There recently seems to be some members expressing disappointment with the standard of approved used vehicles.

Having recently spent a lot of time looking for one, it is apparent that standards inevitably vary, dealer to dealer. Having also had a shocking previous A.U experience and now having found one we're delighted with, this might help some readers.

Land Rover "APPROVED PROMISE":

" Your Land Rover Approved vehicle is prepared to the highest standards. To ensure it leaves a Land Rover Retailer in immaculate condition, an eleven point customer promise is in place. This gives you absolute peace of mind and guarantees your vehicle delivers the most composed and capable drive possible. "

If you're buying approved used, you very much pay a premium for the 'privilege' and that combined with factors including their corporate promises that vehicles will be immaculate, for me at least, means they have nowhere to hide, most certainly not behind comments like, "what do you expect given the age and mileage of the vehicle".

Don't make hollow boasts in an effort to secure sales and if you do make promises, expect to be held to them. If you feel the age and mileage of a vehicle means it can't be immaculate or in any way can't live up to approved promises designed to secure sales, then don't retail vehicles of this age and mileage.

The Oxford dictionary definition of immaculate includes:
"Perfectly clean, neat or tidy" "Free from flaws or mistakes; perfect."

There are fine examples out there for sale but it can take time, frustration and disappointment before finding them. The plus point is that having seen those that fall below your expectations, when you see 'the one', having viewed lesser examples by comparison, you will know straight away.

Let the buyer beware:
From bitter experience, neither is all that glitters gold; and regardless of the age, mileage, cosmetic condition, price, purported history or the apparent pedigree of the car, exercise due diligence on the history of the car, if considering buying it. Who serviced/ maintained it (delve deeper than the stamps in the book), what warranty work has been done, were there any recalls or advisories not attended to and if not, why not? Are there any known technical or maintenance problems that appear to be unresolved?

Don't always believe everything you hear and believe only half of what you see.

Do your homework though and you will hopefully enjoy a great car!



Last edited by pld118 on 21st Jun 2015 10:55am. Edited 1 time in total

I try to buy private where I can it means you can meet the person who has owned the car,just being on their drive can tell how they have looked after it ,you can get it substantially cheaper than a dealer and unless you are extremely unlucky the savings will more than make up for most problems that may occur,obviousley unless you know anything about motors take someone with you who does!!

As someone who can't help buying LRs I have had some experience of this

I aways buy from dealers because of the approved used promise but had problems a few times -

1. Driven 100's of miles to view vehicles that were far from immaculate as described so decided only to buy locally in the end

2. Bought an ex LR fleet D2 ES 6 month old that looked like it had been used by a farmer with sheepdog for couple of years and had to involve dealer principal before refund was agreed

3. Bought a FL1 Adventurer that didn't appear to drive right after a few days - turned out it was a cut and shut but refund was offered immediately

4. Bought an ex LR fleet RRS HSE 6 months old with paint defect and missing wiring loom in back door from distant stratstone dealer and local stratstone wouldn't sort and had to go back to first so again no longer buy unless local

I love my LRs but sometimes dealer experiences make me look at other brands then I buy again because the LR factory do such a good job but I just wish they'd sort the dealers

I agree wholeheartedly with your post pld118  Wanted a Series 2 LR since childhood but previously owned MY16 Disco Sport HSE TD4 Auto, MY13 RR Sport Black Edition TDV6 Auto, MY10 RR Sport HSE TDV6 Auto, 2007 Freelander 1 Freestyle TD4 Soft Top, 2009 Freelander 2 GS TD4 Auto, 2007 Freelander 2 GS TD4, 2004 Disco 2 Metropolis Auto, 2002 Disco 2 GS, 2000 Freelander 1 SE TD4 SW

Still hoping for a S2 one day!

i try and follow some simple rules. Only buy locally, know what you want in terms of spec and don't compromise on that and finally, at the decision point take SWMBO along. Not for "permission" but to see if she likes the salesman and the place your buying from. Never failed me; we've had some cracking cars over the years and also walked away from real stinkers.

That's a good point Andy S... I was berated last weekend for 'dithering' because we speculatively called into a main dealer, both saw a cracker, was told to buy it there and then as it all felt right... but I wanted to think about it. Called in the next day and it had been sold minutes earlier. Fortunately for me, I got a call 2 days later to say the sale had fallen through and back into the good books I went.

I bought an AB 2011 from a main dealer under the approved scheme. When I had the car delivered they hadn't done the jobs that were needed and it has since been back and had a compete new set of tyres, various trim panels replaced, a new battery, new brake discs and pads and is now booked in for a complete roof respray as the paint is coming off above the windscreen. I have worked out they are spending about £5.5k to get the car as it should have been under the scheme.

LR customer service and LR finance have been incredible sorting out the issues. Unfortunately the main dealer has been really poor with communication and i hope that they have learned their lessons with this sale. I trust that LR review this particular dealers understanding of the approved scheme and give them some greif.

Not heard anything about my complementary off road experience either!

I am happy with the car now that they have taken responsibility for the work that was/is required. 2005 L322 Vogue Gold gone
2006 L322 Vogue Black gone
2011 L322 Vogue Silver gone
2011 L322 Autobiography Black gone
2015 L405 Autobiography LWB Black gone
2019 L405 P400e Range Rover Autobiography LWB Eiger grey / black roof gone
2001 P38a 30th Anniversary Wimbledon Green gone
2019 L405 P525 Autobiography LWB British Racing Green

It really isn't good enough

I've been told things like "we don't prepare them until they're sold" and "it's a used car sir, perhaps you should look at new instead" and had to involve Lrcs on many occasions to end up with what was promised when I bought approved used but nothing changes and the same dealers carry on doing the same shoddy practices

People think I'm mad for going back time and again for more - maybe I am - I just can't feel the love in anything else available  Wanted a Series 2 LR since childhood but previously owned MY16 Disco Sport HSE TD4 Auto, MY13 RR Sport Black Edition TDV6 Auto, MY10 RR Sport HSE TDV6 Auto, 2007 Freelander 1 Freestyle TD4 Soft Top, 2009 Freelander 2 GS TD4 Auto, 2007 Freelander 2 GS TD4, 2004 Disco 2 Metropolis Auto, 2002 Disco 2 GS, 2000 Freelander 1 SE TD4 SW

Still hoping for a S2 one day!

Have to agree muddy wheels - moved back to LR from BMW (hated it) - but it sounds like we got our cars from the same dealer!  2005 L322 Vogue Gold gone
2006 L322 Vogue Black gone
2011 L322 Vogue Silver gone
2011 L322 Autobiography Black gone
2015 L405 Autobiography LWB Black gone
2019 L405 P400e Range Rover Autobiography LWB Eiger grey / black roof gone
2001 P38a 30th Anniversary Wimbledon Green gone
2019 L405 P525 Autobiography LWB British Racing Green

+1 with Andy S

a) set spec/standard/price and don't move from it
b) take a non emotional person with you (e.g. SWMBO)
c) do the normal checks as you would on any car, plus the ones needed for an FFRR


For main dealer prices I would expect proper prepping, full service & inspection (all faults rectified), MOT, warranty etc. before handover.

From a normal dealer / private sale "caveat emptor" comes into play! .
Experience is the only genuine knowledge, but as time passes, I have forgotten more than I can remember
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Previous: L322 Range Rover TDV8 3.6 2008; L322 Range Rover TD6 3.0 2002; P38A Range Rover V8 1999

Quote Muddywheells "It really isn't good enough... had to involve Lrcs on many occasions to end up with what was promised... But nothing changes... "

If anyone has read some of my posts on here, they'll know we had a shocker with an A.U car.

As far as our experience tells me, aside to recalls and corrosion warranty claims (e.g. tailgate corrosion) if you buy an A.U LR that is over 3 years old, then the view of LR CS is that it's between you and the selling dealership.

Joe90 is right too and that's why I will continue to buy A.U because if it goes wrong, it might be unpleasant and it might be a battle, but perhaps you do have just a fighting chance of holding the seller to that Aprroved Used promise.

Last edited by pld118 on 22nd Jun 2015 5:33am. Edited 1 time in total

I too have found Lrcs give nothing more than lip service. Using sale of goods act usually gets results though


I agree dealers are letting the brand down but seems to be little sign of LR sorting it - certainly got worse in the 15 years I've been buying mix of new and app used  Wanted a Series 2 LR since childhood but previously owned MY16 Disco Sport HSE TD4 Auto, MY13 RR Sport Black Edition TDV6 Auto, MY10 RR Sport HSE TDV6 Auto, 2007 Freelander 1 Freestyle TD4 Soft Top, 2009 Freelander 2 GS TD4 Auto, 2007 Freelander 2 GS TD4, 2004 Disco 2 Metropolis Auto, 2002 Disco 2 GS, 2000 Freelander 1 SE TD4 SW

Still hoping for a S2 one day!

My car was bought at 3years old as AU. All faults rectified, properly prepped and serviced. No quibbles on subsequent issues, just dealt with. That's why I only ever go to that dealer (Harwoods Edenbridge since you ask)
Have the same experience with the mini at Cooper Sevenoaks.

Have been over mine with a fine toothed comb, and so far have found precisely 2 minor problem. But do agree with Ryan , some of the ones I have seen were shonky!

Wouldn't say mine was down to great prep, more down to the care of the previous owner. Serviced on time annually, tidy interior, good paint.

You just have to look at all the ones in your budget and with in range and eventually you will come across the right one! There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
KIA E-Niro 4+
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Got mine in Dec, between then and May it had been at the delears for 14 weeks. Issues that should have been rectified at the outset. having seen the internal receipts for the work carried out, they spent nearly 2k on getting things fixed.

I wrote a letter of complaint to the Franchise GM who offered me an extended 12 months warranty as well as next service FOC.

What i would say - i will buy again from a LRD even the same franchise but not the same dealership. a, it was too far - they had a local one that i should have asked if i could have bought the car from.

having bought from a LRD and being reassured by the sales guy that any issues would get fixed, i had that peace of mind. Even though it took the best part of 5 months. 2011 5.0SC Santorini Black
2009 5.0SC Santorti Black - Been stolen.
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