my 2nd Lemon, a 40% Lemon rate.  Gone - 2008 Stornoway Grey RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2009 Buckingham Blue RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2010 Alaska White RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Gone - 2017 Chawton White RRS 5.0 V8 Supercharged
Current - 2010 Java Black RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Current- 2024 RRS P400 SE Dynamic