Financial Compensation

Faults and Technical chat for the Discovery 5
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SAndo87
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 23, 2018 2:21 pm

Post by SAndo87 »

Hi - New to the forum and apologies for the long post!!

Took delivery of my 18 plate HSE on March 19th. It was a factory build from the U.K. and it was delivered over to the dealer in Germany as I’m based here with the military. On inspection the car smelt strongly of diesel and when we opened the bonnet it was clear all was not well. Oil and fuel were everywhere and it was leaking onto the floor. The dealer sent the car straight to the local Land Rover mechanic and a week later my car was returned after having a fuel pump valve replaced. I thought this would be all until I noticed my second row seats wobbled when driven and looked to find one side not connected properly making them useless. Again I called the garage and they couldn’t fit me in for 3 weeks! I was returning to the U.K. that weekend and so booked it with a U.K. dealer.
En route through the Netherlands the car again smelt strongly of fuel and when I pulled over the fuel was leaking all over the wheel and to the floor with a smoking engine.
I called Land Rover assistance who were as useful as a chocolate microwave. 3 hrs later I was told the car would be taken to a compound and I would get a taxi home. I called the sales office who supplied the car and they managed to arrange a lift to the nearest garage and I paid for a hire car. Another week went by and I had to rebook my ferry etc and this time the part was faulty again amping other things. When the car made it to the U.K. I was told it needed a full engine clean, new seats ordered and other small issues needed resolving such as the camera never activating, the electric sears not working...
After this I was told by my dealer I could reject the vehicle as it was still under a month old and theat they would support me. My only issue was being in the military I’m due to move abroad again soon and so there isn’t enough time to have a factory build and delivering elsewhere isn’t an option due to the customs and tax issues out here.
They have offered me another vehicle which isn’t even close to the one I had built and that is apparently my only option but it would me settling for a lesser vehicle than I had purchased.
Land Rover have suggested some financial compensation if I keep my vehicle but haven’t disclosed an amount and won’t make an offer and so I have to come up with a figure myself.
This is completely new territory for me and so I wondered what figure others may suggest I request? I wasn’t in this for compensation I genuinely wanted to be elated with this stunning new vehicle and it’s jut been miserable especially being concerned the same issue may happen again to my wife driving with young children when I’m deployed.
I realise I could just accept the cars they’ve suggested but we have specific options that can’t be found on one other vehicle, namely electric tow bar, black pack and black alloys to start. We’ve been offered the same colour with tow bar but no black pack and ivory interior etc
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Craigp
Posts: 314
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2017 2:34 pm

Post by Craigp »

Sorry to hear that you have been unlucky with your car. Sounds like a real lemon. I have no experience of compensation however I suppose you have to as a starting point find out what the car is worth to LR. Which would be 2nd hand trade in price minus a little for your trouble. So take that off what you paid and there's your compensation. No idea if I'm being realistic. As you say the dealer is sympathetic to your problem maybe he would whisper in your hear a starting point.
3litre SE. Monticello Red. Electric deployable tow bar.
Houghty
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2018 10:48 am

Post by Houghty »

Sorry to hear about your problems. Sadly they seem quite common place.

I don’t believe they can’t get you a car of the right spec. Most dealers have stock they order. If it’s the tow bar, they can fit either electronic or manual retrospectively. Although the former is about £3k whereas the manual is under £1k.
Perhaps you could say get me into something even better then. Maybe a Range Rover. They might find a 2017 MY that hasn’t been sold for example that they can get for you.
In terms of compensation, my only advice would be to go high. These cars aren’t cheap and the stress, hassle and agrevation is going to be worth a chunk. Start at maybe £30K and see what they say.
I’d seriously be saying “keep it, I don’t want it back”.

Hope this helps.
SAndo87
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 23, 2018 2:21 pm

Post by SAndo87 »

Thanks for the replies!
The salesperson this morning has said if we keep our current vehicle now it’s been fixed completely and seems ok that maybe we could keep the car and request around 2k in extra compensation.
I have also found the build date of the vehicle as January 2nd so clearly a very good new year celebration was had. My current car is a HSE 3ltr Diesel in Corris grey. We added the Ebony headline , tinted windows, black pack and black alloys with electric tow bar. So now I suppose ok wondering what else I can push for if I do indeed keep the vehicle. We already added the tracker and service pack ourselves so there’s not much else they could add retrospectively.
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