As of today Jaguar Land Rover is re-branding as JLR to represent its ‘house of brands’. Sounds familiar…. (Extract from Sir Michael Edwardes’s Back From The Brink) https://t.co/sJlqelkXlO pic.twitter.com/vyn3ZybJ01

— Richard Porter (@sniffpetrol) April 19, 2023

Is this what happens when marketing goes dark for a year and has too much time on their hands?

While this post was just dragging JLR, it does seems to get some traffic based on the wind noise issues in the new Range Rover – here’s the latest TSB(May 2023) on the issue and the official fixes at this time:

TECHNICAL BULLETIN
Excessive Wind Noise – JLRTB02110NAS1 – May 10, 2023

SITUATION:
Excessive wind noise may be heard from the upper a-pillar and door mirror areas when
driving the vehicle at speeds of 80 km/h (50 mph) or more.

CAUSE:
Manufactured away from the required specification

Read the full 36 pages of fixes here (PDF)

Those steel wheels, the rear lights, D-pillar with color, rear side window trim, the horizontal grill,  it just goes on and on…

Go check out what Chad’s doing at: https://www.instagram.com/chadsfantasygarage/

Thanks Chad!

https://www.instagram.com/chadsfantasygarage/

I’ve already complained too many times about these door handles.  Yes they probably ordered so many that they had to put them in every car badged* as a Range Rover.  (If only they ordered too many audio amplifier part instead but that’s another issue)

Yes, the door handles were a clear step backwards in utility; requiring a button press to enter the vehicle, either on the key fob or on the door handle itself for “Keyless Entry”.  Previously with the key fob near the car, a pull on the door handle was all you needed for “Passive Entry”.  Very clear loss of functionality, very clear example of form over function

Yes, they have still not released Approach Unlocking – a feature that would fix the issue.  A feature they announced in the original press release from October 26, 2021:

The effortless experience begins with the flush deployable door handles, which feature new Approach Unlock and Walkaway Locking with Proximity Sensing, so the doors unlock and the handles deploy automatically when a key fob is detected approaching the vehicle. When leaving the vehicle, customers can simply walk away and, once the key fob has left its immediate vicinity, the handles retract and the vehicle locks.

I find their use of “Keyless Entry” to be somewhat questionable.  Sure there’s no actual key that needs to go physically into the door in regular usage, thereby “Keyless”  But as stated in the iGuide:

Keyless entry allows the vehicle to be opened if a smart key is within 60 in (1.5 m) of the door handle or taildoor (sic) button.

The keyless entry system activates when the keyless unlock button on the door handle is pressed.

Called “Passive Entry” in previous generation, key in proximity, pull the door handle, good to go:

The passive entry sensor is located on the inner surface of the door handle. Grip and pull the door handle to open the door. The vehicle unlocks, the alarm system disarms, and the hazard warning lights flash twice to confirm unlocking. If power-fold mirrors are enabled, they fold out.

The solution

Separate of their door handle surplus, JLR could have looked to the past for inspiration.  They already had a legacy muse for functional yet flush(er) door handles.  Something that would still let them have a unique solution that could operate without any button pressing or Approach Unlock nonsense:

Let the engineers and designers modernize the vertical door handle for a unique and less complicated process.

Sorry Trigger 🐎 :(

*This is specific to Range Rover.  They can do whatever they want on the Suffixed ones

Also maybe the thumbnail should be a picture of the Range Rover?

Also, also my headline is clickbait.

Is it Range Rovers or Range Rover’s?