By mrbieler on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 10:29 am: Edit

Since most of the service issues posted on Rover pages are negative, I wanted to post a positive one. It's sort of a long post, but I thought I would share good news on a Friday.

We bought our certified 1997 SD on 3/4. On 3/11, we got the chance to off-road it at Hungry Valley. While there, we stopped to talk to guys we bumped into from Trek Outfitters. When I got back in, the truck would not start. A mechanic friend who was traveling with us in his Xterra came over and we started isolating the problem.

While under the hood, we discovered that my serpentive belt was ready to die, that the kickdown cable was not operating, and that I had a small exhaust leak from the left hand manifold. As for the original problem with the ignition, all electronics worked EXCEPT that no spark go to the plug wires. Then, on a lark, I hit the alarm off button, turned the key, and it fired right up.

All this could have been a royal pain in the ass at the local dealership. I live in LA, but bought the car from Land Rover Scottsdale. Monday morning, I call Land Rover South Bay to schedule an appointment. They get me in on Wednesday. Then I call Scottsdale to let them know what's going on. I inform the sales manager of the problems and that I would NOT pay the $100 deductable on the certified warranty for these issues inside the 1st week of ownership. He asked that we discuss that issue after South Bay had a chance to look at the truck.

Long story short (too late!), the kick down cable was replaced, the exhaust leak was traced to two cracked manifold studs which were replaced along with the entire manifold as their tech thought he found a small crack starting to form, the serpentine belt was replaced (I kept the original one for our off-road emergency kit), and the ignition fault was traced to the alarm disabling system and was corrected. All was taken care of in 24 hours and I got a free rental car.

The guys at South Bay were great and kept me informed regularly as to all the problems, when the truck would be ready, etc. They had inheritied a rats nest of problems from another dealership, but they were willing to do all the leg work to get things fixed. The guys at Scottsdale owned up to the screw up (the truck should not have been certified with these problems), and issued a PO to South Bay so I would incure NO charges.

Yeah, it sucked to have this happen, but I have always believed that you measure service by how people react to problems, not on how they react to the normal stuff.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give both shops credit.

By John Kruger on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 11:48 am: Edit

There are good stories out there.

In 1999, LRNA authorized nearly $10k worth of corrosion warranty work be done to the 94 Disco I had. When I got my truck back from the dealership there were a few issues I was unhappy about. The dealership picked up the 94 (I live 3 hours from the dealership), and left me with a new DII while they took care of my concerns. Nearly a month later I got the 94 back and was quite happy with it. It was this dedication to the customer that convinced me to stick with Land Rover, despite the occasional headaches.

By Steve (Steve2) on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 01:38 pm: Edit

i love my l/r centre... took it in for it's 30k $495 for everything, had a list of minor things i've noticed over 6 months. they serviced it fully, did over and above what i thought they would do. got a new front s/roof set up, new rocker arms, new rear window seals etc etc etc. re-programmed the alarm with the latest cd.

gave me a real car to drive (i rented a mistu montero xls, very effecient but no character) my jeep was more $$ to maintain and the dealership treated me like a baboon (on a good day)

steve
ps the dealer was l/r of thousand oaks in so cal.

By MarkII on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 05:25 pm: Edit

My LR dealer rocks. I have a 98 that I bought new. LR has done all the service for the first 50K as part of the purchase. I take it in and 15 minutes later I drive out in a new Disco2 loaner. I must say that my Disco has been relatively trouble free aside from a blown power steering pump a month after I bought it. The service guys take good care of my truck but now that I am about to hit my 50K mark it will be fun turning the wrench on something other than the oil filter.