[cyncism]
Throughout the history of the motor car, it has often been decided by the beancounters that it is cheaper to fight and pay out individual compensation claims than it is to recall and fix a problem. This is much easier if the number of actual deaths caused by the issue is relatively low.
[/cynicism]

My Volvo T5 had an electronic throttle module that was badly designed and therefore guaranteed to fail. In the USA there was a class action and a recall to fix it. In the UK there was no recall - it was up to the owners to pay for replacements at ~£500 a pop. Oh, it wasn't a serious safety issue you understand, oh no. When it failed it would just drop the engine into limp home mode. In laymans terms that's suddenly travelling at 20mph on the motorway instead of 70. Very safe. And that's why I'd no longer buy Volvo; as far as I'm concerned they've burnt the safety record they validated over decades, and they'll never see my money again as I simply can't trust them to do the right thing anymore.

On a more positive note, maybe we could petition Mattel to buy out LR, then we could guarantee a recall?

I had a look at the x-eng site (it's looking hopeful isn't it?) and there's an interesting paragraph there regarding an earlier model LR :

x-eng website wrote:

If you drive off-road, you know how useless the standard Land Rover transmission brake can be. The brake itself is fine, its just that it traps muddy water inside which rapidly grinds down the shoes and bungs up the mechanism.

Perhaps LR considers brakes that fail in the conditions the car is alledgedly designed for just to be a mechanical heirloom passed down all the models?

It would be a real coup if x-eng could fit their disk to the transfer box like so many previous models, yet activate it from the EPB module (I like the way it auto-releases when I drive off ). The x-eng solution looks like it'd laugh in the face of off-road conditions, and there's no massive adjustment needed like there obviously is with a drum and shoe solution.

stapldm wrote:

[cyncism]
Throughout the history of the motor car, it has often been decided by the beancounters that it is cheaper to fight and pay out individual compensation claims than it is to recall and fix a problem. This is much easier if the number of actual deaths caused by the issue is relatively low.
[/cynicism]

My Volvo T5 had an electronic throttle module that was badly designed and therefore guaranteed to fail. In the USA there was a class action and a recall to fix it. In the UK there was no recall - it was up to the owners to pay for replacements at ~£500 a pop. Oh, it wasn't a serious safety issue you understand, oh no. When it failed it would just drop the engine into limp home mode. In laymans terms that's suddenly travelling at 20mph on the motorway instead of 70. Very safe. And that's why I'd no longer buy Volvo; as far as I'm concerned they've burnt the safety record they validated over decades, and they'll never see my money again as I simply can't trust them to do the right thing anymore.
.

Last year Yamaha had the same thing with faulty throttle position sensors, for a few years they had denied anything wrong, but, the start of a class action suit in the US changed their minds and they issued a recall. The recall was staggered world wide and it covered a wide range of bikes. My 2004 R1 had it, as had my 2003 FJR1300, the FJR also had faulty valve guides in the head, both these faults were corrected this year under recall, I got 4 new TPS last May and a new cylinder head last week
It did take a lot of pressure from the owners and these problems were always topics of discussion on the various owners websites.