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What 48 owners told NHTSA about the 2020 Land Rover Defender

These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.

All (48)Crash / fire / injury (2)Lights (16)Electrical system (9)Engine (7)Steering (7)Visibility & wipers (7)Body & structure (5)Brakes (3)Transmission & drivetrain (2)Backup camera & sensors (1)Lane Departure (1)

1 of 48 complaints match · Brakes · crash/fire/injury only · clear filters

Aug 17, 2021Visibility & wipersBrakesCrash1 injury

The contact owns a 2020 Land Rover Defender. The contact stated that while driving at 25 mph, she lost control of the vehicle and crashed into two mailboxes but the vehicle kept driving down a curved road onto the left lane. The brakes had failed to engage. The contact did not receive medical attention on the scene but later went to the hospital for injuries sustained. No police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a towing yard then towed to a body shop where it remained. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the failure occurred after receiving the vehicle back from the dealer. The vehicle was originally taken to the dealer for the emergency brakes, lane departure, emergency steering, traction control warning lights, and cracked windshield. However, the dealer could not replicate the failure and only the lane departure software was updated and the windshield was replaced but not calibrated. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 7,434.

NHTSA ODI 11429431

Working with the data? Download all 48 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 20, 2026

How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the full 2020 Land Rover Defender verdict →