Lexus vs. Land Rover

I’m faced with a difficult situation: I’m able to fandangle a pretty good deal with a Land Rover Range Rover right now, given the poor state of the economy. I’m also looking at the more reliable Lexus GX470. Do you think that I will regret purchasing the Range Rover? Is reliability still an issue for them?



The Lexus is a nice car; it just doesn’t have the panache of the Rover. At the same time, it is reported to be a hell of a lot more reliable. I kind of like the Range Rover more, I just am torn given mixed reviews.



What am I to do, in your opinions?



Thanks,

Daniel Bernard

For me I would take the Lexus. Land Rover is just not my style. Pick what you like. If you really do the numbers the best and worse cars are not all that much different when it comes to reliability. Keeping them maintained properly will make a bigger difference.

Look at it this way. If car A has one problem per hundred per year and car B has two problems per hundred per year car B has twice as many problems, but looking at it the other way car B is problem free 98% of the time while car A is problem free 99% of the time. Not really much difference.

The Lexus is not a LITTLE more reliable…it’s about 100 times more reliable. Range Rover is NOT a reliable vehicle. Maybe they’ve improved things since Ford bought them. Personally I’d stay away from them.

I vote for the Lexus too. I care about how much time a vehicle will spend in the shop more than panache. I don’t know how you define penache, but in my view, Land Rovers don’t have it…but that is just my opinion.

You can probably get a good deal on the Land Rover given the poor state of Land Rover more than anything. They are pretty consistently near the bottom of just about every measure of reliability. If you’re buying used, you will see some very good deals due to the head spinning depreciation on the Rovers too-- it’s not uncommon for a $60,000 Land Rover to be worth 2 or 3,000 in five years. And there is a reason for this!

If you are wealthy and patient and have a high tolerance for unneccessary failures, pick the Land Rover. It’s on the bottom of the reliability list, whereas Lexus is near the top. The Land Rover is also very expensive to repair and maintain. If the difference was small, as Joseph suggests, I would pick whatever turned my crank. Unfortunatey, it is NOT!

The queen of England has both a Range Rover and several Jaguars, but she has a “resident mechanic” to keep them running.

The recent sale by Ford of the Land Rover and Jaguar divisions to Tata of India leaves it with an uncertain future. Tata is a reputable company, but India is not the US, and American expectations for reliability and distance driven per year are vastly different from what the Indians or Brits are used to.

Consumer Reports reliability data analysis shows Land Rovers to be in a class by themselves…a class well below the next least reliable vehicle.

I’d recommend the Lexus.

Here, look for yourself on the JD Power 2007 Initial Quality Survey. Please don’t be shocked. There is a wide gulf between Lexus and Land Rover. However, if you are leasing, I believe that Land Rover covers 100 percent of all maintenance for the entire lease period. If you add that to the warranty coverage, you’re covered. …except for the inconvenience of more trips to the shop.

http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2007088

If you really like the Range Rover, despite its status of bottom-of-the-barrel reliability, then you should buy it. Just don’t say that nobody on this site warned you!

One of my neighbors had a Range Rover for a couple of years, and he had his vehicle in the shop for warranty work about every two weeks! At least they gave him a loaner vehicle each time. The joke on the street was “What color is Jack’s Rover this week?”

Needless to say, he dumped that Range Rover after two years or so.

Very funny. In your link it says: "The most improved nameplates in the study are Land Rover (increasing in initial quality by 34 PP100), … ". And still they are dead last!

LEASING…Besides buying one of the most unreliable vehicles EVER…LEASING is just another big money pit…It’s the WORSE way to own a vehicle. So pick the WORSE way to own one of the WORSE vehicles you can buy.

When my daughter married in 1997, her husband had a 1996 Ford. She had a 1992 Saturn, one of those made before GM reduced quality. After 4 or 5 years, the Saturn was nearly 10 years old, and he started demanding she get a new car.

She told him, “I can’t get a new car.”

He asked why, and she responded, "I need my Saturn so I can pick you up and drop you off at the Ford dealer when your Ford is getting fixed.’ She was not joking.

He now has an Isuzu, 2001, with 100K+, and she has a 2006 Odyssey. He says he will never own another car from the Big Three.

I see a lot of Rovers in McAllen, and wonder what possesses those people. My consolation is mechanics need employment.

Edmunds expects that you will pay $1300 for repairs over the next 5 years for the Lexus and $5200 for the Range Rover. Does that put it into perspective?