This post was originally published on Autocar
Repair backlog and parts availability remain a problem for customers, despite assurances
Almost a year since JLR apologised for severe parts delays and promised improvements at its new logistics hub, customers are still experiencing issues.
Last November, JLR CEO Adrian Mardell said the firm was “really unhappy” about problems at its then new Global Parts Logistics Centre in Leicestershire. It had been reported that some 10,000 cars had been off the road awaiting parts due to delays at the new distribution hub.
Mardell promised the company would fix the issue and said customers would begin to see the benefits during the second quarter of this year.
In February he said the firm had begun to resolve the backlog but cautioned it would take time for dealers to repair the affected cars.
In April, two months after the update, JLR customer Robin Tudor contacted Autocar to report that his year-old Range Rover Evoque had broken down in January and the company had said the parts it needed would not be available until July.
Last month, reflecting on the delay, he said he had been given contradictory explanations throughout. “My car is now working fine, but it has put me off JLR vehicles in future,” he said.
Julie Courtis’s five-year old Jaguar XF Sportbrake is still in a garage awaiting parts four months after they were ordered, and her husband is unimpressed with the company’s customer service team.
“It’s their lack of transparency that is so frustrating,” said Simon Courtis. “For weeks, they have been saying only that the part ‘is on the list ’ or blame ‘supply chain shortages’. Recently they said it would arrive at the distribution centre in mid September, but then my dealer was told JLR can still not say when it will arrive.”
A spokesperson for JLR said the firm was trying to resolve the delay, which it denied was linked to problems at its logistics centre: “Our Global Parts Logistics Centre is now stable with consistent parts supply.”
Conceding that customers are still waiting for parts, the spokesperson added: “We do appreciate that some customers may not be feeling that improvement just yet. To resolve that as quickly as possible, we have invested £5 million to increase mobility availability for clients while they wait, provided 90% of JLR clients whose vehicles are in for repair with a JLR vehicle (up from 65% in October) and increased our UK customer service agents by 25% to give greater support.”
Unfortunately, JLR’s offer of a courtesy vehicle to customers awaiting parts does not extend to the Courtis family, whose XF is with an independent garage. As a result, they have so far paid £2000 in hire car charges.
Meanwhile, the SMMT has blamed temporary supply chain ‘constraints’ along with model changeovers for a drop in UK car production and cited the impact of floods in central Europe on raw material production.
Among the car makers affected was JLR, whose aluminium supplier was flooded, but a spokesman said the company had found alternative sources. Julie Courtis is hoping JLR will find an alternative source for her XF’s delayed part – and soon.