Land Rover Recalls 873 Range Rover Sport SVs Over Cracking Subframes

Jaguar Land Rover North America filed a Part 573 safety recall report with NHTSA on September 24 covering 873 Range Rover Sport SV vehicles, model years 2024 through 2026, built between October 3, 2023 and May 22, 2026. The defect is cracking in the rear subframe, part number M8E2-5K091-BD, supplied by Gestamp Assembly in the UK with casting from Linamar. NHTSA's own campaign record for 26V613000 lists 1,073 potentially involved vehicles, so the population an owner sees on a VIN lookup may be larger than the figure in the filing.

The cause is specific and it matters here. JLR's chronology puts detection of a forging defect at June 4, 2026. The final machining step on the subframe was expected to remove cracks introduced during forging, and the manual inspection that backed it up did not reliably catch the ones that survived. NHTSA's consequence language is blunt: a cracked subframe may have reduced structural integrity, increasing injury risk in a crash, and may also diminish handling and control.

The recall splits into two actions. D165 replaces the subframe on vehicles where a crack is confirmed. D166 covers vehicles where the photographic inspection record cannot confirm a crack is absent, and those get inspected and replaced as necessary. Dealers were scheduled for notification on October 8. Owner letters go out on or before November 20.

The transport angle

A rear subframe is not just a safety item on a spec sheet. It is structure that loaders work around. Axle straps and subframe hooks are routine on heavy SUVs because they are fast and they put load into metal rather than rubber, and on this population that metal is exactly what is under question. The instruction to give a broker is over-the-tire soft straps or wheel baskets, nothing anchored to the rear subframe or the rear lower control arm mounts. The practical difference between soft and hard tie-downs is normally a paint and suspension argument. On a recalled subframe it is a structural one.

The bigger exposure is attribution. A hairline crack that machining masked at the factory does not announce itself on a walkaround. It gets found later, on a lift, by a technician doing a D166 inspection. If the car moved on a trailer between those two moments, the transport leg becomes the obvious suspect, and the owner is left arguing a factory forging defect against a cargo claim. Photograph the rear subframe and the rear suspension from underneath at pickup, get it noted on the bill of lading, and keep the images. That is the evidence that decides a cargo claim either way.

Timing is the third problem, and October is the wrong month for it. Owner letters land November 20, which is the middle of the southbound window. A snowbird move puts the car a thousand miles from the dealer that has its inspection history, and a subframe replacement needs parts, a lift and shop time rather than a software flash.

What to do about it

Run the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before you book anything. If it comes back under 26V613000, call the dealer now rather than waiting for the letter, since dealers have had the bulletin since October 8 and inspection capacity is finite.

If the car ships before the inspection, write three things onto the order: no axle or subframe straps, wheel baskets or over-tire straps only, and an undercarriage photo set at both ends. Carriers in our broker network can work to that, but only if it is on the dispatch instructions instead of mentioned in a phone call. The same prep discipline that applies to any Land Rover shipment applies here, with one addition that is easy to forget: leave the air suspension at standard ride height so nobody needs to jack the car to reach a strap point.

If the inspection can happen first, let it. An 873-vehicle campaign with a two-action remedy will not clear quickly, and a confirmed replacement is far easier to schedule in your own market than in a seasonal one. For anything moving on an enclosed luxury booking this fall, the inspection date is now part of the transport plan, not separate from it.