Posted by Karen Sindir on November 16, 1997 at 01:28:39:

In Reply to: Attitude??? posted by Gary on November 12, 1997 at 12:50:16:

We chose a '95 Land Rover Discovery because of the ruggedness of the build and components, and needed a vehicle that provided some measure of comfort in a variety of conditions. This after looking carefully at all the SUV's in the market at the time. The ruggedness aspects are fine, but reliability problems have been a nightmare. If it was just rattling doors, etc. it would not have been so bad, but we have had major problems with the brakes, steering, and engine stalling with less than 17,000 miles on it. We have finally gotten it all fixed, but each time a new problem has come up after reassurances that everything would be "sorted out" (11 dealer visits totall). A dealers service manager even went so far to say that this sorting out process "may take 15,000 to 20,000 miles for some vehicles". As engineers, we do not find this reassuring, as our experience is that an item with multiple defects usually cannot be "cured" after it has left the factory. We are currently trying to get rid of it, because we do not want it to go out of warranty.

However, before you start flaming, consider this - we are trying to work with LRNA to get a possible trade-in deal on a '98 Discovery, and I own a '74 SIII 88 too. We are considering the Discovery only because they have reassured us of significant quality improvements, and the other SUV's have other shortcomings for us. I certainly hope the quality improvemnt is real for their sake, because the competition is getting fiercer in rthe U.S. market and the problems with this model are being discussed worldwide (read letters to LROi and LRW).

Karen Sindir

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