7:47 am, January 28, 2024
Angry Jaguar Land Rover owners who are desperately waiting for parts to get their cars back on the road have joined forces to put pressure on the car maker.
The Jaguar Land Rover Alliance Group has been formed on social media sites – including Facebook – for owners to club together to share their stories.
One owner, Dave Reed, explained nearly 300 people have joined his group which is specifically targeting JLR cars with power steering faults.
He said the group has written to the car maker on behalf of its members as many require major parts to fix their cars which are still on backorder with no delivery dates in sight.
Reed said some members’ cars have been off the road for more than four months.
‘This alliance has been formed to combine efforts with JLR as individual vehicle owners have been fobbed off,’ he said.
‘The alliance has written to Adrian Mardell, the CEO of JLR on two occasions, but so far this has been to no avail.’
His specific group’s complaint is regarding power steering failures on Jaguar F-Pace and Range Rover Velar models. He says some of his members have been told the part needed to fix their cars ‘may not be available this year’. He has reported the issue to the DVSA.
The group’s case brings the spotlight back to the on-going Jaguar Land Rover parts crisis, first highlighted by Car Dealer Magazine in October, and shows it has not improved.
At the time JLR convened a special summit with dealers to discuss why some 10,000 cars were off the road awaiting parts with 5,000 customers driving around in courtesy cars.
JLR said the problems came as a result of a new global parts distribution logistics centre – dubbed ‘Mercia’ – which had seen 18 warehouses condensed into one.
The car maker was also changing parts suppliers and bringing legacy systems together into one. The changes have not gone smoothly and even now, some four months later, the situation has improved only a little.
A spokesperson for JLR insisted the parts problems had eased, with a third of the cars originally affected now waiting for critical parts, compared to October.
‘As we deliver our commitment to become carbon net zero across our supply chain, products, and operations by 2039, we are streamlining parts distribution from multiple locations to one global super centre,’ the spokesperson told Car Dealer in an update this week.
‘This transition has unfortunately caused some temporary delays to the delivery of parts to our retailers.
‘We are working closely with our distribution partner, Unipart, to quickly resolve the issue and ensure the service returns to normal as soon as possible for our clients.
‘Since November, the number of critical orders for parts for cars that are off the road, has reduced from over 6,000 orders, to under 2,000 orders, however, our retailers and clients are in the early days of feeling these benefits and it will take time for JLR workshops to repair all the vehicles that are currently off the road.
‘We recognise there is still progress to be made to meet the high level of expectations our clients rightfully expect and it remains a top priority for us to resolve.’
On the specific topic of the steering wheel failures on F-Pace and Velar models, the spokesperson said ‘the safety of its clients was paramount’.
‘We work closely with the DVSA and assist with any of its enquiries,’ they added. ‘Details of our current updates including campaigns and recalls are available online and through our retailers.’
