JLR turns to second-hand parts to clear repairs backlog

The owner of a Range Rover Evoque has accused JLR of repairing her vehicle using second-hand parts, as the company struggles to source new, replacement components for thousands of its customers' cars.

As first reported by Car Dealer, a trade publication, around 10,000 customer cars across the UK are awaiting replacement parts, with around 5000 of them off the road at JLR dealerships. The crisis, which originated at the firm's newest parts facility, Mercia Park (below), was revealed by Andrew Woolliscroft, UK client director at JLR, during a dealer summit in October. 

“Mercia is a bottleneck and we have a backlog of orders,” said Woolliscroft. The shortage of parts had “nearly stopped workshops from being able to operate," he added. 

He said the company had run out of courtesy vehicles as well as the space required to store customers' cars for repair and predicted the crisis would last until the end of November.

Among those owners waiting for a part was Bob Archell. His Range Rover Sport P400e was diagnosed with a faulty wiring harness in April. 

"I was on the phone so much to Land Rover I think they lost patience with me," he said. Its new replacement finally arrived in September but, by then, Archell had rejected the car. His case is ongoing.

Meanwhile, an employee at a JLR dealership has told Autocar that to beat the waiting list for new parts and speed up repairs, the manufacturer has instructed dealers to use second-hand parts. 

"JLR has told retailers to source non-genuine parts to get cars fixed and out of their workshops for the last six months," he said.

"One JLR senior manager even suggested we use second-hand parts if necessary, although this was ridiculed by retailers." 

Autocar contacted the employee to verify his claims but he did not respond.