JLR has long suffered a reputation for poor reliability and quality.
Customers are well aware of this and shying away in droves, costing JLR huge sales.
Jaguar, and Land Rover, going back quite a while, have never been considered as reliable vehicles. We recall stories, nightmares in fact, of Jags from the 80s and 90s failing at every opportunity. The Ford years helped nothing as proven by the unloved X-Type. Land Rover and Range Rover SUVs have suffered more than their fair share of issues as well. All of this has burdened JLR with a reputation for building “bad” vehicles.
2021 Jaguar XF | Photo: Jaguar
What hasn’t helped is Jaguar and Land Rover’s JD Power dependability ratings which typically slot them at or very near the bottom among all automakers. The most recent report positions Jaguar in the third from worst and Land Rover in the second to worst position overall.
This reputation has cost and is costing the British brands more than 100,000 sales every year according to a report by Automotive News (subscription required). Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bollore is quoted as saying: “The dissatisfaction of our customers was really detrimental to our natural volume. The missed opportunities today are massive. It’s more than 100,000 healthy sales that we could perform.”
Bollore says, as the brands push for full electrification, that the situation will improve however few are convinced that this will be the case.
