China state media targets Tata Motors-owned Land Rover

Tata Motors-owned Land Rover has fitted faulty gearboxes in its popular SUV brand Evoque vehicles in China, state media here has alleged.
Owners of Evoque cars throughout China encountered malfunctions such as sudden stop while driving and faulty reverse gear, which re-happened soon after 4S stores changed the defective gearboxes with new ones for free, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted a CCTV consumer protection show as saying yesterday.
The show coincided with the International Day for Protecting Consumers' Rights.
"The maintenance men at different Land Rover 4S stores could not tell what exactly made gearboxes out of order. The car owners were once required to upgrade the relative software, which was apparently good for nothing," the report said.

"The show exposed that Land Rover (China) denied the problems in gearbox and passed the buck to Chinese consumers, saying 'they drove too fast'," it said.
"CCTV's investigation result showed that Land Rover had found the problem long ago and issued confidential notices only to the company's engineers," the report alleged.

Tata's Jaguar Land Rover had launched the manufacturing of its popular brand Evoque sports utility vehicle (SUV) at its new factory in China's Changshu city last year.
The company representatives could not be reached in China for a comment on the allegation.
Land Rover so far has not announced any recall of Evoque cars in China but what if any serious accident occurs or malfunctions appear after the car's warranty expires, the report said.

The average price of Evoque cars in China is over USD 100,000 but driving them has become "dangerous and horrible", it said.
Volkswagen has started recalls of its vehicles after its faulty gearbox scandal was exposed in 2013, the report said.