Sadly, first repair with an Evoque loaner for a week. They said the tweeter is blown so they replaced it with a new one. I requested to see the "blown" tweeter and I must say, the thing looked perfectly fine. The problem persists and they are ordering the second set of tweeters but I'm afraid they will not alleviate the problem...trial and error, I guess. Now, on a second loaner that smells like a funeral home (seriously) and fried chicken's skin and fries underneath the front seats. I am face-palming with the rest of you guys/gals!

 

Good point, let the insults fly then.....

 

Aside from the audio rattle I am also experiencing different interior creaks, ticks, rattles with the system off.

If I don't want to hear them, I turn on the music but when I do I get the audio rattles too. If I turn off audio I hear the other interior rattles. Madness.

 

If only more people knew the difference...

 

Haven't they already? I have already received an initial and a follow-up survey from JDP for this car (during just 10 mos. of ownership). I certainly blasted JLR for the clutch issue. (have no significant dissatisfaction with the sound system, but I'm not an audiophile and would have opted for the base system if available).

 

My experience is 180 from others here. I had speaker rattle with bass. One trip to the dealer to do the TSB fixed the problem. They fixed the other two really small issues that I had with the car at the same time. The car is squeak and rattle free. It is the nicest, most fun, head turning car that I've ever owned.

That said, I hear the complaints of others here and agree that JLR could do better. When we had a CTS-V I was on one of those forums. You know who else was on the forum almost daily? Cadillac. This at least gave the appearance of GM being interested in customer satisfaction.

There's an old adage in the car sales business that it sounds like JLR has forgotten - "The sales floor sells the first car. The service department sells the rest."

 

If I could figure out how to remove the door cards (didn't find any screws?), I'd hook up a spectrum analyzer to see what's actually getting to the various door speakers. (I have the 380W system. Seldom have distortion, but it sounds very flat, not much tweeter activity.)

 

Exactly my experience.

 

All,
Below is the letter that I have sent directly to TATA Motors. As JLR is their subsidiary maybe we can get a response back from them.

Hello Tata Motors,
There are many Jaguar F-Type owners who are extremely dissatisfied with the Meridian 770 Sound Systems installed in their vehicles. They have tried to work with the JLR Customer Relationship Center, Global Customer Service Management as well as Senior Executive Liaisons to no avail. I even tried personally to contact Andy Goss but JLR has an army of people that surround him who claim that Mr. Goss "is not customer facing". Please, as the parent company of Jaguar Land Rover, I beg you to please read the feedback that JLR is receiving about their poor Product Quality (specifically the Meridian 770 Sound System)and even poorer Customer Service. Please do not send my request back to JLR - at least not before you have read the feedback they are receiving and choosing to ignore. The feedback provided is from very dissatisfied legitimate Jaguar F-Type owners about their Meridian 770 Sound Systems and the absolutely abysmal experience with JLR's so called "Customer Relations Center" If you want to know the truth and listen to customer feedback, I can not stress enough to please read this feedback about your JLR subsidiary before contacting anyone in the JLR organization. Here is the link to the Jaguar Forum where the feedback resides. You can start from the most recent posts or start from the beginning to get a full and complete understanding of what is being reported about the Jaguar F-Type brand and how these customers are feeling:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...estion-106935/

There is clearly an issue here that JLR does not seem to want to address - as their parent company, WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!

Thank you,
Steve Parker

I'll keep you all posted on any reply that I receive...

 

You da man!

 

Feral, you continue to demonstrate a rational approach, while some of us complain (vent). Thank you.

Who was it addressed to- individual or department?

 

I sent the letter to the Tata Motors corporate office in Mumbai:

http://corp-content.tatamotors.com.s...thum-image.jpg

I'm hoping to get a response from Tata Motors. If not I have a few other avenues that I haven't tried yet...

Steve

 

Has anyone considered that Tata may be part of the problem? I'm sure their bean counters are all over Castle Bromwich, much like Ford was blamed for the cheapening of Jaguar.

 

I agree with the others; FeralSVR has been standing up for all of us, and he hasn't even received his car yet. #Respect

 

I went to pick up the F-Type from the dealer, no audio fix, more awful customer experience, and some potential insights.

The friendly service advisor Pepe, for the first time, read back to me some of the internal conversation happening between the Jaguar CRC supervisor Stacey, Tony the dealership technician and another JLR engineer named Robert Davis (FSE, Field Service Engineering). The conversation literally said that "the issue lies with the customer's USB music he's listening to" (!!!). David had based it off all on Tony's assessment and Tony officially had not provided anything more than that the behavior is the same as on their other cars, 16 and 17 MY, and that it's limited to my songs. They thus concluded the issue is mine and their audio system is flawless and that "the vehicle operates as intended".

Pepe went so far as saying "If Jaguar itself knew and had a solution, they would have already made the solution to the 2017, and we would have tried to have it in your vehicle". Color me skeptical.

As you can imagine, I was unhappy with this. I tried to get the dealership to write down on the report, that they can reproduce the rattles/buzz/hiss/distortion and specify these symptoms are normal. After much back and forth, Tony went back and updated the report, slightly.

The final version reads: "Tested with client. Confirmed a previously noted electronic sound thru the tweeters while playing client's provided sound files. With the client, used same files on a 2017 vintage like kind vehicle and confirmed the same sound. At previous visits, technical assistance cases were opened and analysed by engineering at hotline and monitored by engineering in the U.K. and field service engineer. No further actions to be taken at this time. Audio system performs as designed. Normal operation. NFF."

So he basically added that he confirmed "electronic sound thru tweeters". Sigh, that's like saying I played some music and I heard sound out of the speakers. I guess it must be designed to rattle then folks. Tony was unwilling to write any more of what exact sound he confirmed. They basically don't want to admit to anything not even the symptoms.

The irony is, on Pepe's screen, I could briefly see the direct email and phone number for the FSE, but he was not able to provide me this information.
I asked if I could provide additional information directly or via Tony, to that FSE that was making the final decision. I was told that's not possible.
For example, Tony had not conveyed anything about the crossover issues I can reproduce with a tone generator. It also appears he didn't specifically outline the issues with the tweeters alone rattling. Tony instead downplayed my knowledge of audio altogether.
Pepe told me I need to constantly adjust my F-Type audio settings depending on the song, even if in some cases I would have to turn down the bass all the way to minimum, and that this is expected. He also told me to expect this in a smaller cabin, and that other coupes have this. I mentioned that's factually inaccurate, as the 911 or M4 I test-drove, that had no such issue and sounded superb.
I asked if the FSE can reach out to me directly. I was told to talk to CRC instead.
I had talked to CRC already and they told me they can't put me in touch, and sent me to the dealer.
I had asked the dealer for a copy of the Technical Assist and the conversation between Tony and FSE, I was told they can't provide it and I should ask CRC.
I had asked CRC, and was told they can't and I need to try with the dealer.
Tony insisted that since 16 and 17 models behave the same, it's normal. I told him that maybe it is a much more general issue, and Jaguar would have to stand by the customer and fix it. He inquired how? I suggested a TSB where a customer can bring it in and have it fixed, or a recall. Tony laughed and said that would be very expensive. YES! yes it would be, that's how you make it right by the customer if the design is fundamentally flawed. He visibly didn't like the idea and tried walking away...

I'm not making this stuff up sadly. It's really disappointing.

It's becoming clear to me that Jaguar is aware of the issue and reports, as you guys already suspect. However they're not willing to admit to it. Either because they're unable to easily fix the current design, or are unwilling to pay a high cost of fixing or replacing it. And they're hoping that they can get by for free. If they did have a TSB for it, all of us would find out ASAP and go to our dealers. In the meantime, they try to discredit us, make each report subjective and individually unique and not admit to a larger shared issue.

It smells like great material for a class action lawsuit...

The moment I left the dealership, I went to an audio shop next door. The first thing they noticed was the rattle right away and also the crossover issue in testing.
I went to another audio shop further away, same experience. They recommended installing a passive-crossover for the tweeter but ideally swapping the tweeter and door speaker to make sure the speaker cross-overs co-exist properly and better audio fidelity, about $1200 with labor. And for subs, they would disconnect both ported subs behind the seats, and add a new sub and amp in the trunk, for an additional $1500 including labor. Since it's a lease, I would have to pay another $200 or so in labor to put it back together at the end, but that if I tell them that, they can set it up so it's much easier to put back together.
I am tempted, but I don't want to accept such quality and service from Jaguar. So instead I am thinking of paying one of these audio shops to write a short official technical report of their assessment of the audio in the car, what the exact issues are and what a fix would be. Then try to take that up again with Jaguar CRC.

 

Here's another tidbit: I found Rob Davis' (FSE) linkedin page which reads, emphasis mine:

Field Service Engineer
Jaguar Land Rover
April 2008 – Present (8 years 2 months)San Diego, CA, USA
In 2008 Tata Motors purchased Jaguar Cars & Land Rover from Ford Motor Company. Jaguar Land Rover North America LLC was established as the National Sales Centre for North America, based in Mahwah, NJ. With this transition, existing responsibilities were expanded to also include the Jaguar brand. With the increasing number of lemon law cases in CA, I became the designated expert witness for the company & I have been called to testify in several trials, all of which have lead to the verdict being in favour of the manufacturer.

 

I sent some feedback pointing at this issue and thread, to both Jaguar USA and Meridian via their website.

 

Keep fighting everyone. JLR has a tough skin and you just have to keep going. The CRC is clearly used to taking negative feedback and don't actually see that as any bad thing. And as was noted earlier, the executive team is well defended from the realities that their leadership puts customers through. They are no different to the suits at Volkswagen - same attitude, different sins.

 

Meridian replied back:

 

All,

As I continue to work on this issue, I decided to contact the good folks at the Investigative News Show 60 Minutes. They have always done a superb job of investigative journalism. I hope they consider this cause to be worthy of their time and resources:

Hello 60 Minutes,

First let me send my sincerest condolences to the family as well as the 60 Minutes family for the loss of our dear friend Morley Safer. Morley was a great person and journalist and he will be sorely missed by us all.

I am a 63 year "young" fan of the 60 Minutes Broadcast and have watched your shows for a very long time. I have always had a great deal of respect for how your broadcast team brought relevant issues before it's American audience in an unbiased yet revealing way. I have always said, "If you want to get to the bottom of an issue - get 60 Minutes involved". Hence my plea for your investigative resources.

Over the past several years, owners of the Jaguar F-Type have begged and pleaded with Jaguar Land Rover Corp. to address inherent problems with their Meridian 770 Watt Sound System. I'm not bringing this to your attention to "get back at JLR", to the contrary. I have been a Jaguar owner in the past and I am about to purchase a $150,000 F-Type SVR in a few months. However, when I became aware of this situation and dug into it, I found a very dark and disturbing back story.

In an attempt not to sway you one way or the other, I will not share my thoughts or conclusions. Instead, I prefer to just let you read verbatims posted by bonafide F-Type owners on the Jaguar Forum and reach your own conclusion as to if this story is worthy of your time and resources to investigate. The thread was initiated in November of 2013 and is still being posted as recent as today May, 26, 2016.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...estion-106935/

Again, all possible channels within JLR have been tried (many times) to get this issue resolved. This is almost a last ditch effort to shine a bright light on what is happening here. See if you agree...

Regards,
Steve Parker

Will keep everyone posted as always...