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Land Rover Recalls New Range Rover and Range Rover Sport Over Armrest Latch Failure

Land Rover premiered the MLA-Flex platform in October 2021 with the long-awaited introduction of the fifth-generation Range Rover. Manufactured exclusively in Solihull, the full-size luxury sport utility vehicle is joined at the hip to the third-generation Range Rover Sport. Given their extremely close technical relation, it should come as no surprise that an issue with the Range Rover often carries over to the lesser sibling.
Land Rover Range Rover 73 photos
Photo: Land Rover / edited
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Recall number 23V-324 follows that pattern, with Land Rover calling back 12,587 examples of the breed in the United States of America. Documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveal that everything started in January 2023 with a review of a technical service bulleting (TSB) concerning a repair of the second-row armrest storage compartment latch.

The Product Safety and Compliance Committee within Jaguar Land Rover demanded Engineering to investigate, concluding that said armrest storage compartment meets safety requirements. Believe it or not, a further investigation revealed the opposite. As it happens, the latch may fail in case of a crash. Any object stored in the second-row armrest storage compartment increases the risk of injury in this particular scenario.

That's a noncompliance with federal motor vehicle safety standard number 201 for occupant protection, therefore forcing the peeps at Land Rover to recall the aforementioned population of sport utility vehicles. The armrest lock is listed in the document attached below under eight part numbers, all supplied by Grammer of Germany. Dealers will replace the locking arm of the latch with a revised component featuring an improved material specification and design. Dealers will be informed no later than May 18 of this recall, whereas affected owners will be notified on or before June 30.

Suspect 2022 and 2023 model year Land Rover Range Rover vehicles were produced in Solihull between January 30, 2022 and November 7, 2022 to the tune of 9,838 units. The 2023 model year Land Rover Range Sport is listed with production dates ranging from June 30, 2022 to November 7, 2023. An estimated 2,749 examples are believed to feature the iffy locking arm.

The Range Rover is currently available to configure from an eye-watering $106,500 stateside, not including the destination freight charge. Said pricing applies to the SE Standard Wheelbase P400 AWD Automatic MHEV, which is a bit of a mouthful. The mild-hybrid powerplant comes in the form of a 3.0L inline-six. It's connected to a ZF-supplied automatic that Land Rover uses for the V8 as well. Speaking of which, the good ol' Jaguar V8 is gone in favor of a 4.4L engine of German origin.

The N63 is the culprit in question. Introduced in 2008, the world's first production engine to feature a hot-vee layout is twinned with the S63 for M hi-po applications. The latter already has a replacement in the S68, which is best described as a thorough redesign of the S63.

With Jaguar and Land Rover both transitioning to full-electric vehicle lineups, the N63 may be the final V8 we'll get in the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. Unless the German automaker has agreed to supply the S63 or newer S68 for the likes of the RRS SV
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 Download: Land Rover latch recall (PDF)

About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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