By Ron on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 02:33 pm: Edit

I am thinking about the possibility of a class action lawsuit against LR in regards to the inaccuracy of their speedometers and odometers. I am thinking about damages relative to decreased resale value, excess mileage fees on leases, and warrantee expirations. Anyone have any input? I am not the sue away type but now that rover is owned by ford I think they deserve it. After all it is pretty clear that they are wrong and the damages are real. I mean 25 cents a mile on a lease and if the odometer is 10% fast that means 3600miles on a 3 year lease 3600x.25= $900 per lease. Add it warrantee and resale and I think you can see that with approx. 20,000 trucks a year it would be a rather large amount of money, well worth the effort for a firm that does this sort of thing.

Ron

By welder on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Great idea!
Hope that doesn't affect me for having taller tires and getting "extended warranty" that way.

By Ron on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 02:48 pm: Edit

Welder,

What is really funny is that I bet if you checked you were probably still fast with the taller tires, unless you went to about a 32in in which case you were probably dead on.

Ron

PS I am just hoping for a "consulting" fee on the case

By Blue Gill (Bluegill) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 02:51 pm: Edit

I'm sure your suit will get rejected somewhere along the line because of various LR disclaimers printed in microscopic type on any of the thousands of pages of lease/purchase documents

Of course, public opinion has a price, and settlement costs are usually less than possible litigation costs...

By welder on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 02:51 pm: Edit

I was dead on with 245/75.
Now with even taller, I read less than I am actually travelling.

By Ron on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 02:53 pm: Edit

Welder,

So yours was 7% off. Ok there is one data point.

Ron

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 03:04 pm: Edit

Hmmm , well , you have to first prove it was that way when it was driven off the lot. Anyone thought of that yet? Kinda hard to prove now isnt it?

Kyle

By Blue Gill (Bluegill) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 03:09 pm: Edit

I'm dead-on with 245/75/16 (GPS verification).

Kyle, "proof" would be checking speedo calibration with stock tires (the tire/rim combo on it when it was driven off the lot). Not hard to do with a set of stockers.

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 03:17 pm: Edit

Not hard to do if you drive it off the lot now (and you could then have your speedo adjusted under warranty if it's off), but too late for most of us who didn't check when we took delivery. Not that it matters anyway, I have more important things to worry about.

By Ron on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 03:20 pm: Edit

Hmmm , well , you have to first prove it was that way when it was driven off the lot.

Not necessarily. If the unit reads off now, 1. It would imply that the unit would have been bad to begin with and 2. You would still be suffering damages from worse resale value or warantee issues.

I am also willing to bet that there is a 3 foot stack of complaints at dealers and LRNA about the problem from new owners. Not that they would be easy to get to but I am sure some would suface. That would "prove" they were off from the get go.

Ron

I really should have went to law school

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 03:24 pm: Edit

Ron , LOL , you still cant prove it was that way when it was driven off the lot. Not in the stock configuration. I mean the day you took delivery of it. When you walk into the court room it aint about what you think , its about what you can prove. and there is something you cant... The trucks are old now. who gives a shit...


Kyle

By Ron on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 03:34 pm: Edit

Ron , LOL , you still cant prove it was that way when it was driven off the lot.

I really don't see why that matters as long as I can prove they were bad at some point where damages would be incurred. If I can prove that a 99 SD still under warantee, unmodified, is reading 10% fast then I have proof of damages. If I can prove a traded in 96 disco was reading high (and has more miles showing than actual) I have damages. I mean that guy in Alabama got millions because BMW touched up his paint. Think about the possibility that LR knowingly allowed its trucks to be sold with speedometers that read fast. We are not talking about isolated occurances. Seems to me that damn near everyone who checked is reading fast.

Ron

PS I wonder if this applies to DIIs? Anyone with a DII want to check?

By Scott Moszkowicz (Eagle) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 04:07 pm: Edit

Tomato, Tamato, Speedometer, Odometer. With all the four wheelin you guys do I cannot believe it still works. Mine busted many moons ago. So disengage it and use your GPS for speed. Problem solved.

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 04:14 pm: Edit

Well , ya cant say its "Knowingly" if ya didnt take it in to get it fixed. if ya took it in and they didnt fix it then ya got something. Until then. Ya got squat.


Kyle

By Ron on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 04:17 pm: Edit

My point was Land Rover knew, not the person who owned it. Hence "knowingly" being them. Not me. Sure I know now but it is too late. Although it might be interesting to see what they say if I take it in to get it fixed. Anyone with a DI under warantee want to try?

Ron

Well , ya cant say its "Knowingly" if ya didnt take it in to get it fixed. if ya took it
in and they didnt fix it then ya got something. Until then. Ya got squat.

By welder on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 12:55 am: Edit

Ron, you should go forward with this thing.
Don't you have many Rovers there? Warranty or not, they should give you a few bucks for emotional distress on each?

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 10:43 am: Edit

Ron,

I thought of this, too. Especially when it comes to leases if it is a consistent problem. In any field of engineering, "reuse" can reigns heavy on design. My guess on why the Disco's are all off is because they share 'stuff' with defenders, which roll of the lot with taller tires (and properly calibrated speedo's, perhaps)? It would make more sense to err on the side of speedo and mileage too high on shared components calibarted to the Defender. That way, you couldn't blame Land Rover for a speeding ticket because the speedo reads 10mph fast anyway, and they get a better deal because warranties run out faster and lease mileage limits expire earlier.

Personally, I am going to keep my Disco forever, so I really don't care that much. However, I have a leaky AC system and shitty sunroofs that I just missed the warranty on due to mileage. That is enuff to piss me off and hope LR gets smacked.

Tom

By Ron on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 10:50 am: Edit

What is interesting, Tom, is this came up on the D90 list and they said all thier trucks speedos run fast as well (they thought it might be due to disco parts but I explained that would make them run slow). This, to me, suggests it may have been by design rather than some explainable situation such as shared components. In any case, your right, it does suck. My thought process was that someone who does this sort of thing might see this and think it was a good idea.

Cheers
Ron

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 10:54 am: Edit

Now THAT is goofy and I am stumped. I know a couple lawyers. I'll run it by them and see what they think.

Tom

By Ron on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 11:00 am: Edit

Cool,
I have seen cases made on much less.

Ron

By Blue Gill (Bluegill) on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 11:49 am: Edit

my land rover cup holder holds coffee that is so hot that it burns me...add me to the class action lawsuit

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 01:08 pm: Edit

Heee heee. Don't spill.

By Discosaurus on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 01:19 pm: Edit

I believe the NHTSA standard for speedometers
is +10%/-0%. Anything within that range is "in
spec" as far as the feds are concerned. I doubt
there is a federal spec for odometers.

When my D1 was new and stock, the speedometer read
almost the full 10% high and the odometer was very
close to right on. Now, with the stock gears and
235/85-16 tires, the speedometer is almost dead
on (maybe a little slow) and the odometer reads
10% low - great for resale !

keith
discosaurus

By bretsspot on Thursday, July 05, 2001 - 05:35 pm: Edit

I called about my Disco's speedo and odo almost as soon as I got it (new) and they simply told me that if it was within 10% it was acceptable. That does not, however, get them off the hook for allowing it to continue. This is real, fixable and they obviously knew about it. To me that means they have a serious exposure issue if anyone wants to take the time and effort to go through with it. I, on the other hand, bought my extra lease miles up front and did not use them all, so it would be difficult for me to prove damages. Not that I want to anyway. There are so many good things about Land Rovers that I find it easy to overlook the shortcomings.