‘A Land Rover dealer sold me a dangerous and damp car – then fobbed me off ’

QI’ve driven Range Rovers for most of my adult life. Having finished with a Velar model, I bought a used Land Rover Discovery on a £ 700- a- month deal from a franchise branch of Jaguar Land Rover on Nov 30 2022. As the vehicle had been bought in from another dealership and I collected it late in the day, I was not given the opportunity to test drive it. I wasn’t too worried though, as I’d never had issues before, and it came with a 12-month warranty.

While driving the vehicle home I commented to my son who was sitting in the passenger seat that it felt very sluggish. It did not feel like any other JLR vehicle I have previously driven.

The next morning I called the dealer about my concerns and had to leave a message with reception as no one was available to speak. I did not receive a call back and had to phone the dealer again several times later that day.

In the meantime, I also discovered that the left front windscreen wiper did not work, and part of the internal trim on the passenger side was coming away. The vehicle also had a severe smell of damp and a major problem with condensation.

When I finally spoke to the dealer to say I wanted to return the vehicle, I was told that exchanging it for an alternative would not be a problem. The staff promised to take care of me, but said that I needed to give the dealership the opportunity to find me a similar model. I now feel this was a delay tactic, as from then on, their communication was non-existent.

While I was waiting for a replacement car I tried not to drive the Land Rover, but eventually I had to start driving it as I couldn’t keep borrowing my children’s cars.

On July 17 2023, I was driving on the M25 when the vehicle suddenly indicated “restricted performance” and slowed down from 70mph to 20mph. As I was in the fast lane, it was an incredibly dangerous situation trying to manoeuvre across to the hard shoulder. This was extremely traumatic.

I limped on to the next junction and exited the motorway. I tried using the emergency assistance function, only to discover that this did not work. So I called the dealer to find out the best contact number for their recovery service. As I could not get a reply, I took the car to my office which was nearby.

On July 28, I tried to drive the car back to my house and once again the vehicle went into restricted performance mode. This time the vehicle was recovered to the dealership the next day and they informed me that they would look into all the issues.