The Land Rover Defender, Discovery, and Range Rover have been put under a stop-sale order by JaguarLand Rover because there’s a problem with their airbags. At the time of writing, more than four hours after it was first reported, the issue has yet to appear on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website, but a JLR spokesperson confirmed to The Drive that it is issuing a voluntary recall for several of its SUVs: “JLR is voluntarily conducting a recall to address a potential issue affecting the driver’s airbag system in certain Range Rover, Discovery, and Deender vehicles manufactured between April 2019 and June 2026.”
JLR’s Latest Recall Affects an Unknown Number of Luxury SUVs
Land Rover
JLR did not confirm how many Discovery, Defender, and Range Rover SUVs have a problem with their driver’s airbags, nor did it say exactly what the problem is, only that internal engineering testing flagged a potential problem. Fortunately, JLR is not aware of any instances of airbag non-deployment thus far. The NHTSA has been informed of the voluntary recall, and a repair service campaign has been initiated. Customers can still place orders for new JLR SUVs, and those sitting on dealer lots are being fixed “as quickly as possible,” said the automaker. We expect the information to appear on the NHTSA’s site soon enough, but in the meantime, customers can contact their local dealerships to inquire about repairs while they wait for recall notices to be mailed. Hopefully, JLR can resolve the issue quickly, but the automaker’s reliability record is far from stellar, and it’s costing the company a fortune.
Reliability Issues Contribute to JLR’s Tough Financial Situation
Last month, Automotive News reported that JLR posted an annual after-tax loss of approximately $325 million, with wholesale annual sales falling 23 percent to 307,915 vehicles. Warranty costs alone were worth roughly $139 million, and things aren’t looking much better in 2026. In April, over 100,000 Range Rover SUVs were investigated for faulty suspension, and another 170,000 mild-hybrid SUVs were recalled for iffy DC-DC converters. No matter how minor this new airbag issue may be, it’s going to cost JLR a lot of money to recall so many nameplates across some seven model years. Hopefully, the new agreement with Stellantis will lead to more reliable products; the two are working on a new Defender aimed specifically at American buyers. We’ll update this article with more information as it becomes available, but until then, owners should probably get in touch with their nearest dealer to see if their SUVs are at risk.
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