Reports submitted to NHTSA by owners and drivers, shown in full
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Our database holds 6 NHTSA owner-reported complaints for the 2026 Land Rover Defender. Each one is a report filed by an owner or driver and published by NHTSA without most of them being verified. A complaint is not a confirmed defect, not a recall and not a manufacturer bulletin. Narratives are shown exactly as filed.
Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.
Showing 1–6 of 6
My instrument cluster will dim to a nearly unreadable level at random times during the day. This appears to be a common and documented issue with Land Rover Defenders. I have seen a multitude of forum posts going back several years about this issue. There are no settings in the system that allow me to adjust this or prevent it from happening.
Driving along when electrical warning light came on and car died. Coasted into safe parking space. Would not start. Dash controls would not respond. This is the day after we bought it. It had been on trickle charge at the dealership and drove fine the evening we bought it. It was fine driving in the morning. So the battery should have been fully charged.
Red Error code popped up about battery. Then vehicle completely shut down. Was unable to put it in gear in order to move it to a safe place, therefore my vehicle blocked traffic. Fortunately this incident did not occur on the interstate where my vehicle could have been completely totaled or I could have been killed. I have less than 2500 miles on my vehicle, this should not have happened. It is currently in service waiting to be diagnosed.
WE WERE DREIVING ALONG AT 40 MILES PER HOUR THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON A EMERGECY WARING CAME ON 2 SECONDS LATER AND THE CAR COMPLETE STOP WENT DEAD. THE CAR WAS TOWED BACK TO THE DELAERSHIP AND SET THEIR BEING WORKED ON FOR 3 WEEKS, WE NEVER GOT A INDICAITO AS TO WHAT HAPPENED, GET CAR BACK 3 DAYS LATER CHECK ENGONE LIOGHT ON AGAIN. THIS TIME WE PULLED OVER ON THE ROAD AND CALLED ROADSIDE, CAR WAS PICK UP 10 DASY AGON NO COMMUNICATIONS FROM DEALER. THIS IS A SATEFY HAZARD THAT NEED TO BE REVIWED
Dealership sold me vehicle with open recall
The transmission has failed twice while the vehicle was in motion, causing loss of gear control and, on one occasion, loss of parking brake function. Incident 1 — March 24, 2026: While driving on the highway, the transmission failed and the vehicle entered a "safety mode." The vehicle was in dealer service for 8 days at Findlay Land Rover. Incident 2 — July 4, 2026, approximately 9:55 AM, at 6.1 miles into the trip, near South Buffalo Drive / Summerlin Parkway, Las Vegas, NV: While making a right turn off the Summerlin Parkway exit, the vehicle suddenly shifted into neutral with no prior warning. A check engine light and "Gearbox fault detected" alert appeared on the dashboard. The vehicle coasted downhill and my worker was able to steer it to the shoulder. Once stopped, the gearshift would not engage any gear other than neutral, and the electronic parking brake also failed to engage. My worker kept his foot on the brake pedal continuously and did not turn off the engine, fearing the vehicle could not be safely towed otherwise. A tow was requested at 10:09 AM and arrived at 11:01 AM; at that point the parking brake functioned again, and the vehicle was winched onto the tow truck. The vehicle was dropped off at Land Rover Las Vegas at 11:41 AM. Upon repair pickup on July 7, 2026, the service advisor stated the issue was software-related — the vehicle's computer had taken the transmission offline. The malfunctioning transmission and intermittent loss of parking brake function on a moving public road presents a serious safety risk, particularly since the failure occurred without warning during normal driving conditions.
Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.
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