The Which? Car Reliability Survey has placed Land Rover at the bottom of the pile. But we’re still buying them, so shouldn’t these reliability ratings make their way into showrooms?
It gives me absolutely no pleasure at all to award Land Rover the title of this year’s most unreliable car brand.
Overall, the British-built 4x4s (Range Rover included) scored a pitiful 67.5% in the 2010 Which? Car Reliability Survey. The Land Rover Discovery was proclaimed the most unreliable new car on sale today. Ouch.
But we’re still buying Land Rovers
This is all the more dispiriting when you look at the Which? Car Survey results from 2009. And 2008. Oh sorry, and 2007. Yep, Land Rover has become pretty friendly with the bottom rungs of the reliability ladder. Yet, as a brand, it remains remarkably resilient.
Perceived brand value will have a lot to do this – like it or not, Land Rover still offers a sense of superiority next to ‘lower’ brands, like this year’s reliability winner, the Kia Picanto. Asking a Land Rover owner to relinquish their wheels for something more dutiful would be impossible without risking an identity crisis.
Should we let consumers continue to buy blind?
The answer to that question is ‘no chance’. Poor reliability is bad news for both the customer and the manufacturer, so I’d like to see this rich data shared with manufacturers, and also made standard in showrooms.
Customers get the low-down on everything from performance, to the environment, all in easy-to-digest charts, so why not include a reliability index? Surely it all adds up to the cost of ownership?
I think if the words ‘the AA man is my new best friend’ were implied on a Land Rover Discovery’s score sheet, it’d have a profound effect on both sales and the speed at which fixes to these reliability issues were implemented.
Truth be told I’m both a car enthusiast and a brand snob, so one day I’d actually quite fancy owning a Range Rover. But I’d just like to know that it’ll still work after four years. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
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