10,000 Miles With My Range Rover 5.0 - Has it been RELIABLE? 

I own a 2018 Range Rover D300 Velar with 38,000, under warranty and it’s been in the garage 5 times in the last 6 months. Came from a BMW 4 Series Coupe, not one issue in 4 years of ownership. I’m loosing my patience with it now and thinking about selling. Toying with going back to a BMW.

To be fair profession car reviewers and insurance companies world wide all say that the RangeRover is not very reliable. It’s not just the man on the street who has never had one.

I don’t think the more things you have the more you can expect to go wrong is a justification. A £100k car shouldn’t have multiple issues in a year. My Merc doesn’t, I’m not saying Mercs are reliable btw as I’ve had numerous issues with them previously. Manufacturers really need to improve quality of their products

I know that you like Range Rover a lot, mate, but saying that "I haven't been left stranded" when your driver door is not closing... That's not serious, I am sorry. Of course that you are left stranded. You needed to call emergency service to help you sort out the problem. What if you were on a motorway or out of town? Moreover, it happened twice. I am not saying that it is an unreliable car, it actually looks like the perfect car. I am saying that you are not being honest about this situation.

10k miles is nothing! 3 times in the shop in 10k miles is horrible.

If I spent 70k odd on a car I would be pissed off if ANYTHING went wrong with it in the first year of owning it. Ridiculous.

In short, he knows the Land Rover receptionist by first name. My sister had a RR 10 years ago and experienced the same issues, clearly reliability hasn’t improved. It’s still no1 most unreliable car in the UK 💀 I had a 2013 Defender, experienced a similar lock issue when it got nippy and had to climb through the boot, my window wiper motor also failed yearly and the whole dashboard had to come out to replace it. I can confidently say I’ll think twice before getting any form of Land Rover product again ☺️.

The need for a warranty does not support the argument for getting one of these cars. For that to work, your statement should be 'I paid for a warranty, but it was wasted money as it wasn't needed'

You need to rethink your gauge 😂…. 10,000 miles and talking about reliability…..Seriously 😂😂😂😂😂

Had my 2017 4.4 diesel exactly three years last week . Still under LR extended warranty and zero issues , not so much as a dust cap replaced just like my previous 2015 model. As you say Matt , best car in the world !

I had a range rover sport HSE ... Needed an engine replacement after 20,000 miles... Thankfully under warranty, until the electrical issues developed... This is when I got rid of it. Now drive BMW's. Had 3 in the last 5 years, and over 150,000 miles covered. Not one issue in any of them.

I’m going to allow the excuses for the RR niggles. Not sure there are any valid excuses for the ripped jeans?

I've heard some absolute horror stories on this model, I would not even consider one.

With all your said, doesn’t sound very reliable to me. I get it, it’s comfortable and feels great being in it but still for a car this price the door should close in cold weather!!! But what do I know? I’m a poor peasant :(

Nice spec. Two engine lights, a drivers door wouldn’t close. 1 roadside call-out as stranded, 3 dealer drop offs, 3 pickups, 3 non scheduled days without the car, £1k without a warranty. This is low level reliability.

Engine light on a almost new low mileage range rover yep it's unreliable

My fact not statement is that the LEXUS LS430 is the BEST car in the world and it has that reputation

Big fan of yours Matt, but that's a very charitable assessment of reliability over a year with a low mileage, pampered car which had two check engine lights requiring a trip to the dealer and a door problem which essentially meant you couldn't use the car until it was fixed, twice. I'm not entirely convinced a similarly spec'ed similar age Mercedes GLS63 or BMW X5M would be less reliable than your L405.

If your wealthy enough to buy one, then your wealthy enough to fix/ repair one..... But they are still glorified shit heaps.

I have never owned a JLR car, but I have read many reliability surveys ( Warrenty Wise Extended ,ect )over the years, they always seem to be at the bottom or very near it. If you have to drive back to the dealer for anything its a pain.

I suspect that level of reliability is simply unacceptable to anyone with less job/time flexibility than you enjoy.

90% of all landfovers are still on the road,,,,,,,,,The other 10% made it home

nice video, BUT, I'd go for for a Toyota, every time!

Always in JD report of unreliable cars that says it all normally top 5 worst every single year so talk what you like the report says it all

I drive around the country a lot. I see loads of land rovers / range rovers and their stablemates at the side of the road awaiting rescue. Lots more than any other manufacturer.

It's a posh, oversized status car. Noghting exciting there.

Well I've had 7 mates over the years who've bought into Range Rovers. All have had significant issues all cases have cost them a LOT of money. Unless you can afford a new one or a very comprehensive warranty they're a serious liability that could bankrupt you very easily. I'd love one, but no way worth the risk IMO

Lol my friend traded his brand new 2023 Range Rover L. It was already giving him problems with the RWS actuator causing clunky noises, stability problems, the door handles keep getting stuck and one wouldn’t come out at all. Also RWS is a very old technology and there’s a reason they stop implementing it in to cars and now that crap is coming back.

Make a reliability test after 100k miles 😅 . The result will be completely different

JD Power - quantitative proof that Land Rover is one of the most unreliable brands you can have the misfortune to own. But yes, if you don’t mind the inconvenience of regularly sharing your car with a mechanic and paying handsomely for that pleasure, by all means buy one. Just don’t be that guy who claims Land Rovers are completely faultless because he has owned two of them and never had any problems. That’s called ‘statistical nonsense’.

So it did leave you stranded. The door wouldn’t close so you couldn’t drive away?

The most recent Landcruiser Amazon is at least as complex as the range rover, but doesn't break down.

Go out in the outback in one come back in a landcruiser😊

Land Rover Basingstoke said it’s shocking how many cars including brand new ones fail and some are off the road for several months. Even brand new range rovers are returned due to serious failures. Some brand new ones have been painted before the customer collects them due to knocks and dinks. This why they are voted the most unreliable car. But to be fair my brand new £65k Touareg broke down in the handover bay at West London VW and was beyond any repairs due to software issues, took 6 months to get my money back! It’s a fact the more complicated the car the more chance of issues.

I've had two Range Rovers. They were both shit. I now drive a Lexus😃

Rubbish on wheels, but yours is faultless of course.

The soft close motor not working is a CATASTROPHIC FAILURE! These type of cars like the Full Size Range Rover are luxurious grand touring, mile munchers. You could be in a different country or a some far away place and not being able to close your door is a safety concern both if you want to drive or if you want to take shelter in the winter time. The fact that an assistance technician was close in your case is a favorable circumstance. If you were in a ski resort in your OFF ROAD SUV !!! in a village in the alps and you arrive at Friday night and it is snowing - you have to leave your door not fully closed. Since Range Rover pride themselves on off road capabilities the door SHOULD work in Siberia without a problem. This one part where the should over engineer it. I am happy you are OK but this is unacceptable.

The fact that you are talking about it's reliability after just 24000 miles is proof enough of JLR's quality.

I have just switched to Mercedes after owning LR products for almost 30 years. My last full size Range finally broke it for me. The engineering is poor. The LR service is a disaster (always has been). It’s a $100K +++ car designed to last 3 years. There are no quality standards, either in manufacturing or in service. Again, that is after almost 30 years of owning LR products. Enough of giving them another chance.

Do we have to start a fundraiser for you to buy new trousers? 😂😉

I'm sure it's a great car but at that price I would be expecting JLR to collect it on a trailer leaving me a similar or improved spec model with a full tank to use while they fixed it and returned it cleaned and polished, on a trailer.. I'd be disappointed if my car have those faults within 10,000 miles. And it has just about been to the moon already.

Glad your year with the Range Rover has gone relatively well. As a Cheshire resident myself I must say though that it’s quite common to drive past Knutsford Range Rover and see an AA transporter outside

Enjoyed your video but I'm not a fan of anything JLR, and that's based on personal experience. Their dreadful reputation for poor build quality and woeful reliability is still at the bottom of the pile. A stat they've proudly retained over 20 years. (Source JD Power) I would rather anything but a Landrover.

As an ex roadside recovery truck driver, I can say the unreliable reputation is well deserved. Not only are they unreliable they are a pain in the arse to get on the bed of a truck, especially the automatics. When they won't start, to get them in emergency neutral you have to remove the air intake box to move a leaver on the autobox and keep it in place with a screwdriver. They are fantastic when they are working, I absolutely love driving them. But they will leave you stranded when you need them most.

This reminds me of the analogy of a chap dating the most beautiful girl in the world gracious sophisticated and when she speaks sounds like Sylvester Stallone. Regarding the car 7,000 miles is hardly a long term test and considering the size of the engine some might say after a total of 24,000 miles it's just outside its running in period, yet requires the pampered attention of a mechanic 3 times albeit under warranty. I'm still researching why such a beautiful, capable, luxurious comfortable car is not a first choice as opposed to a land cruiser as a daily in remote parts of the world like the Sahara desert.

My best mate bought one 18 months old with 16k on the clock, 2 months in, engine seized, was given a bmw for 6 months whilst they wrangled over who should fix it as it was not a customer error.

Back in 2011 my sister-in-law ordered a brand new Discovery 4 HSE. In its first week is broke down with a major electrical fault that took Land Rover several weeks to resolve. The car was kept for 6 years covering over 80k miles and never had any problems after that first week. At the same time I ran a Lexus GS300 SE-L that was nothing but trouble.

A Green Flag break down guy, without any hesitation exclaimed that the most break downs he has attended was Land Rovers or similar.

It’s a gorgeous car Matt and I’m glad you went with that supercharged V8, that whine sounds phenomenal! I’ve got to say I’m impressed with the fuel economy too. I’ve had two Lexus ISF’s with the 416bhp 5.0 V8 NA and I was getting 23 round town and 28 on a run, although 30 was possible but that wasn’t any fun.

For the price of them, I would expect them to be super reliable. I think you're seeing it from a professional viewpoint rather than from the normal buyers viewpoint. Just taking time off to go to the main dealers is a hastle. Mix that with running a business, organising family life etc, a car that has been in the garage three times in only 10,000mikes, ie once every 16 weeks is, I would have thought, considered unreliable.

I have a few colleagues that work at JLR, some in management some on the production line. Some stories of what goes on on the production line I cannot genuinely repeat on here, needless to say none of them own land rovers or would own one. Read into that what you will. They did say that Jags had slightly better reliability and care whilst in production. Regardless of that, one thing I can’t argue with is the styling of the Range Rover, simply the best and to this day I still have the urge to buy one.

Matt, I’ve owned a BMW M5 Touring for 10-years…. 150,000 miles… never been back to the shop ONCE… and 45MPG over 10-years

The best ad for Land Rover extended warranty, ever.

Have to say it, I often skip ads but i was in awe with how flawless u advertised with no script, on an open road. Props to u

To have 3 malfunctions within 10000m and 24000 miles total is actually a lot, but, if you feel that the car is the best car in the world and you are enjoying it.. 3 malfunctions is nothing. Keep enjoying Matt, all the best.

My friend's Evoque engine died within 3y. He sold it and bought a Lexus RX. Happy days are back again

Hi Matt I’ve had my 2008 L322 for over seven years now and apart from routine servicing it’s been absolutely faultless I do think it’s how you look after them if you neglect them they are going to break down and leave you stranded but if you look after them like I have with mine it’s been faultless great video Mat and yes you are definitely correct about being the best car.................In the world as Jeremy Clarkson would put it hope you are well best wishes ian

2:41 what an amazing sound!

I guess it is about your level of tolerance. If I had one morning where I woke up and the door on my car wouldn't work properly I would never want to see that car again. The idea that in 2023 that your car door wouldn't work but you'd say it was sufficient explanation that it was a bit of a nippy morning - no thanks. Getting a bit of WD40 and giving it a spray... Jesus. How much did you pay for this car again? You called it a 'false alarm' after you sat for 20 minutes to warm the car up and then another hour for a recovery vehicle to come and find you. I'd love to explain to my boss that me being 1 hour 20 minutes late for work was a false alarm. I think Range Rovers look incredible, and I have never driven one, but I bet I'd feel like a King if I did, but I could never accept that level of entirely predictable unreliability.

Beautiful car. Especially petrol ones. And it has been designed for people who have money. And if it is to be a bit unreliable and breaks down every now and again, you can always have two so you can drive one while the other one's being fixed. I can't see any problem for people who really can afford cars like this. And if you are a guy like me and you can't really afford a car like that, there's always Fiat Panda out there somewhere on the market 😉 Brilliant video, Matt 👍.

Have to agree with the sentiment of this video, if you drive regularly having a high quality vehicle that you enjoy driving is worth the extra money. I used to do 200 miles a day and after a few weeks of that decided to get a 330Ci BMW because it was a joy to drive and made those miles something to look forward to rather than a chore. Only thing I would change about that Range Rover is the colour, amazing vehicle.

Have the same model, bought 2nd hand one year ago, and I LOVE it! Have also just passed 10.000 miles since buying it and no problems at all! I have had lots of luxury cars, but this one is the best!

I own a 2015 SDV8 Autobiography that’s now covered 40K & I’ve had no problems apart from standard wear & tear. The full fat Range Rover IS THE BEST VEHICLE, I adore it. Cheers for the great entertaining videos

Spot on about modern cars just having more things to go wrong. People need to learn that. I can't tell you how many times customers say to me "My 20 year old Honda Civic doesn't have these issues" Yes but your 20 year old Honda Civic doesn't have any of these luxuries either does it?

You have been lucky with your RR. Here is my experience and not someones third hand tale. Mine, despite carefully driven, 5 years old, 30,000 miles, with genuine JLR dealership servicing and at the correct intervals. Whilst having its MOT in the dealership, the engine seized, and the engine was written off. £23,000 to fix and took 3 months to complete the work. Had to buy a second car whilst this one was off the road (Mercedes) that cost £20,000. JLR agreed to pay a huge chunk of the bill, which was helpful. Have now got it back, and cannot wait to sell it. Will l buy another? Definitely not.

With you Matt, I have owned multiple Landrovers & Range Rovers over the last 30 years both in Africa and the UK. I have always maintained them myself as in Africa we overlanded extensively throughout South Africa. One trip in 4 weeks Durban to Namibia's Skeleton Coast we did 9600 KM (5900miles) without issue in a Discovery 3 fully loaded with supplies and rooftop tent without incident. The main issues as others in the know have found its either poor maintenance by the owner or maintained by inexperienced techs. I include main dealerships in this category as I have corrected poor workmanship from a vehicle only maintained by Landrover. The Disco 3/Range Rover started the mix of the most comfortable capable vehicle in the world by a country mile.

Agreed, the more complicated the car the more moving parts etc to go wrong. Still, how come Toyota, Honda and most other makes are all statistically more reliable than the Rover?

Had a Honda for 8 years and 110,000 miles and only once had to visit Honda outside normal servicing ( they spotted a crack in the seat frame and ordered and fitted a new seat free of charge ) . It's also a hybrid so reasonably complicated. I'd say 3 unplanned visits to the dealer in 10,000 miles is unacceptable.

I've had Toyotas exclusively for over 10yrs now and have never had an engine management light come on. Even on a complicated Hybrid.

Lovely car. Every manufacturer has lemons, we have had two Subarus, one was bullet proof (it got abused and never missed beat), one was driven by the mrs very carefully and the engine overheated and ceased due to multiple sensors failing and giving no warnings. Same with Mazda, one solid one and one that has a constant rebooting media screen. I will say though, any car with that many trips to the dealer in 10k miles is a concern…

"My nans, sons, sisters, cousins kitten had a range rover very unreliable always in the garage" In all seriousness. Great car, looks classy, drives very well and everyone wants one

An upstream O2 sensor is ‘upstream’ (after) the catalytic converter. You have two O2 sensors, one before and one after the cat; and their job is essentially to check the health of the catalytic converter.

Couldnt agree more with you Matt! The L405 is the most iconic and classy gen of the RR, love the interior, the fuji white paint and i love facelifts, if you maintain it properly its as relliable as anything else. Great video as usual :F

We’ve heard it all before but … not in those accents!!!! And I add that I had 2 L405s for a total of about 10 years and never had a single problem. I now have a current Defender and other than a couple of minor teething issues it has done 10,000 miles without issue

Had a 2008 Toyota Rav4 Diesel and drove it hard up to 153k with no engine lights ever no break downs and the most expensive thing that went wrong was a alternator £210. Never had an issue with the engine or electric's and was even on its original clutch and I don't do al lot motorway miles either . I now have a 2016 Honda CRV diesel with 75k and so far only had pads + discs and oil and filters. I would hope anything should be reliable with 24k on the clock but would you want to own it at 80k+ if so you might need very deep pockets.

Mate, these videos are getting slick AF. Rich in useful info, no waffle. Quality 👍

Before I even watch this im going to say it’s probably about as reliable as boris Johnson 😂

A 24000miles Range Rover that hasn't broke down. What an achievement!

I get your point and it's a lovely car but those were still too many stops at the dealer in a year for such an expensive car in my opinion

Thanks Matt, cheered me up on a dull day. Currently 3 years into my first RR (17 Plate 4.4 V8 Diesel Autobiography) and happy. The only issue i have is oil dilution with Diesel, so annoying as i'm only getting about 3,500 miles between oil changes - and now i know its a common fault on this engine. So my 'man maths' is kicking in and currently looking at changing to a L405 3.0ltr Petrol (hopefully 21 plate).

I agree, RR needs to visit on that reliability issue. Imagine luxury and drivers experience of RR and reliability as a landcruiser. But that we should expect on such a moving tech vehicle

Thanks for the update, Matt. Interesting to hear from an actual owner of one of these vehicles. 👍

Right i had i Range Rover 25 years ago and it was never away from the garage and MPG about 10 so bad i sold it.BUT after seeing your 405 and i did like the new shape i did it again yip 6 years old full service history 4.4 and is the BEST car i have ever had 32 MPG simply stunning never been back to the garage once simply the best .

A truly stunning motor matt sounds amazing you work hard and deserve the fruits of a fine motor so hopefully another decent 12 months motoring before you move it on for your next range rover keep the videos and updates coming matt love em 👍

Bought my 2008 3.6 TDV8 SPORT 18 months ago for £4500 with 133000 on the clock and have added a further 17000 miles, maintenance includes front & rear anti roll bar bushes, front discs and pads and oil changes every 5000 miles, I’m quite confident I could get the purchase price back or thereabouts so I think I’ve had my money’s worth. Love your whip Matt, one day 🤔, but for now I’m keen to move mine on and buy a full size 'Range' 4.4 TDV8 on about a 12 plate, wish me luck! Keep up the great work!

I have a RR Sport V6 diesel, 2013 with 108,000 kms on the clock and fallen in love with it. I have had the odd little issue with it, but never stranded me and never been expensive to fix. Having had 2 LR Discovery before, I can;t see myself in a brand other than LR again now. They are lovely cars and I love driving it. It is a jack of all trades and tows my caravan with ease. A definite keeper

My brother is senior executive at the AA so he can actually confirm they are one of the worse reliability vehicles on the road according to the rescue facts!!! (based on number of vehicles sold to breakdown ratio. so unfortunately you are mistaken about the reliability.

Honestly...does any other luxury 100k car keep breaking down like this after 5 years? I own a landrover disco...but not for long.

If I couldn't tease my mate (an owner of a JLR product) about unreliability, life would be boring :) In all honesty however, I've worked with numerous people that had worked for JLR and they all had worrying horror stories about the quality control.

I feel like you’re dating super model who’s a right cow and you’re saying she’s ok really!!!

Just drifting slightly off topic...in 2008 I purchased a Disc2 2.5TDI....previous keepet the Royal household estates...30k on the clock....I took the Landrover warranty...some months later it blew a coreplug out of the cylinder head....long story short...It ended up with a brand new out of the crate full engine.. that warranty worth its weight in....well

So, all in all it costs no more to run than one would expect. There are a couple of things I think are worth pointing out and these surround your ownership experience Matt, with an average non car dealer such as myself who has to pay full fat prices for EVERYTHING. What I'm referring to is no:1 - a car dealer has a full time relationship with his local garage, local detailer, local body shop / wheel referb place, etc etc meaning that these places don't see you coming as it were, but they in contrast will and do give you much better prices for their services than us joe bloggs walking in would get. No:2 - Depreciation. I get that due to the post covid market the average person who owned a car during or prior to covid has done well well out of the average buyer during the same period as used vehicles have held their value well but, a super benefit you have Matt is that you are a dealer meaning you will always pay less to begin with for the same vehicle and will certainly always be able to sell the vehicle on again for much much more than I could for example. I will add on as a third point that the only other non car dealers out there who can obtain such benefits legally and morally may be business owners who can put such vehicles through on expenses without their own pockets being hit so much in the long run although that is always accentuated by having a "dodgy" accountant who is willing and able to help push things through on expenses that shouldn't be, like politicians for example! I make these points because I'm certain that they are valid in their own right, others will be able to relate, it makes taking on such a vehicle much harder for joe bloggs like myself, and because these points weren't highlighted in the video. Yes, a good point to retort my all of mine above could be "why not buy Matt's course, start up your own dealership and do the same?" To this I would respond with "Their are only a finite amount of ppl who can do this because we need the rest of the population to do all of the other jobs that are required to keep the country ticking over". For reference I earn 3k per month max before tax, single with no kids to pay for and drive a 2009 full spec mx5 because as a motor enthusiast I wouldn't dare scratch that luxury car itch on my income but can still have fun and some comfort.

Great video, Matt. The moral of this story is, if you have a Range Rover, you need another car to use when it is off the road. (they are good off-roaders as they are off the road a lot). I am surprised JLR don't do BOGOFs, so you know that one car will always be roadworthy...

2:32 sounds like an electric motor rather than a supercharger...

I have no doubt that a Range Rover is lovely to drive. I could afford to buy one, but after putting down the money, I would struggle with maintenance costs. I'm a poor man, so I have to settle with a Toyota and a Lexus.

Cost and complexity come as standard on any modern car now, irrespective of the price on the forecourt or the badge on the boot. The Range Rover is a great piece of up market bling Matt...enjoy 😎

Just wait until the supercharger needs it's service rebuild you'll wish that you had turbos! Since when did a diesel Golf return 40mpg, they return 50-65 all day long. Return to dealer 3 times in 10k miles for such a young low mileage vehicle would make me change brand, that all said I can see that it's a lovely place to spend when driving, although the emphasis is definitely on the 'spend' bit.

I'd love one but even those minor issues would drive me mental, also i'm poor.

Driving a Ford Galaxy automatic 2016 from 150,000km , now 3 years later it’s on 180,000km and other than service it hasnt gone wrong. I’ll be sticking to ford

Great video, I've got a couple of LRs in stock, both with nasty faults compared to similar vehicles of the same age, I fact got taken to court on one (lost) so I'm not a big fan, got a 19 plate up atm with 21k on, only had a trader call with a low ball offer, re the golf comparison, I'd have thought 50 mpg, rising to 60 on a run, I used to smoke around in a jensen interceptor, if you want to know about poor fuel consumption, about 8 to 10 mpg, ha, ha.