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Reviews (13)
John Brown's Land Rover looked lovely on their website. BUT underneath was the worst I have ever seen. Shame I drove 200 miles for a wasted visit but thank goodness I declined to pay their non-refundable deposit (?!) before viewing! Springs (a vital component) should not look like this. And nor should important parts be cable tied on. And so the list goes on. Avoid at all costs.
I contacted John Brown as I wanted a 'classic' Land Rover' for use on the airfield and to be used as a way to show off our logo when on the tarmac and was taken in by his helpful and fast response.
He told me that this car was owned and sold to them due to the sad passing of a member Land Rover Club of Great Britain and they were left it in the will and had renovated it and were now selling it to do another project.
I have no idea if any of this is true but it gave me confidence in the decision to buy for £13K plus extras that I wanted fitting.
John told me that it would be a great car and a great investment and it was impossible to lose money on it.
I should have been a bit smarter when he suggested that I pay them to add an electronic ignition, why would it need that if it had had such loving care.
The car was delivered on a trailer and it was clear from the first moment that it was not as described.
The ignition was an issue as was the distributor and they were not prepared to come and fix it but they did send a new one and I got a local garage to fix it, they did pay for this.
After that I decided to get it serviced even though it was supposed to have been fully serviced, I had done three miles at this point
It was clear that John Brown have a different view of "a service" versus a Land Rover dealer who presented me with an estimate of £6,000 plus to fix issues, I decided to use a more local garage and they sorted it for £2,000, which included bakes and an exhaust system.
16 months on and maybe 60 miles of driving on the airfield, so as I was not using it I exchanged chat messages with John Brown as on his site they say they are keen to buy cars like mine who asked me to send pictures
He then asked what I wanted for it as he "always wanted Land Rover 2's" and he remembered EYL!
I asked him to make an offer, and he said £7K
Quite a shock
But here is what makes him and his company a joke and liars
His rationale was that its all the fault of HMRC as they take 20% VAT and then corporation tax take 20% and he needs to make a profit so he needs to buy at 50% of retail
What a load of nonsense.
Any accountant knows that VAT is on the profit element and that corporation tax is on the performance of the company and not the sale price of the car.
Buyer beware, I was stupid from day one trusting him, but the nonsense he spouts when wanting to buy cars from you is so stupid that he has is either a moron, cheat, liar or a has lost his marbles.
I have documentary evidence of all of this and I do not hide my name so before selling to him, check any other source and if you do buy, then get an Independent pre-buy inspection.
Or, just avoid at all costs, I am not alone in this, just Google John Brown reviews and read about another customer that had to get a Barrister involved.
I have attached a screen shot of the car before I bought it that is still on his website now.
Avoid buying from John Brown Land Rover, and read as many reviews as you can of John Brown before buying a Classic Land Rover
Great experience buying our LR from John and his team - always on end of phone or email to help and assist - would definitely recommend and will be using again!
I recently bought my series 2a Land Rover from John Brown 4x4.
I had zero experience in buying an older car and went on the live chat to ask some questions. John Jr. Replied pretty much straight away. Our conversation was candid and allayed my initial concerns.
My visit to the premesis was pleasant and both Johns were jovial and talked honestly about how to take care of and maintain my new toy.
If you are looking for an honest talking, family run business to supply you with a Land Rover I would recommend them.
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After purchasing a lightweight a couple of years back from John Brown 4x4 I have made a number of calls to them for advise, the most recent was just the other week and as always they were on hand to guide me and resolve my problem. Thank you Guys
Rang to try and purchase a land rover apparently they don't open on Saturdays then got snotty when i said it was starting to get a bit complicated, i only wanted to buy one of his cars still never mind there are lots of other land rover garages who do want to sell their land rovers.
Wanted to say a massive thank you to all the great staff at John brown 4x4. Everyone has been so helpful from start to finish and guided me thought my first ever Land Rover. I will defo pass on your details to my friends. Thanks again!
Usual story - website looks good - car looks good - cant do enough for you etc.
Then the problems begin- very shoddy workmanship on close inspection - impossible to speak to after sale - story after story - cut my losses and moved the vehicle on quickly - my advice - avoid - used series prices have peaked and these guys are having to discount to shift stock - they are not a sound investment - try to get back what you paid - i think you will have a problem - I took a 10k loss to be rid of the vehicle they supplied me! Be warned
Had the pleasure of buying a LR from John Brown 4x4 a few months back and have to say the dog and myself love this vehicle, it's used almost everyday to disappear into the forest for long walks through the mud without the worry of climbing back in and spoiling the interior. I have to say that the service received from John and his team from start to finish was excellent. Thanks again Neil and Barnaby(the dog)
I recently bought a landy from these guys. I particularly enjoyed their honesty and guidance when I went to view. I know a bit about landlies but they didn't try and cover things up. They pointed out the faults and made sure that I understood what owning an old Land Rover is all about. The vehicle I chose and received was thoroughly gone through and parts replaced that they needn't have done. Overall a really pleasant experience.
Dealt with John Brown 4x4 on two seperae occasions and each time have been thoroughly satisfied. There attention to detail is very good, knowledge of the product excellent.
Had a bad experience with these people, advert looked great, nice people on the phone. Alarm bells should have sounded after I tried to speak with the same person. Dealt with 4 people during the sale, one person was very defensive when I tired to talk with the original contact. Was going to leave it at a short google review but they seem to have had it removed. I will post and break down of my whole experience if they respond. If they don't... my advice is... MAKE SURE YOU VIEW BEFORE YOU BUY>
If you really want to buy a Land Rover from this company it is imperative that you take a Land Rover specialist with you to view and test drive first, unless you are an expert yourself. If you are lucky you may find a vehicle that lives up to the online description, it will probably be over priced although they say they are "priced to sell". I found out the hard way as I didn't fancy a 1000 mile round trip and trusted their "reputation".
We find it very sad that competitors and bogus customers feel the need to create stories like this. We have never had a customer by the name of Ben S surprisingly. Our workmanship is second to none, and our trained technicians take great pride in their work. "Impossible to speak after sale?". Utter tosh! We take calls on evenings and weekends if our customers need us. We operate a fair warranty system which we stand by - as an example we had a customer last week who reported some problems with noise in his overdrive - this had developed over the course of 1000 miles or so. We collected the vehicle without cost to him, fitted a replacement unit (fitted retail price £1250), and once repaired we delivered it back to him, again, without charge. This is his TRUE comment to us - "HHR 256K arrived here at The Tower, on Tuesday afternoon. I haven't had any free time to try it until today. Having now done so, I am happy to say, it drove very well. Dealing with John Brown 4x4 has been a pleasurable experience. Kind regards, John Glenn.
As you can see, this customer service does not reflect the comments left in this review, nor any other genuine review.
"Used series prices have peaked"... have they? No, they haven't Series prices are continually rising and will continue to do so. We don't discount any of our stock. The screen price is the price you pay.
With regards to investment, if you buy from a dealer at retail, and then ask for a quick buy back at trade you will obviously lose money - we pay tax and VAT on every vehicle we sell and that's why we have to offer less to buy it back. Customers who keep their cars a few years and then come back to us often make a profit due to appreciation in that time. If you bought a brand new Land Rover for £100,000 would you be surprised to find that the buy back after a week was £80,000? Probably not. When GENUINE customers want a swift return after purchase (sometimes customers find the vehicle too uncomfortable for example) we offer a commissioned sale - in this manner customers manage to claw back nearly all of their investment, even after a short period - so this notion of losing £10,000 is simply ridiculous.
So there you have it - please read these spiteful sitejabber reviews with a pinch of salt, then read our testimonials on the website - we have current and past customers who are more than happy to tell you about us if you wish. We will continue to operate as we have always done - honestly and fairly. It's a shame not everyone is like us!
On a closing note, some of this review is accurate - the website does look good (thanks, we work hard to keep it current and up to date), the cars look good because we don't just mechanically prepare them, we clean and detail them throughout, and yes, we can't do enough for you to get you the Series Land Rover you've always dreamed of!