Do I have a lemon?

[Big John]

I am also a successful lemon law claimant, Mine was a BMW i3. Loved that car!! But very buggy. My issue was a seat belt failure that kept recurring. The Lemmon law works easy when there are repeated fails on the same safety issue. Got a full price buy back and repurchased an upgraded i3 for the price of the buy back. Fun but still buggy. Traded for an X and aaahhhh!! wonderful car !!!--very refined compared to all the BMW loaners I drove--and the i3 for sure--and MORE fun to drive. Perfect-no. But nothing better out there fro me. One happy owner.

 

[Peteybabes]

You don't know how right you are. When I purchased my last Range Rover, it had horrible brake squeal within weeks of me leaving the dealership. After 2 service visits during the first 2 months on the issue, I was angry because I was being "brushed off" with BS such as "big box breaks squeal" and "its normal all Range Rovers have that issue (mind you, this was my THIRD Range Rover purchase over 10 years). And yet the service center could care less about me. And then it happened. When I complained again to the Service Manager, I was told that there was nothing they could do and that I was "driving it wrong". Driving it wrong. Two prior Range Rovers without the issue and I am driving it wrong because I am "riding the brakes and glazing the rotors". And it was said to me in a patronizing and condescending voice. I am over 50, Sorry but who the F do you think you are talking to like that after I purchased a (faulty) $100K+ supercharged full size RR? I am driving it wrong?

I then took the vehicle to the dealership of purchase further from my residence. They could not fix it. So I called Range Rover National and all I ever received was voice mails. No call back for weeks and when they did call back it was off hours and all that would be left is a voice mail with no call back number. When I finally reached National by repeatedly calling back over many weeks and upon being fortunate enough to answer the call at an off hour when they did call back, I was told they spoke to the service center and my car was not broken... and I was asked if there was anything "Land Rover could do for me today?" I politely asked for a name. The agent refused. When I pressed the issue, I was given a first name and she hung up. Un-be-lievable.

I am an attorney and a litigator. As they say.... "don't take the law into your own hands... take'm to Court." So with that 'click' of the phone hanging up I started the lemon law process. I did the research, I sent the notices by certified mail, etc. (the law does vary by state). Having done the prerequisites to set up the claim, I made the 3rd service appointment at the dealership of purchase (but the first appointment after the notice requirement under the lemon law), and I told the service manager the issue and I showed him a copy of my lemon law notices. He said the issue is normal (he remembered me from the very first appointment) and said there will be nothing he can do. I said I don't care. I nicely informed him that he can simply stare at the car for all I care and write me a service receipt, because before I leave, I will be making the next service appointment and we can do it again (#2 post-notice visit), and then we will do it again a third time (... and #3), and at that point, his dealership was going to buy my car back from me or I would sue Range Rover with extreme pleasure.

So you have read this far.... and now the best part. I receive a call from the service manager on that first post-lemon law visit and I am told </(engage sound from Heaven> there was a global Service Bulletin two weeks ago regarding "excessive break squeal" and that, if a customer had the issue, the front brakes AND rotors and other assemblies near the front wheels that I cannot remember would require replacement with new modified part assemblies all under warranty. The service was performed. The issue was solved. DRIVING IT WRONG? DRIVING IT WRONG? All I wanted to do was setup a robo call to the other service manager that said "driving it wrong" over and over and over all day while faxing the service bulletin to his shop 250 times. But.... I didn't. Because that would be crazy.

What did I do? I sold the car soon after and purchased a Model X. I will never purchase another Land Rover. For a company to treat a triple car-buying customer (or any customer) in the manner in which they did, only to find the issue was theirs all along, and then to be treated by National in the manner in which they did (when someone must have known that a service bulletin was released or about to be released), forever ends my relationship with that company. And I have no problem telling the internet.

I have never been as happy in a car as I am in my X. I have never been as happy with a service center when I did have a few issues. It is a breath of fresh air.

To the OP, I hope you get your issues resolved. Sorry for the long comment. You can see how the prior experience scarred me.

i agree, at least the Tesla service teams are very responsive. however, when my car has been in the service center 14 times in 12 months i need to move forward with the lemon law thing, that's all.

 

[outie]

My OA told me that they changed the design + manufacturer of the FWD and its sensors in late June/July. Supposedly the new design doesn't suffer from this issue. The only way to tell though, is to have someone w/ a darker color test it out. I'll test it out for you if I ever get my car back from the SC. Mine was built in the middle of July and supposedly has the updated door.

Better yet, we can verify from someone in August and that would know if my OA was telling the truth on that.

That would be great if they finally figured it out. One issue is that you will see that this issue is actually not very common or widespread. I've raised a few threads on this issue and there weren't many responses. I think there are a few factors including color, manufacturing process of the doors, etc. that come into play. So it's really hard to say whether they've resolved it.