dorsetfreelander wrote:

Smallmankey wrote:

I have limited experience with them (drove one once years ago) but the even older SJ410 my brother had was a barrel of fun.

We had a SJ410, brilliant car although quite thirsty but would go places that a Defender found difficult as it was a lot lighter.

Incidentally just got back from a few days in France where we had a hire car, a Kia Rio 1.2. Apart from the fact that it had the steering wheel on the wrong side and it was a manual I was very impressed with it. The build quality was good, very well kitted out and considering the 7 year warranty my wife is looking seriously at it to replace her Peugeot.

+1 another vote for Kia any manufacturer that puts a 7yr warranty on there vehicles must have a lot of faith in them can you imagine Land Rover doing that

I moved from 2010 my xs commercial to 15 plate Xtrail Tekna nice car very high spec half the cost to run but the 1.6 d is a little under powered. Great in the snow with winter tyres but no auto box with the 4x4 for me it had something missing and I've come back to 14 plate xs and love it, half the spec twice the running costs but the satisfaction is worth it. It's a landrover thing.

A 7 year warranty has nothing to do with a “manufacturer’s faith in their product” and everything to do with how much of the selling price of the car manufacturers and their component suppliers are prepared to set aside to fund warranty claims and how much dealers are prepared to put up with 7 years of low warranty claim labour rates for the sake of shifting another unit NOW.

I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with the product, or it’s quality but, if you pay Korean labour rates and component and material pricing, then there really ought to be a fair amount left over to fund the warranty. So, rather than undercut further (and devalue their own product), why not offer a class leading warranty instead and then let people simply presume it’s down to the quality of the product?

The manufacturer gains by not being seen as cheap & nasty, customers have a good story to tell their neighbours, residual values are boosted by used cars having a factory warranty and the manufacturer effectively gets a useful interest free “loan” from their customers, repayable over 7 years of warranty claims


PS: Unlike poor bungling Land Rover, there is a useage restriction; their warranty is limited to 7 years, or 100,000 miles, whichever comes sooner

If it has any thing to go by last years most reliable manufacturer according to JD Power was Kia & Land Rover came in 23rd out of 25 manufactures I should think Kia have got a little confidence in there product.

If it was simply a matter of confidence then there wouldn’t be an arbitrary 100,000 mile restriction, this is a well calculated commercial decision and it seems to be having the desired affect on attitudes.

I don’t blame them, it’s a shrewd move

I owned 2 Hyundai’s before LR, a 2005 Tucson and a 2006 Santa Fe.

And guess which brand need dealer attention in the first few months. Yup you guessed it

LR could learn a lot from the Koreans on build quality and reliability. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

If you had owned a Land Rover back in 2005/2006 when the Freelander 1 & first discovery were on the road or more like it off the road then you would have known what unreliability was, let’s not kid ourselves Land Rover were bottom of the list for back then & look at where they are now 3rd off bottom just above BMW

My first LR was a 2005 D3 which needed a new engine at 2 years old. Purchased in 2007 at 1 1/2 years old. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

Great comments. For me the Evoke is now off the list, looking a bit more favourably on the Discovery Sport. I don't think at this stage there's much to be gained by changing to a newer Freelander, it won't give us anything that our current one doesn't so may as well just keep it.

Personally I'd like something smaller. Heavy off road or towing can be done with our Defender. We've occasionally used the FL as a 5 seater, but I think we could dispense with that if the car was smaller and cheaper. ----------
Tony S

Discovery 4

Quote:

Discovery 4

I have a friend who only buys Kias, they have just changed their saloon car for another one just before the 7 years was up. Apparently the only problem they had was last year when the clutch stopped working, it was a slave cylinder problem and fixed without question. Most far east cars seem to have a 5 or 7 year warranty but europeans stuck at 3. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

Previous to my Freelander 2 I had a 13 plate Kia Sportage, in the 3 years I had it I had an issue with the clutch slave cylinder and the diamond cut alloy wheels began to corrode. Both these issues were fixed by the dealer without any fuss whatsoever. The overall layout of the car was good and I found it very comfortable whilst returning 50MPG. When the time came to return it I was tempted to go for another but they changed the design and I didn't like the way it looked.