Derbyshire couple lose thousands of pounds waiting on Land Rover repair for £42,000 car

Winster resident Andy Novotny first took his 2019 Range Rover Velar into the DLS Service Centre in Wirksworth on October 24 after the vehicle was damaged during the local floods – and as of March 1 no one has been able to confirm when the necessary part might become available.

Having spent £42,000 to buy the car second hand from a Land Rover dealership in 2022 – after its initial warranty period had lapsed – Andy and his wife Gina now have no idea when they will be able to drive it again, and in the meantime they have been racking up other expenses to keep their family life moving.

E-commerce and marketing manager Andy, 34, said: “We drove through a shallow puddle and somehow it shorted the electrics in the steering rack. We took it to DLS as it’s an authorised Land Rover centre, they even supply parts themselves, so it seemed like the best place for it.

“They said it would be a case of replacing the rack, and agreed a price of £2,668 for parts and labour. When they went to order in the part they were told it wasn’t currently in stock but should expect to hear back about it soon.

“We asked about a courtesy car and they said there were none available. We thought it couldn’t take more than a few days, so at first we got by with lifts from family to help get our two kids to school in Darley Dale. When there was still no word on the repair we decided to hire a car. It cost a bit of money but that’s life sometimes.”

But as more weeks went by and the car hire bill started to mount up, Andy and Gina, who oversees the couple’s portfolio of holiday letting accommodation, were forced to rethink their position.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has acknowledged a major backlog for supplying parts after consolidating its network of 18 distribution warehouses into one ‘super-centre’ in Leicestershire in 2023.

In November, chief executive Adrian Mardell issued a public apology to almost 5,000 owners of affected vehicles, at the same time as it was reported JLR had run out of loan replacement vehicles.

Last month industry press stories estimated the backlog was down to around 2,000 cars, and while Mardell has suggested the company is making “good progress” on dealing with the crisis, he did not offer a definite timeframe to resolve all the outstanding issues.

Andy said: “DLS told us it’s been an issue before, and it had taken them six months to get hold of another part. At that point we started panicking. You make do, but after a while it becomes untenable.

“In the New Year we decided it would be cheaper to buy a second-hand car than keep renting, so we bought one for £1,000. After driving that for a little while we realised it wasn’t really up to it, so we spent £10,000 on another car, hoping we can sell it again and get that money back when the Velar is fixed.”

He added: “We’ve probably spent around £12,000 on alternative transport now, plus all the additional costs like insurance. It’s not really money we had available. It’s come out of our protection savings, so they’ve done their job, but the bank’s empty now. If we had to fix the car we’re currently using, there’s nothing left for that.

“We’re more than four months in and I don’t know how JLR can consider this acceptable in any way. What are we supposed to do with a car that can’t be driven, when it’s only four years old? How long do we wait?”

DLS declined to comment on the situation when contacted by the Derbyshire Times, but confirmed they were still actively trying to source the necessary part.

However, Andy believes he is not the only customer affected locally and there are a growing number of other cars waiting for repairs at the same garage.

He said: “I’m ringing every few days and they’re getting more and more stressed and struggling for space, but I feel like they’re in the dark as much as we are.

“They’ve spoken to every other Land Rover garage and dealership in the country, searched the after-market, and there were no steering racks available anywhere, even reconditioned ones.”

He added: “I started doing my own research trying to source one from abroad, but there’s just nothing out there and it’s radio silence from JLR. It’s not clear whether it’s a manufacturing problem or a logistics one.

“Their whole catalogue of parts is impossible to track. As far as I can tell, they might have this part somewhere but they don’t know what they’ve got and what they’ve not. They just say they’re not available. We don’t know whether the steering rack is going to be made, or if it’s waiting to be found.

“At the moment we don’t know whether it’s going to take a week, a month or a year. I’m not looking for an apology. I just want my car fixed, starting with some answers as to what’s actually going on and a realistic timeframe. If they said three months we could plan for that, but we’ve got no information at all.”

In response to questions from the Derbyshire Times, a spokesperson for JLR acknowledged the inconvenience caused to vehicle owners hit by shortages.

They added: “Whilst we cannot comment on issues experienced outside of the JLR approved retailer network, we do know that there is still progress to be made in relation to parts supply and we are determined to work faster to tackle this issue.

“All JLR vehicles purchased within our approved retailer network are equipped with an initial warranty period with an option to extend once that period ends.

"This not only provides a client with the reassurance that their vehicle is protected, but also that a mobility option is provided by our approved retailer network should a vehicle be off the road for an extended period within their workshop for repair.”

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