[mavg1986]

Hi All,

So....how to start?

I've been an active member of the forum and have dreamed about my Velar experience for a while (not different from all the fellow members). If you've followed my posts I have actually thought about several different specs and at some point actually managed to find a perfect spec, a R-dynamic D240.

I have actually studied so hard the brochure that at the end I knew all the optional prices by heart, yeah I was that into the car.

So came delivery day, my Velar was soooo stunning, Corris Grey with Black roof, pan sliding roof and air suspension, 21 grey alloys...honestly still the best looking car I've seen (read SUV).

At delivery I noticed a few issues:

- Some paint imperfections on the left hand side (both doors) - looks like dust whilst paint was applied
- Side skirts popping out of the frame
- Swirls on the black rear pillars
- No Sim connectivity
- No wi-fi connection

On top of this, the dealer couldn't connect the car to their system to setup the Incontrol system.

I've decided to take delivery, but noting these issues on the delivery notes (in the end, the car had already been paid).

I then took the car home and within the first 36 hours I had air suspension noise and HDC system fault. At that point I sent the dealer a note I was considering rejecting the car.

I took the car in at the dealer at 48 hours of ownership and asked them to investigate the issues.

Basically the paint issue meant they would have to re-spray the left side of the car (nothing major, 6 spots of about 1 cm each)

They plugged the car into diagnostics and couldn't find the source of the issues - they raised a query with JLR which apparently meant they had 24 hours to respond (unless in extenuating circumstances).

After 48 hours I contacted them and asked for an update.- I note JLR needed these 48 hours - They've mentioned the factory plugged into the car and actually advised this is an issue they had never seen before.

This was then escalated to JLR global! (that was my 5th day of ownership)

During that day, and before knowing the full story, I spoke to the brand manager whom I have a very good relationship with - I then raised my concerns and requested a rejection of the vehicle (I had already a printed letter with the request and handed to him). With our great relationship he was very open to the idea noting the issues. Great dealer I must say!

He told me to wait 48 hours as he was going to raise a case with JLR customer service and to follow up then. So I did.

After 48 hours I liased with him and JLR refused any liabilities (RUBISH!!! with all capital words) - 100% JLR faults and not dealer. They didn't want to help the dealer with any losses - hopefully this will be escalated and sorted as this is utterly awful of the brand with the network.

My dealer was amazing and confirmed they would work with me to find an alternative. This was 7 days into the ownership (36 hours with the car, I note). I then looked into stock, spoke to them a few times in the following 24 hours and decided to ask for a refund.

Within 9 days of delivery, the dealer refunded me the purchase price - they win my loyalty in that sense. Gladly they sell other brands.

Moral of the story is that I have always been very respectful and an amazing client for them (owned 10+ cars from their network) and they did their part being respectful to me and being very responsive and providing me with an amazing custoemer service.

I will admit, I've owned a Discovery 3, 4 and Range Rover Sport 5.0 V8 and had issues with all of them. I bought the Velar as my last trial with the brand and promissed myself when signing the contract this will be my last one if I had problems.

I guess I must follow my promise now - the dealership now has a 100 miles on the clock second hand Velar to sell - this should be JLR problem, not theirs.

In the end can't fault customer service, I can fault the brand.

Still what a great looking car!

 

[Omar1]

What a travisty to read and leaves me slightly worried when I pick up mine, it also shocks me because they plan to take this premise on to there new cars. How much money are they gonna lose. Makes me think they released the car too earlier without fully testing the technology, maybe they put to much emphasis on the the looks. Good luck with your next car mate and a shame to lose such a vocal member of the forum.

Omar

 

[threeputt]

To me, it is very obvious they rushed this vehicle to market without doing all the necessary QA testing. Shame really, I enjoy driving it but the issues are starting to add up for me as well. No auto start/stop, heated seats barely function, my air suspension does not work, severe windows fogging issue, In Control Apps are quite useless, and the list goes on.

 

[OZ_Velar]

Spot on this is a very rushed vehicle which was evident as there were not many "mule" test vehicles seen prior to launch. I also rejected my vehicle as did not want to take the risk with this car going forward and my dealer was obliging. I think resales on early vehicles is going to be hit hard in coming years, even as it is they are not selling as well as first thought and for such a premium price, there are far to many early stage issues. As stunning as it is, i don't feel that looks outweigh years of potential issues

 

[Lancer]

Yikes! So so sorry. Like many, I've lived fault-free (fingers crossed) with my FE Velar for 3 months now. 2500 miles. Minor problem with my iPhone dock extra actually connecting my old iphone6 to the car but, then, I have full bluetooth so its not such a serious issue. Its a very expensive car and tbh I worry about residuals too but, all in all, its been fine so far.
Maybe its just me but sometimes I feel a prat driving a massively eco-unfriendly diesel SUV but Ive promised myself Ill go electric next time. Promise!
Almost every review has come out with criticisms and none have given the car more than 4 grudging stars. Thats disappointing, but JLR only have themselves to blame because of their pricing and reliability issues. The fact is though, after countless BMWs, Audis, and even Porsches and one Ferrari, its so good to drive something totally different, unique almost. I'm loving it.
It always happens when I have a new car, that I start pretty quickly perving over what I might like instead. I totally love the Panamera Turismo, the new Bentley Continental and even the 2018 RR Sport. But, for the time being, Ill stick to thinking of this one as my last non-electric vehicle.

 

[Ludo]

such bad news for you mavg1986 ! I hope you enjoy your next car eventually.
I guess we all agree with the fact that the Velar was probably released a bit too soon.
I am lucky enough not to have major issues with mine (just the USB and incontrol Apps that are instable, but at the end of the day, that's not why I bought the Velar...) And driving it has always been a real pleasure so far. May we have to accept that some little details are not perfect (difficult to accept that given the price) so that we can have the opportunity to drive / own an "avant garde" car, as JLR would say.

It's always sad to see a good fellow being push to rejecting a Velar, but I guess JLR knew that this would happen given the rush of the launch...

 

[Guest]

Yes, very sad to hear, and I am sorry to hear that your excitement has been dulled somewhat. I'd be gutted! I guess JLR want the early adopters to be test beds for their vehicles. Clearly there's not three years of testing gone into these cars, and i see they are very low on reliability lists lately. Best looking car on the road, no argument, but the price of a Velar puts it into a league of expectation JLR is not meeting.

 

[P380NarvikEclipse]

Amelia - I hope you're reading this and passing on the feedback. JLR can't afford to lose enthusiasts. We won't return, and we're a vocal bunch. Do right by your best customers.

 

[Brooke1403]

I am in a similar position with my D300. I can't reject it but I'm really unsure if I'm going to keep it.
15 faults, off the road 8 days so far and no sign of when it's coing back.
To make it worse I think the dealer stance is unacceptable. Second car I've bought from them in 3 years but I don't think they really care. They've made their sale.
Brand loyalty used to mean something, no longer I fear.
The Velar in my eyes is a triumph of presentation over substance. Looks great but beyond that there are better engineered cars out there.
Really really disappointed......

 

[Omar1]

I am in a similar position with my D300. I can't reject it but I'm really unsure if I'm going to keep it.
15 faults, off the road 8 days so far and no sign of when it's coing back.
To make it worse I think the dealer stance is unacceptable. Second car I've bought from them in 3 years but I don't think they really care. They've made their sale.
Brand loyalty used to mean something, no longer I fear.
The Velar in my eyes is a triumph of presentation over substance. Looks great but beyond that there are better engineered cars out there.
Really really disappointed......

Why can't you reject it

 

[Brooke1403]

I've had it 3 months and 2500 miles.

 

[Omar1]

I've had it 3 months and 2500 miles.

Any product you buy should be of 'satisfactory quality' and in the case of a car you can reasonably expect it to:

- Get you from A to B without breaking down
- Work as expected without any faults
- Be as described in any advert, brochure or order sheet
If the car fails to meet one or more of those criteria and the dealer hasn't been able to remedy it, you're within your rights to reject it as being of unsatisfactory quality. Your rights were previously protected by the Sales of Goods Act but anything bought since October 2015 is covered by the Consumer Rights Act, which is subtly different and works a little more in your favour.

Assuming the car you've bought was purchased after October 2015, if it goes wrong within the first 30 days of ownership, you can simply reject it out of hand for a full refund. If a fault develops after those 30 days but within the first six months, the dealer gets one chance to fix it. If they fail to do this, you're entitled to a full refund, or a partial refund after the use you've had of the car has been taken into account

 

[Batman]

OMG - worrying to hear - The Velar is one of the most adorable cars to hit the road - Yes l've covered nearly 3000 miles fault free - touching wood!! What l can say after buying 14 Audi's in a row and always having a Landrover simutanionsly - the Velar supasses them all bar perhaps the Ur Quattro - I just hope that Landrover are listening to this forum they should watch it closely - As l have said before l am a petrol head but 700nm has to be enjoyed

 

[peterd]

I see that car buyers are very well protected in UK, it is not the case for us in France,
a little bit scary.

 

[threeputt]

nothing even close to that in Canada either.

 

[OZ_Velar]

OMG - worrying to hear - The Velar is one of the most adorable cars to hit the road - Yes l've covered nearly 3000 miles fault free - touching wood!! What l can say after buying 14 Audi's in a row and always having a Landrover simutanionsly - the Velar supasses them all bar perhaps the Ur Quattro - I just hope that Landrover are listening to this forum they should watch it closely - As l have said before l am a petrol head but 700nm has to be enjoyed

That's the thing the velar is stunning to look at but after a while all the short comings wear the looks down. Much like a super model you get taken by her looks initially but her high maintenance detracts from them after a while. JLR have much to do to fix the constant issues with the velar, maybe a facelift version down the road will remedy all of this but that just makes early adopters losing more value on their already very expensive velar

 

[Batman]

We had many problems within the first years of Range Rover and DB5 but things tend to get sorted cannot see a revamped facelift for many years and if Landrover follow other manufacturers remember - the first models always look the best !!

 

[Joe]

There is no such thing like reject or refund a car in Germany either. I'm surprised that there are so different customer laws within the EU.
About JLR or Amilia reading this forum, I absolutely doubt this is the case. Here are a few customers who are into going online and take the time to discuss their opinion. This is far of what most customers do. They don't even care for a dealer or customer who contacted them directly and are willing to loose customers only to not have to take the car back and loose money. JLR, like most companies, would only care if image or sales (read management bonus) is in danger. Viral Facebook topics rarely come to such fame. To me this is an impressive example of an old fashioned management behavior. The opposite can be seen at Amazon. Amazon invests in satisfying their existing customers for two excellent reasons, first satisfied customers convince others to become customers and second they make more money with them. Apple is almost as good in the same way. The big difference is the long time strategy of the top management, make profit to reach your few year contract bonus and don't care about what is left later, or behave like an owner of the business.

 

[KRG]

There is no such thing like reject or refund a car in Germany either. I'm surprised that there are so different customer laws within the EU.
About JLR or Amilia reading this forum, I absolutely doubt this is the case. Here are a few customers who are into going online and take the time to discuss their opinion. This is far of what most customers do. They don't even care for a dealer or customer who contacted them directly and are willing to loose customers only to not have to take the car back and loose money. JLR, like most companies, would only care if image or sales (read management bonus) is in danger. Viral Facebook topics rarely come to such fame. To me this is an impressive example of an old fashioned management behavior. The opposite can be seen at Amazon. Amazon invests in satisfying their existing customers for two excellent reasons, first satisfied customers convince others to become customers and second they make more money with them. Apple is almost as good in the same way. The big difference is the long time strategy of the top management, make profit to reach your few year contract bonus and don't care about what is left later, or behave like an owner of the business.

Agree

 

[andrewhargreaves]

For the OP -- sorry to hear about the awful luck. That is so disappointing too when your excitement and anticipation has been built up. Getting a new car should be really rewarding.

I'm not convinced that the Velar having some manufacturing issues is due to them "rushing it" to market. I mean it very well may be. But I'd be surprised because it's not like it's the first time they've released a new model. They've done an Evoque, Discovery Sport, Discovery, RRS2, Velar, etc etc. You'd think they would know what to do by now. Perhaps they can't handle this increased volume in overall sales and quality control is suffering. Mine has 2 loose parts (door handle cover and the front lower chin blade thing) and I doubt they were inspected. But I think this kind of stuff is somewhat typical Land Rover -- as others have said, they have fantastic designers but manufacturing and engineering could be improved.

I've never been hesitant to buy the first year of a new model and have done it several times. They weren't Land Rovers though. LOL. I guess time will tell.

This was my first time leasing a vehicle and I'm sort of glad that I did. If this is a lemon I'm out of it in two years anyway.