I've actually promised swmbo that I'll keep this one for two years and it was nearer to two weeks

Basilfawlty wrote:

All I know Alistair is that it was a Land Rover car.

I had that leather problem too - my local dealer changed it free of charge  All my spelling errorz are belong to me!

2023 FFRR L460
2021 AM new Vantage

Thanks for that Angel

What initially attracted you to this particular 405 in the first place?

A blind viewing always carries risk.

If you are dissatisfied, ask for or arrange a third party condition report.

Some factors may be reflected in the purchase or trade in price form your supplying dealer.

If you feel this has not been the case, list the outstanding points and send them to the supplying dealer.

You can invite the dealer to correct the issues raised within a timeframe, or perhaps sanction your local LR Dealer to do this work. Otherwise consider a full refund.

If you have nagging doubts, you will struggle to fully enjoy your 405.

Thanks Doodle. Appreciate the advice. My main reason for buying from them was it was approved LR and I trust the brand, the colour and the spec and in particular I wanted to try the 4.4 V8 as I'd only had V6's up until this point. I had three areas of concern. The first much less important in the round was that it hadn't been valeted, which is just plain unacceptable by easily put right but if it had been they'd have picked up on the next two. Then the two bigger issues are the gloss trim and the leather issue. Fortunately, I've been over the car completely and other than these there's no issue for me.

And somewhat belatedly and after a formal notice to reject the car unless it was either put right to my satisfaction, supply me with a same age, mileage and variant in appropriately immaculate condition or give me a full refund we have reached a satisfactory conclusion. A little sad it wasn't offered before the formal letter but then they don't know me from Adam and I am unlikely to return to them given the great distance between us.

If it's put right properly then I've got no issue because it's otherwise a lovely car.

Stupid it has taken that amount of time to rectify.

Doesn't matter if you are a large distance from them, if they had impressed you then you would have been more likely to return to them. Doubtful that you will now though!

cheers Alex

2018 Skoda Kodiaq vRS
2009 Caterham Supersport Race car
2007 M5 Touring
2005 Range Rover Vogue SE Supercharged
2004 SL55 AMG

Do not even let it come into your mind not to - reject it. It's about time LR and its dealers know that premium products need to be reliable and delivered as described.

Well we've had fun and games over the last week! I thought that we had come to a mutually agreeable solution but apparently not. When I spoke with the sales manager ( a week ago today) we agreed a way forward. He said that I'd have my car back by yesterday, despite the bank holiday weekend.

Anyway, as you do I checked the incontrol function regularly to see if there was any movement in my car but every time it was locked and alarmed so I emailed for an update three separate days until yesterday, all with no reply. As I was supposed to be receiving the car back yesterday I was disappointed to see it hadn't turned a wheel and because I was getting no reply from the dealer I contacted LRCS and they did assist me. They told me that they'd contacted the dealer at 11am and asked them to make urgent contact with me. By 3.45 pm and still no contact I emailed the dealership and said that I would require proof by video that the work had been carried out already, as promised or I would reject the car. At 5pm the salesman rang me and told me he work hadn't even been started yet but that they'd get onto it. I told them not to.

It later transpired that there was an impass over the seat and a smart repair had been carried out.

Well it turns out that a new leather seat is £2000.00 and the dealership don't want to pay that. So even though it was beyond my comfort zone I said that I would agree to receiving the car if the professional repair on the leather was guaranteed for the life of my ownership. They refused to guarantee their own professionals work. So I had no alternative and have now rejected the car.

You better let everyone know what dealer and what vehicle so no one else gets it

Wow sorry to hear Basil but i think you have done the right thing. This dealer is a disgrace.

I am genuinely sad from a commercial aspect that a dealer of this premium range of cars with such a massive following worldwide would not fight to the bitter end to make sure their customer was totally 100% satisfied irrespective of whether they are local or not and irrespective of cost.
If it was a dealer of low value new/used cars then you'd expect this treatment but any LR dealer is literally 'printing money' in the current market. They genuinely are doing extremely well financially and I think it's shocking that this is continuing to happen from a premium marque.

Does LR not take ANY notice of these dealer issues?

Thanks for sharing this interesting thread.
I am sorry that you have decided to reject the car, but think you had no choice & have made the right decision.
As someone that enjoys reading this forum & looks forward to the day I can own a FF, it is rather worrying that such situations can arise for an experienced owner like yourself !
Hope all goes well with the replacement, are you now enjoying the searching process once again ?!
Richard

Disgraceful!

Please tell us the region where the dealership is located. If it's local to me I'd be happy to pop in and provide an opinion on their behavior. MY23 D350 HSE
On my 7th RR plus various other JLR vehicles

The dealer is Lancaster of Tonbridge, part of the Jardine Group. I'm sure they see me as a difficult customer but as I told them from before I bought the car I'd only buy long distance, without seeing the car if someone in the dealership went through it to tell me of any imperfections.

They offered a video but I'm an old hand at buying cars and I know that videos make everything look shiny and lovely so I left them in no doubt about what I would expect. It was the used sales manager himself that inspected the car and failed to see or to report the problems inside.

I like to think I'm a reasonable guy but I've never heard of a dealer doing a repair on a leather seat and telling me that they are delighted with the result but that they won't guarantee it to last for the next two years, or repair it if it does. In fairness to them they've loaned me a RRSport AB (which I really am not keen on) and their head of business was straight talking and apologetic but the truth is it's been a real pain. Taking front facing cameras off the old one, putting them on the new one and now a repeat of that all costs, as does the usual cherished plate issues and there are others but the one I need to make sure they sort out is ensure I don't go down as another keeper, having not owned my old car for the past three weeks or so.

My biggest issue with the dealer isn't the fact that they clearly aired on the 165 point checking system, or that they promised to replace anything that couldn't be properly repaired and then changed their mind.......it was the lack of honesty and the inept communication. To perhaps best sum up I can tell you all that when in conversation with one more senior members of the used car staff he told me that he had a system of dealing with heavy email in trays and that was simply to delete them without reading them. He swears it works and says if it's important enough they'll email back.

Certainly on this one occasion his failure to reply helped to make my decision easier.

On a more positive note the team at LRCS did very well indeed. They were a real help. They too considered the dealerships response to the leather seat question difficult to understand and as the lady said "it's not like you were buying an old inexpensive car". She told me that they would very likely have met a claim for such an issue, a fact which was totally denied by the dealer management team.