Mind = blown: Turns out other companies can't make vehicle right now either!

[Rick Astley]

Well while keeping my unscheduled Bronco order that was originally reserved well over a year ago, I ordered a Land Rover Defender at the end of June 2021. Hearing lots of grumblings on delays across the industry, I expected quite a delay. But I immediately received a build schedule for end of August. Then two weeks ago, dealer informed me that my Defender had been built early and is supposed to arrive in a month or so from their Slovakian plant. Now I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but based on the communication I have received (which alone is refreshing compared to Ford) it appears that Land Rover is been doing something right. Defenders are Land Rover's hottest vehicle across the world right now and are taking up most of their production.

Land Rover does a lot of things right!

And I have no doubt their parts departments are very busy, based on their hard-earned reputation of reliability.

FWIW: we used to play "Dashboard Bingo" with our old Rover. The brick of lights for warning icons was a perfect 4x4 grid and if you could light up a whole row (up or down, or diagonal) then you win dashboard bingo and needed to take the Rover in for repairs. They were so reliable that until the fourth warning indicator lit, you could probably drive the vehicle. If you pushed it to a fifth warning indicator then your bill was likely to increase by 200% than if you had taken it in after the fourth warning light.

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[BroncoFish]

Land Rover does a lot of things right!

And I have no doubt their parts departments are very busy, based on their hard-earned reputation of reliability.

FWIW: we used to play "Dashboard Bingo" with our old Rover. The brick of lights for warning icons was a perfect 4x4 grid and if you could light up a whole row (up or down, or diagonal) then you win dashboard bingo and needed to take the Rover in for repairs. They were so reliable that until the fourth warning indicator lit, you could probably drive the vehicle. If you pushed it to a fifth warning indicator then your bill was likely to increase by 200% than if you had taken it in after the fourth warning light.

Ha I never can bring up Land Rovers without a jab at its reliability. That being said, Land Rover "claims" they are working on their reliability particularly for the new Defenders. I have a family member with a 2020 Defender that has 30k miles and has had no issues. Doug Demuro has had relatively no issues with his first model year as well. But of course we all know about TFL Offroad's experience with their first Defenders. In our family we've had about 8 Land Rovers over the years. Never have they ever remotely stranded us. The issues have been little electronic glitches and air suspension.

BUT I'm maxing out the extended warranty and plan on selling the Defender right before it's up .

 

[NurseDan]

I have no doubt that global supply chain and difficulties finding parts/labor has effected Ford and all other car manufacturers. I can accept all that if all issues and difficulties were openly and earnestly communicated. Of course, I'm just a layman. I'm not running a multibillion dollar company, with teams of market analysts/strategist so I'll continue to quietly be frustrated and disappointed until I'm not.

 

[Rick Astley]

Ha I never can bring up Land Rovers without a jab at its reliability. That being said, Land Rover "claims" they are working on their reliability particularly for the new Defenders. I have a family member with a 2020 Defender that has 30k miles and has had no issues. Doug Demuro has had relatively no issues with his first model year as well. But of course we all know about TFL Offroad's experience with their first Defenders. In our family we've had about 8 Land Rovers over the years. Never have they ever remotely stranded us. The issues have been little electronic glitches and air suspension.

BUT I'm maxing out the extended warranty and plan on selling the Defender right before it's up .

Could you boil that all down to: "There are fewer things that are keyed to trigger a warning light on modern LR products"?

I kid, I kid. Very happy you guys have had better ownership with your LR's. Certainly nobody who's owned one long enough will ever actually repair the air-ride system. if they are out of warranty.

30K in a year is pretty impressive on a LR product, pushing the envelopes of warranty right to the brink!

 

[Dogula]

Currently?

If you're asking if they currently make the top, yes. If your asking if Webasto is still delaying production, I don't know. The Vette top is a very complex retractable top with six motors, in comparison the the Bronco top.

https://www.webasto-group.com/en/pr...retractable-hardtop-for-corvette-convertible/

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