September 2001

After challenging the Group Chairman in the UK about his response, I received a call in May 2001, from a senior customer care lady in Johannesburg.

She told me that prompted by the Group Chairman that she was now dealing with case and would do all in her power to rectify the situation and to have my vehicle replaced. For the first time I now believed that someone really cared and that there was light at the end of the tunnel. Big mistake.

She insisted that as pre-requisite to taking the matter to completion, that I needed to make the vehicle available to a person from the UK to inspect the vehicle. I questioned the merit of this inspection but agreed expecting greater things. Big mistake.

Neither the person from the UK nor the senior customer care lady got back to me. In August I called the lady who said she would get back to me. She did not. I sent her an email reminding her of the sequence of events. She still did not get back to me. I called customer care help line who asked me to email everything to them. They also did not get back to me. I eventually got hold of the gentleman from the UK who did the inspection who said he would investiagte and get back to me. He did not.

Again I wrote the Group Chairman in the UK. The same day I received a response from the inspection gentleman. It was another written offer from the dealer where yet again they attempted to rip me off. They offered me a trade in price on my Disco way below the market value (confirmed by another LR dealer and by a BMW X5 dealer) and then offered to pay me the difference (bringing the value back to the market value) as compensation.

I contacted both LRSA and LR head office in the UK again. I said that if the dealer honestly wanted to compensate me then they must pay me in cash the amount offered as compensation. I would then take the cash and the vehicle to a dealer of my choice and conclude the transaction. Guess what, no reply.

It seems that every time LR take the opportunity to resolve matters, the make us of it to just compound the problems. This has happened in every single dealing with them with this matter.

CONCLUSION

Is the Discovery a bad car? No but you have more than an even chance that it will give you some kind of trouble renedering the car undriveable.

Is there a company and dealer network behind the brand who strive for customer satisfaction? No.

Would we buy another LR product? No.

When making your decision look beyond the status value of the vehicle. Research the dealer network and try and find a good one.

Research the manufacturer and find out how they deal with problems.

If you come across this site doing your research and it assists you in making a more informed decision about your purchase then it has achieved its purpose.