Jaguar and Land Rover Reliability Slips, but Are Criticisms Warranted?
J.D. Power ranks Jaguar Land Rover near the bottom in initial quality, but there are some reasons for optimism.
There was a time, not too long ago, when Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles were ripe with issues. And then, for some time, it seemed like both brands were headed in the right direction. Jaguar Land Rover has been plagued with problems here and there in recent years, no doubt. But they have made progress. Yet, if you just believed the headlines, you’d think differently.
Just take this recent MSN piece, which declares Jaguar “the worst new car sold in America,” based upon J.D. Power’s 2019 Initial Quality Study. But if you actually read the study, J.D. Power also points out that Land Rover had the biggest improvement since 2018’s study. Jaguar, the third best improvement of all automakers. So we were curious to see what Jaguar Forums members had to say in this thread, and we certainly weren’t disappointed.
For shemp, this news just makes him reflect on the old days. But not for the reason you might think.
“It makes you wonder how long they can survive with all this bad news (this, sales down, billion dollar losses…). I am watching Mad Men on Netflix and on the episode last night, they landed the Jaguar account. The challenge for them was how to sell this beautiful car that is always breaking down. One of the characters tried to commit suicide by carbon monoxide using an XKE he received as a gift from his wife and it wouldn’t start!!! I couldn’t help but laugh at that.”
Some, like mosesbotbol, feel like things started to go south when Ford moved on from Jaguar.
“The brand has gone down hill since Ford’s touch has gone away. Tata hasn’t been able to carry the torch. My XE was delivered with a faulty seat buckle. A basic safety feature that both the manufacturer failed check for on the way out. A basic safety feature that the dealer failed to check for when they are charging the customer for dealer prep. Shouldn’t dealer prep include making the car is safe to drive?”
Still, neilr thinks that Jaguar Land Rover has no one but itself to blame for these ongoing issues.
“It amuses me that people think that TATA management is so involved in the low-level stuff. They are not. These things are managed by JLR management, a number of whom are ex-BMW. Their job is to return a profit by making good cars and selling them in large enough numbers. TATA has given JLR huge resources to become competitive and produce new models but given them the freedom to do it their way. You could blame the JLR management if you must but blaming TATA is actually barking up the wrong tree. TATA has hired good people and told them to get on with it.”
Aside from the finger-pointing, it’s at least nice to see some marked improvement. But we want to know what you think. Head over here and tell us if this ongoing stereotype is fair, or if you think these problems are overblown!
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