Land Rover customers forced to wait ‘up to two years’ for their new cars to arrive as dealers reveal how long buyers will have to wait across major brands
- Some 21 dealers across all mainstream brands were contacted about lead times
- Lead times of up to 24 months for Land Rover Discovery and Range Rover Sport
- Have you been quoted a long lead time? Email [email protected]
Land Rover buyers are being told they will need to wait for up to two years for new car orders to arrive, according to dealers who stock their vehicles.
Orders placed on Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Discovery models will not arrive until 2025 due to 24-month lead times on these models, says the recent market study.
These are the biggest delays across all car makers, with the next longest being 12-month waits for some Audis, Maseratis and models from Land Rover’s sister brand, Jaguar.
Want to know how long you might have to wait for a new car? Lead times on deliveries are anything between 3.5 months and two years, according to a new report
The research has been conducted by car subscription firm Wagonex, which contacted 21 car dealerships connected to mainstream brands between 28 and 29 March.
It found that the average wait for a new car ordered at the end of last month was eight months.
The shortest lead times were quoted by Citroen dealers, with salesmen telling customers they will need to wait for up to three and a half months, according to the report.
The feedback from dealers was slightly different to the lead times given by car makers to This is Money earlier in March when we contacted all 34 major car brands regarding how long buyers might need to wait to get hold of a set of keys.
Land Rover stated waiting times of up to 12 months, while Citroen said it could be as little as two months for customers to get their hands on a C3 Aircross crossover.
Land Rover dealers said lead times on some new vehicles orders can be up to 24 months
The Range Rover Sport (left) and Land Rover Discovery (right) were the two models with the longest waiting times for delivery
With the new ’23’ registration plate arriving last month, official car sales data shows an 18 per cent increase in car sales in March, with nearly 290,000 new vehicles entering the road.
But Wagonex says demand is being dampened by extended wait times, which are continuing due to shortages of car parts and ongoing supply chain issues that have been happening since the pandemic.
According to Society of Motor Manufacturer and Trader figures, the most popular car models for March were Tesla Model Y, Nissan Juke and Nissan Qashqai.
Nissan dealers told Wagonex that the current wait period for a Qashqai is five months, while the Juke is a month longer. That’s despite both being built in the UK at the Sunderland plant.
Some manufacturers are offering shorter turnaround times of up to 3.5 months, these include MG, Citroen and Suzuki.
Wagonex’s own subscription enquiries data has the Audi e-tron, BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C Class as the most in-demand models.
According to UK dealers contacted, the current wait time for the e-tron is 12 months, the 3 Series is 12 weeks, and customers wanting a new C Class could be waiting up to nine months before they can drive their new vehicle.
Toby Kernon, founder of Wagonex said: ‘A two-year wait for your next car is practically unheard of, so it’s no doubt that thousands of drivers are feeling frustrated.
‘Those deciding that they want to wait eight months – the average wait time according to our research – will need to consider alternative, low-commitment options, like car subscription, in the meantime.’