Went to my dealer in the LA area [Penske JLR in Puente Hills] this past Saturday as they were offering 50% off all service and maintenance. Being that I am selling my car next spring [or perhaps sooner if anybody happens to be interested], I didn't feel as if investing in oil change paraphernalia was justified considering the discount offered. Here's what I experienced...

The dealership itself has always been really nice to deal with as it is a newer well appointed facility with friendly, seemingly knowledgeable people. When I showed up at around 8:45a [went on a Saturday to avoid weekday traffic], I was the only one there. And this was the case during my entire visit. It seemed kind of surreal. In any case, they pulled off the oil change and presented me with a bill of $454.! Fortunately I only had to pay half but an oil change for $454.? Who in their right mind would pay that? No wonder I was the only one there.

The showroom itself had one e-Pace and a bunch of LR's but again, in the hour and a half I was there, nobody came in to the dealership. I suppose this doesn't bode well for Jaguar as they must be seriously bleeding red ink.

As an aside, the Volvo dealership right next door [another Penske store] seemed pretty busy. I guess it doesn't hurt that they just announced they were backing off their plans to go all electric by 2030.

 

I mean, saturday morning - people are hungover or going on a day trip lol. I doubt they go to the dealership that early. As for $454 that is insane and I bet it has to do with the "sale" pricing.

 

The fact that there are approx. 13M people in the LA
metro area, one might think they would be a bit busier. After all, the Volvo dealership was. And rigging the oil change price for the sale is always a possibility but that would be a pretty lame move [but anything seems to go these days!].

 

My LR dealer has raised their price on oil changes for my Evoque to over $500. No thanks. I'll be taking it elsewhere. As for my F-Type, it's easier to do it at home than to get it changed at the dealer and it costs about 1/10 of what they'd charge.

 

Aren't garages busier on a Sat as that's when people who can't get there during the week through work turn up ?

 

That sounds like the same pricing model grocery stores use when they have a BOGO sale. They just jack up the price of the product to some ridiculous amount that nobody ever paid for it before.

 

Ever wonder why used car salesmen, attorneys and automobile dealer service departments have such bad reputations?
Answer: They earn them.
My Alfa Stelvio is at the dealership and I type for a safety recall involving the air bag wiring. This is also my Jaguar dealership BTW, that's why I'm posting this in this thread before someone starts screaming.
The Stelvio was just in for a sunroof repair under warrant in June of this year, which I was having taken care of before the warranty ran out at the end of the month.
Here's the rub. I received an estimate for recommended repairs and maintenance while the car is in for the recall. Total estimate over $4,300.00 dollars. None of these were suggested when the car was in 3 months ago. One repair that was included was repair/replace the boot on a rear axle, to tune of over $1,700.00. I'll keep this short because there's much more, but after due consideration I called the service advisor and asked why I wasn't informed of this problem when the car was still under warranty. They are checking on it. haha
Cabin filter replacement $225.00, air filter element $135.00, and on and on.
I repeat myself, but their reputations are well earned. What I don't understand is how they get away with it.

 

"Fortunately I only had to pay half but an oil change for $454.? Who in their right mind would pay that?"

The dealer probably heard that Jaguar wants to move up to compete with Bentley. That's about what they charge.

 

They get away with it because just about everybody is part of the systemic scam that has been going on for decades now. Exactly where can you go and be treated with honesty and respect anymore? California is certainly the poster child for this type of unethical behavior because the cost of living is so incredibly high that you either play the game, or live on the street. That's the kind of pressure people live under here. Then add incredibly high taxes and brutal regulation to the mix. It's that bad.

With the "systemic" factors that have been causing this loss of moral compass [financialization by the FIRE economy, political centralization, and outright fraud in any direction you turn, etc.], it is easy to see how the entire economic enterprise became corrupted. Whereas these types of unethical business practices were limited years ago, they now seem ubiquitous. As a particularly pathetic example, physicians have been told by TPTB [BIG pharma, tech, etc.] to assume that every patient has every disease until you can prove otherwise. You wonder why the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world with not so wonderful outcomes?

In the end, it is up to the professional and administrative classes to police the system and neither has done a very good job, to the contrary, it seems like the leadership of these two groups couldn't sell-out fast enough.

So, you bought it, you wear it. Can't say that people haven't been screaming about this for a long, long time.

 

Pretty interesting for sure. I guess at minimum a second opinion is in order in case they are trying to take advantage.

 

Oh, I've got an even better one from this week. So I live in an area where I have one smaller Jaguar Land Rover dealer within about 200 miles. I recently purchased a 2012 XJL, clear title, perfect condition, 80k miles, supercharged from the IAAI (I buy a lot of vehicles from here by the way). The biggest issue with this one is that it has no keys because it was a repossession. Doesn't bother me at all. I know there's ways to correct that situation.

I have never been the type to buy brand new vehicles and as such I have literally never taken a vehicle to the dealer except with the airbag recalls for my wife's car. I have been working on cars all my life and I honestly trust my competence more than theirs. Anyway, sometimes though like with key makes in this situation I would consider taking it to a dealer if for nothing more because of the hassle and the time involved.

So I called up this dealership and explained the situation and what he told me surprised me. He said that they don't do keys anymore there. And instead referred me to an indie shop that specializes in "sports cars". I thought it was weird but I called the guy up and had a quick chat and he was a super friendly guy, but of course he assumed that I didn't know what I was getting myself into and that I was some kind of idiot because of the questions he was asking I could tell. Finally, he made the statement of well. I've said all the right things so he's not as concerned anymore. I was a little concerned with some of our conversation because I seemed to know more about the processing capability than he did, but he admitted he'd have to go and do some research and call me back in the morning with a quote.

He called me back the next morning as he said he would. It was a little difficult to remain cordial and not laugh. My tail off at what he was telling me. I won't get into all the details regarding what he thought but let's just say his response was almost worse than what I would expect from a dealer. In any event, I was quoted $3,500 to $5,000 😂🤣 he was talking about changing kvms and bcms and all kinds of things if the alarm was locked which is just not even close to reality. Sure that is "A Way" to fix it but it's not the only way and it shouldn't be "the way". It was so ridiculous that I'm almost of the opinion that this is one of those he doesn't really want to do at situations. So he's trying to quote it super high in hopes that I do what I'm actually going to do and not have him do it. But he would do it if I paid that much which is never going to happen.

I had been looking for an excuse to buy some locksmithing tools and an IMMO scanner anyhow. So I was able to pick one up and if I can get it successfully working. Not only will I have paid 10 times less but I'll have a cool tool to show for it. My brother owns a tow company and he has a contract with U-Haul and he's constantly having to go to locksmiths to get keys made and this way he can just pay me to do it or I can just let him borrow it and use it and charge him rent 🤣.

Honestly, I should have known better. Even though this guy is not the dealer he's clearly "in cahoots" and perhaps even ex dealer himself in some way because it was all to "dealer-ish". I figured I'd give him a shot, but in the end I'm glad it's so expensive because it gave me motivation to get these tools I've been interested in anyway.

This most recent XJ is not supposed to be here until Tuesday. I already have all of my equipment so I'm hoping that once the guy brings it on the trailer I can spend 10 minutes and get the keys made and start it up and roll it off the trailer. That's the best case scenario. However, even if that doesn't work, there's multi layers of different options moving forward. That being said, I also have another 2011 Jaguar xjl supercharged that I also got from IAA for $900 that has a few more cosmetic issues that I plan on using for a parts donor into the future for this other one that I got. Should that be necessary. In any event, I have the unique opportunity to practice on this one for the next few days before my most recent purchase arrives. So yeah, long story short I don't know what the heck's going on with jlr dealerships because what started this was that they said they don't even do Keys anymore....what??

 

If you seriously need another opinion for these common practices, you haven't been paying attention.

 

Okay then…lol…

Just mentioned that on the off chance that you do legit have a problem. It is possible that not all mechanics at all dealers are evil. Unlikely I know, but possible ;-)

In any case, do as you will I guess. Best of luck with it regardless. Love me some Alpha Romeo.

 

Let's know how you get on. I believe if you have lost both keys then they are correct that you have to replace the KVM too (keyless module) as you can't reprogram without at least one key. But I think that's about $500 plus the cost of two new keys (several hundred each)

However I read somewhere that if they have to unlock and activate the car without a key the BCM stops functioning (an extra security measure to prevent car theft?) and flag is a couple of thousand or more

Not sure if that's the only way or there is a good hack now. Let us know what you find out.

 

Well, it was delivered on Saturday and the delivery was a near 2.5 hour circus all to itself, but that is a story for another thread. Now, as far as it came to the keys..I decided that buying a TopDon T-Ninja pro was a good bet. At only $500.00 USD, it was well worth the gamble for me. Especially when facing the prices from the shop. I have uses for it beyond this one incident. I also purchased what are basically refurbished OEM Smart Key fobs from UHS Hardware. I made sure I got 2 as that is how many the procedure requires. I actually bought a 3rd key so that I could practice adding a Smart Key to my other XJ (the 2011). I practiced the night before and it added this Smart Key in about 2 minutes flat. Was shocked at how easy it was. That being said, an all keys lost situation is a totally different ballgame. I felt I have maybe a 40%-50% chance at this working.

Anyway, the Jag arrived on a massive muilt-car hauler, though all by it's own glory on there. I already had my Topdon in hand and told the 2 younger drivers that I was going to do. They were super skeptical, but cordial. They did watch with interest though. Long story short, it programmed the first key in an All Keys Lost situation in about 3 minutes flat!! Then came the second one. For some reason, the car/Topdon didn't seem to want to see it. This was frustrating because I had one programmed; however, the process couldn't close and save until I had 2 keys programmed. If the second wouldn't program, even though the first did, I'd be still out of luck. Then, miraculously after about 7 repeated cycles of the Topdon trying, it finally read the key, saved, and it was off to the races! It worked and I was super stoked. This device already paid for itself many times over, even if I never use it again (but I for sure will be).

Oh, and perhaps it mattered ,but the doors were unlocked (but the mirrors were folded in, which was odd), alarm didn't seem to be set either though from all of my research beforehand, it shouldn't have mattered.

And if the EEPROM was locked on the KVM, then the EEPROM would have to be reprogrammed (NOT replaced in most cases). Finally, my research led me to realize that I called the WRONG places. A decently equipped and experienced auto locksmith absolutely can do all of this work at a fraction of the cost! In fact, in my situation, it may have cost me about the same or maybe even a little less than I paid for the TopDon, but now I have my cool tool for into the future!

 

Congrats and that's great to know. The KVM and BCM lockout may be on more recent models only. They had issues with theft and this was apparently part of increasing the security
Seems like you found a great solution for yours.