BUYERS BEWARE

<p>We recently purchased a Land Rover Defender for a dream three-month road trip up to East Africa.</p> <p>We decided on an "approved" pre owned vehicle from Land Rover Waterford, as we were won over by Land Rover's customer promise of "peace of mind" that an approved vehicle was as good as a new vehicle based on the rigorous mechanical inspection the car went through plus coverage by a two-year warranty.</p> <p>Unfortunately, we quickly discovered the Land Rover's customer promise was bogus:<br />- After sending the car back to Land Rover multiple times for various issues, we found out that the car had not been inspected prior to us purchasing it AND that it had not been serviced in 18 months.<br />- After breaking down on the trip and trying to use Land Rover Assist, we found out that Land Rover had outsourced the warranty to a third party and we were not covered for typical expenses ranging from deficient parts to hotel and car rental expenses.<br /> <br />This is clearly a major management and ethical issue. To date, we have had no acknowledgement from Land Rover that our experience was unique or unusual, no discussion of options for addressing this, and no apology for not meeting their customer promise to us.</p> <p>If you are thinking about buying an "approved" pre-owned vehicle from Land Rover, we urge you to consider our story and make sure the same thing doesn't happen to you. We are also telling the story to friends and relatives.</p>