/u/TunakTun633 on Land Rover Defender Reliabilit
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I have never owned a Defender, but look at The Fast Lane Car on YouTube. They bought a Defender early into their production cycle, and have had some very memorable problems – which is why they’re on their third one. I think the previous two were bought back under lemon law, and this one had suspension fault warnings, coolant fault warnings, and a faulty radio within its first month.
Almost a year later, Motor Trend got one for its press fleet. They haven’t reported any issues yet, but it’s worth noting that Land Rover was unwilling to give them a base four cylinder model.
There were definitely a couple of years where their engines were more reliable than the German car engines. So it’s at least possible. But even then, Doug Demuro owned a Range Rover from this period and it needed over $25K in repairs over 3 years of ownership. (Mind you, it was a 10-year-old car at this point.)
Jaguar / Land Rover say they’re making strides in quality, and maybe you could choose to believe them. Certainly, it’s possible that all the Defender bugs have been ironed out after a year of production. But that’s a claim they’ve made intermittently since the debut of the 2004 Range Rover, so I choose not to. At the very least, have backup transportation and stay within your warranty period.
