Donkeys are clearly better than Range Rovers

rypt · 29 Mar 2011 at 21:59

http://www.thetycho.com/chinese-driver-angry-with-range-rover-hires-donkeys/

A Range Rover driver in Shenyang in Liaoning Province was not happy with his vehicle anymore. He bought the Range last year for 2 million yuan or 304.604 USD. In one year the car broke down six times and the engine had to be replaced. When the car then broke down for the 7th time the driver had enough of it. He hired two donkeys to pull his Range Rover back to the dealer and asked for a total refund. The dealer did not yet agree

Mind you, I thought JLR were finally making reliable products

Sone · 29 Mar 2011 at 22:02

rypt said:
Mind you, I thought JLR were finally making reliable products

i was reading in USA today that jaguar are the third most reliable car in the us as RR are the second worst.

Clown · 29 Mar 2011 at 22:02

Not this one!

griffo_001 · 30 Mar 2011 at 00:36

The P38a and L322 both have a pretty bad rap for reliability, but that sounds like the dealer kept bodging it rather than getting to the bottom of the first underlying problem and causing more problems as he went along

There is a reason proper Range Rovers (ie <1995, particularly 1970-1973 and 1994-1995) that are in top knick are worth a small fortune

Jonnycoupe · 30 Mar 2011 at 08:22

Chinese customer service and dealers are terrible - hence we had that story with the guy getting his Lamborghi smashed up as he could afford to make such a statement.

jfp · 30 Mar 2011 at 08:30

the only person I know to have a range rover (53 reg) has had problem after problem with it, has been sat on the drive depreciating like no ones business for the past 6 month :-(

Matt82 · 30 Mar 2011 at 09:29

300,000 US$

tigerstyle · 30 Mar 2011 at 09:44

Matt82 said:
300,000 US$

Import metal isn't cheap in China, they prefer exporting the stuff

Matt82 · 30 Mar 2011 at 09:47

that is a crazy amount of money, i think RR got off lightly with the donkey publicity stunt

Ezah · 30 Mar 2011 at 10:00

as an L322 owner I can vouch for some unreliability and high running costs, but it has never left me stranded. A lot of it comes from the complexity of the design, and the need to understand and operate/maintain it correctly, EAS etc

But it sounds like this guy had a lemon and should have got it replaced sooner, either that or he (or the dealer) was doing it wrong!

I believe they are much more reliable since 2006, but there can always be some new ones which are completely FUBAR and the dealer/LR needs to take responsibility.

rypt · 30 Mar 2011 at 13:39

Jonnycoupe said:
Chinese customer service and dealers are terrible.

End of the day though the dealer, despite being a franchise, acts as a representative of the manufacturer - so if you lot find that you have plenty of poor dealers it is time to sort it out, or remove their franchise rights.

ubersonic · 30 Mar 2011 at 14:21

rypt said:
http://www.thetycho.com/chinese-driver-angry-with-range-rover-hires-donkeys/

Mind you, I thought JLR were finally making reliable products

Isn't that £190,000? for a range rover? what kinda exchange rate to the Chinese get? O.o

tigerstyle · 30 Mar 2011 at 14:26

ubersonic said:
Isn't that £190,000? for a range rover? what kinda exchange rate to the Chinese get? O.o

A reasonable one probably. The killer is tax.

ubersonic · 30 Mar 2011 at 14:50

tigerstyle said:
A reasonable one probably. The killer is tax.

Yeah but £190K? I just looked on the RR site and its £85K for the top of the range supercharged V8, lets say £5K to get it to China (well over) and the be very nice and give the dealer £10K profit, that's £90,000 Chinese tax O.O

Jonnycoupe · 30 Mar 2011 at 15:20

rypt said:
End of the day though the dealer, despite being a franchise, acts as a representative of the manufacturer - so if you lot find that you have plenty of poor dealers it is time to sort it out, or remove their franchise rights.

Chinese culture is very different to western regarding customer service. Something that is steadily changing I hope.

So if you want to remove the franchises from pretty much all dealers in the worlds largest growing automotive market go ahead.... I guess this is why you are not a CEO of an Auto OEM?

Jonnycoupe · 30 Mar 2011 at 15:21

ubersonic said:
Yeah but £190K? I just looked on the RR site and its £85K for the top of the range supercharged V8, lets say £5K to get it to China (well over) and the be very nice and give the dealer £10K profit, that's £90,000 Chinese tax O.O

There is an instant 30% import tax on any car over 2.0L, and them most buyers dont drive them anyway. You can imagine whats happening to address that.....

rypt · 30 Mar 2011 at 15:52

Jonnycoupe said:
Chinese culture is very different to western regarding customer service. Something that is steadily changing I hope.

So if you want to remove the franchises from pretty much all dealers in the worlds largest growing automotive market go ahead.... I guess this is why you are not a CEO of an Auto OEM?

You can impose your will on the dealers, via training ... or via opening your own dealerships staffed by people you pick and run in the way you see fit.

Chrysler/FIAT just did that in Los Angeles, their own dealership run as they want it to be run.

The dealership franchise model is outdated and antiquated.