Consumer Complaint Detail
LAND ROVER / DEFENDER / 2002
0 Injured
0 Death
No Fire
| Components - Details | |
|---|---|
| NHTSA Complaint Number: 007120845 | Incident Date: Aug, 17 2007 |
| Consumer's City: NORTHPORT | Consumer's State: NY |
| Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO | Manufacturers Name: Land Rover |
| Model Name: DEFENDER | Model Year: 2002 |
| Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No | Component's Description: Engine and engine cooling |
| Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No | Persons Injured: 0 |
| Vehicle's VIN#: SALNY22282A | Date added to File: May, 23 2021 |
| Date Complaint Received: Sep, 24 2007 | Complaint Type: IVOQ |
| Incident Reported To Police: No | Purchase Date: May, 03 2002 |
| Was Original Owner: Yes | Anti-lock Brakes: Yes |
| Number of Cylinders: 6 | Date of Manufacturer: - |
| Was Vehicle Towed: - | Description of the Complaints: The engine in my 2002 land rover freelander overheated at about 65k miles and made it the 10 miles or so to the dealership service center only because i kept stopping, removing the coolant tank cap, and replacing the fluid every few miles. the dealership service center told me that the engine had to be replaced - at my expense, to the tune of nearly $8k. mind you, i paid over $30k for this car only 5 years ago and have kept it well-serviced. turns out, there is a widespread problem with this particular engine (check out the edmunds blog, townhall-talk) in that the engine is ruined if it overheats. i recalled having had a mysterious problem with the engine overheating - in the dead of a chicago winter, no less - within a couple of years after purchasing it. the repairs, which i did not understand, were made under warranty. apparently, the repairs were not adequate. in any case, after pestering land rover for a few weeks until i reached the "customer service manager" in new jersey, an individual who identified herself as the "executive liaison" called with a "one-time, goodwill offer between us" that she would not reduce to writing - to reduce the engine replacement cost to $2,500 for me since land rover corporation would pay the other half of the dealership service center's cost of $5k, treating the engine replacement as if it was covered under warranty. that's real nice except that i should not have to pay anything for land rover's use of an engine with a faulty design. from what the dealership service center has told me, they replace the ruined engine with a remanufactured engine produced by the same manufacturer that sold them the original faulty one. swell. *jb |