Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC, has filed its response to a class action lawsuit alleging that 2020-2022 Defender vehicles contain defective windshields. The vehicle manufacturer argues that the U.S. District Court of New Jersey should dismiss the complaint for a number of reasons, including that the complaint does not actually identify a specific defect.
According to court documents filed at the end of June 2022, plaintiffs allege that Land Rover “knew” that Defenders “contained one or more defects in the way the vehicles are manufactured and/or made that can cause the windshield to crack, chip and/or fracture.” According to the complaint filed by the plaintiffs, Land Rover would have known of the alleged defect through pre-production testing, pre-production design failure mode and analysis data, production design failure mode and analysis data, early consumer complaints and more.
The plaintiffs propose the alleged issue results from the usage of deficient materials in the construction of the windshield or a deficiency in the structure of the vehicle itself. The lawsuit argues that Land Rover will not cover the repair or replacement of those windshields under warranty, and that replaced windshields are also defective.
On Wednesday, October 19, Jaguar filed its response with the court, arguing that all claims should be dismissed.
“First, the complaint does not identify a defect. At most, it identifies symptoms of some unidentified defect; but the alleged windshield cracks are also consistent with a non-defective windshield,” Jaguar argues. “This failure to identify a defect is fatal to all of Plaintiffs’ claims.”
Jaguar says that plaintiffs claim their windshields cracked at which time they “make the unsupported leap that the windshields must not have been strong enough due to ‘deficient materials’ or ‘a deficiency in the structure of the Class Vehicles.’”
In addressing the allegation of statutory fraud, Jaguar says plaintiffs’ claims do not address the “who, what, where and when” of the alleged fraud and should therefore be dismissed per court precedent. Additionally, Jaguar argues that plaintiffs’ claims also lack specificity with respect to the allegation that Land Rover failed to inform customers of the reported issue.
“Plaintiffs do not identify any source of information that should have contained the disclosure they seek,” Jaguar argues.
Continuing its argument, Jaguar says the allegations regarding pre-release testing, data and more are not supported by asserted facts. And the vehicle manufacturer tells the court that the limited warranty does not include damage caused by objects striking the windshield, nor does it cover damage caused by design defects.
Granted, glass can be defective. Vehicle designs can have flaws. It would seem ill-advised to initiate a lawsuit with no root cause analysis, saying in essence, “We think it’s either bad glass or a bad car but we don’t really know what’s actually causing the problem but because we’re not happy, just pay us.”
We have a 2021 and are on our third windshield that currently has three different cracks from separate issues. Had we replaced it for the fourth, fifth and sixth time we would be on windshield number seven! My 2013 Chev Silverado driven on same roads and climates is on original windshield. I think there might be a problem!
2021 Defender. 90 degrees outside and driving 30mph zone and heard, POW!! I thought it was my plastic soda bottle and my husband told me to look at the window. A straight crack went right up the middle. This vehicle has had one issue after another. We’ll be dumping it soon. Our 7 year old Mercedes and 12 year old Scion have never had problems.
My 2023 Jaguar F pace I pruchased in October 2022 has been cracked 3 different times in less than a year and a half. There is a defect in Jaguar’s windshield and I do not feel safe driving this vehicle.