Substantial Defect
One that impairs the use, value or safety of the vehicle. Stalling, brake failure, steering and persistent electrical faults qualify. A rattle generally does not.
Land Rover recalled 121,509 Range Rovers for a steering knuckle that can fracture — then took nine months to send the owner letters. NHTSA is now investigating 331,559 more.
Bad VehicleLand Rover claims.
EXPLORE ↓Land Rover built it, but Land Rover does not decide it. These four questions decide it, and the repair orders in your glovebox answer all four.
One that impairs the use, value or safety of the vehicle. Stalling, brake failure, steering and persistent electrical faults qualify. A rattle generally does not.
Florida looks for three attempts at the same defect. New York looks for four. Recall work and visits that found nothing both count.
Thirty cumulative days in Florida and in New York. Cumulative, not consecutive, and the days count whether or not anything was fixed.
The defect has to be reported while the vehicle is inside the warranty or rights period. When it was reported matters more than today's date.
The most useful fact about a Land Rover claim is not a defect. It is a date. Campaign 25V514, covering 121,509 Range Rover and Range Rover Sport vehicles for a front suspension upper knuckle joint that can crack and let the suspension arm detach, was reported to NHTSA on 8 August 2025. Owner notification letters did not go out until 11 May 2026 — about nine months later.
Campaign 26V248, covering 170,169 vehicles for a DC-DC converter failure that kills 12-volt charging and can cause complete loss of drive power and exterior lighting, sent letters in June 2026 with the remedy explicitly not ready — further correspondence promised once final repairs were available.
That lag is the whole argument. Florida's presumption threshold is 30 or more cumulative days out of service, the same as New York's, and those days accumulate while you wait for a part that does not exist. Written notice to the manufacturer is triggered earlier, at 15 days. A generic "more than 15 days" line understates what actually happens to Land Rover owners.
Jonathan D. Schwartz has +25 years of experience handling Lemon Law and warranty matters, including claims against Jaguar Land Rover North America. Bad Vehicle offers a free case evaluation, direct access to the attorney handling the claim, and no upfront legal fee to begin pursuing an eligible case.
A recall is the manufacturer acknowledging that a defect exists across a population of vehicles and offering a remedy. It is a public admission of the fault pattern, which makes it useful evidence. What it is not is a Lemon Law claim.
The claim arises from what happened to your vehicle: the defect was reported, the manufacturer was given a reasonable number of attempts to repair it, and it is still there.
The steering knuckle matter is not settled. NHTSA upgraded its investigation to an Engineering Analysis in April 2026 covering 331,559 vehicles — roughly 210,000 beyond the recall population — and the scope runs to 2022 while the recall covers only 2014 to 2017. For uncracked knuckles the remedy is a retaining bracket rather than a new part.
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Every day out of service counts, whether or not the repair exists yet.
These are the defect categories that generate the most Lemon Law and warranty claims against Land Rover. A vehicle showing one of these is not automatically a claim. A vehicle showing one of these repeatedly and unrepaired usually is.
The cast aluminium front steering knuckle can crack at the upper clevis joint and release the upper suspension arm, producing sudden loss of directional control. 121,509 vehicles recalled and 331,559 still under federal investigation.
Suspension arm detachment is the subject of an active NHTSA engineering analysis, and air suspension collapse and ride-height faults are among the most persistent owner-reported Range Rover complaints outside any recall.
A failed DC-DC converter in mild-hybrid models kills 12-volt charging and can shut down drive power and exterior lighting mid-journey, affecting 170,169 US vehicles across seven Land Rover nameplates.
The Pivi Pro centre touchscreen can go blank on startup, disabling the display and the rearview camera feed with it. JLR logged 1,025 US field reports before the 28,370-vehicle recall.
Two separate campaigns cover rearview camera loss, one from touchscreen software and one from water pooling behind the camera because of insufficient drain holes — both reducing rear visibility.
Corrosion at the driver's airbag clockspring connector can stop the airbag deploying in a crash. Campaign 26V389 is the largest recent Land Rover action at 250,857 vehicles.
Which one applies depends on the state, the facts and what gets negotiated with Jaguar Land Rover. All four start with the same free case review.
Recall record and open investigation · NHTSA · September 2026
LAND ROVERDriver airbag may not deploy — Defender, Discovery and Range Rover. The driver's airbag clockspring connector may corrode so the airbag does not deploy as intended in a crash.
Check My Case ↗Total loss of drive power — Range Rover, Sport, Evoque, Velar, Discovery, Discovery Sport and Defender. A DC-DC converter fault kills 12-volt charging and can cut drive power and lighting.
Check My Case ↗Suspension arm detaches — Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. The front suspension upper knuckle joint may crack, letting the suspension arm detach and causing loss of control.
Check My Case ↗Touchscreen goes blank — Discovery Sport, Range Rover Evoque and Defender. The centre console touchscreen may go blank at startup, so the rearview camera image does not display.
Check My Case ↗NHTSA upgraded its steering knuckle investigation to Engineering Analysis EA26003 in April 2026, covering 331,559 vehicles — roughly 210,000 beyond the recall population — and extending the scope to 2022 while the recall covers only 2014 to 2017. Figures from NHTSA as of 23 September 2026.
Read the 15 Questions ↗General information about Lemon Law and warranty claims, not legal advice. What applies to a particular vehicle depends on its records, its warranty and the state where it was bought.
Ask Us Directly ↗The law applies the same way to every brand sold in the state. What differs is the defect pattern, the warranty terms and how hard the manufacturer fights.
Send the year, model and the repair history — and tell us how long the vehicle has been waiting for a part. Those days count.
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