2-month-old Range Rover: Horrible experience with the SUV & dealership

For such a fault to occur within just two months has far exceeded even my worst expectations.

BHPian Guess? recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

We took delivery of a Range Rover CKD HSE from a dealership in Mumbai in mid-June, and the service and car have been abysmal.

From the very first day, we noticed that the door handles were misaligned, and we immediately reported this to the sales associate. However, the issue has been conveniently ignored to this day.

In mid-August, my wife fell onto the road while getting out of the car because the auto-deploy side step malfunctioned, retracting midway through deployment.

We were initially hesitant to get the Range Rover due to all the horror stories we had heard, but we took a chance because they offered an extended warranty and maintenance package. However, for such a fault to occur within just two months has far exceeded even my worst expectations.

We communicated the issue to the dealership, sent the car in, and they replaced the entire side step free of cost. However, the replacement is also not working.

We've been told that this issue is an "accessory" fault, but considering that all dealers add this as a mandatory accessory, I don't see how it can be viewed as anything other than part of the factory fit. Customers are charged over the listed ex-showroom price for it, only to be told later that it's just an accessory and that JLR isn't concerned with it.

As a result, we've had to send the car back to the workshop again.

Now, regarding the after-sales service:

Despite repeated complaints, there has still been no resolution for the misaligned door handles. When we expressed our frustration over the side step issue, the dealer contact stopped answering our calls, claiming a personal emergency—which we later discovered wasn’t true. As a result, the car has been sent back to the workshop for the side step issue, but with no clear communication from the dealer and no temporary car provided. We were left stranded when we had to leave town for an emergency, as our car was already at the workshop within just two months of ownership.

This has been a horrible experience, both with the car and the unprofessional dealership. I don’t consider the Range Rover a fun sports car where we might overlook a few quirks for the sake of excitement. This is a vehicle designed for the "rugged" outdoors, yet it’s malfunctioning over such a trivial issue. To make matters worse, the incompetent and unprofessional after-sales service is just the icing on the sour cake.

Here's what BHPian Y@SH had to say about the matter:

Request you to kindly send the car to Navnit Motors, I feel they are more professional in handling of issues and have a lot less cars to deal with.

I have used them both. Servicing cars is cheaper at the dealership from where you have purchased the car as they don't push you into unnecessary add ons and simply remove the ones you ask them to.

My car battery was showing low battery charge even after driving extensively, they replaced the battery free of charge under warranty. So no complaints there.

If the dealer is a problem, try the other dealer, if its still not resolved, write a mail to JLR.

Here's what BHPian Neelanjan had to say about the matter:

Somehow I feel these are the genes of Tata Motors which have unfortunately trickled up the ladder. My cousin's F-pace had quite a few breakdowns and as usual as an arm of Tata Motors the service experience was pathetic. The car was riddled with multiple reliability issues, alas JLR couldn't fix it untill last year when my cousin got rid of the car.

Here's what BHPian Gazole had to say about the matter:

Thanks for sharing your experience with a new luxury car. Issues with cars can happen (though we expect far fewer for expensive / luxury segment cars) but you do expect their service processes to help remediate them as painlessly as possible.

As an owner of 2 BMW cars over the last 5 years, I can say that while I have experienced a couple of minor issues with them - BMW after sales processes have been more than satisfactory.

Another reason to not invest in JLR cars unfortunately - their poor quality and service reputation seems to be confirmed here.

I hope they find a solution for you.

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