To recap, I had an XFR-S delivered on 8/22 and immediately experienced an issue with the transmission dropping into neutral unpredictably. I schedule a service appointment on 9/6 and the car has been at San Jose British ever since.

To add insult to injury, Hertz called me last Friday and said that if I did not return my rental car (the loaner they gave me) that I would face "severe legal action". Not the finest hour in the annals of customer experience... even after the apologies.

I have contacted the customer service team at Jaguar, posted in various social media channels, worked through the dealer that I purchased the car through and the one that currently has the car, and contacted Andy Goss, Jaguar USA President, and Duke Hale, Jaguar USA VP Services, and I am no closer to an answer for when I get my car back than the day I dropped it off.

The engineers from Jaguar were out yesterday, finally, and they reproduced the problem and, apparently, took a bunch of log data back from the software. What they did not provide, however, is an answer or solution.

So at this point I am pretty disgusted with Jaguar and just want them to buy the car back. The brand is not communicating with me directly and it is pretty evident that the dealers have no leverage with the brand, so their ability to serve as my advocate is impaired. I have also canceled an order for a 2014 Range Rover Sport Autobiography to replace the one I already own. Maybe I'll buy a Tesla instead, from everything I have seen they are putting customers first.

 

Boy I'd be ****'d

 

I'm so sorry to hear this, hang in there and hopefully they will make it right!

 

Since Jaguar is totally aware of this unusual problem, It seems proper that corporate would authorize the dealer to provide at least a new or used XFR or XJR off the dealer lot to you untill they have a solution to the problem.

 

Unless your Hertz rental was a Jaguar, there is no way that you should experience this kind of dismissive attitude. Jagaur corporate should provide your dealer with a car for you to use if they can't bring themselves to offer you a decent ride while this is hopefully resolved. You purchased one of Jag's true "halo" cars - they should be bending over backward to get this right for you. People who buy halo cars can be corporate nightmares if they're disappointed... Hmmm - if they buy it back from you and get the problem resolved, I wonder what kind of a steal it would be to get that car, given that it would be labeled as a lemon law buyback.

 

Looks like Jaguar is handling this issue terribly. I've never been one to give the "popular" answer so I say tell them where to stick the car and work with a lawyer on getting out of the car based on the lemon law. Of course, that may require you to stick it out longer to satisfy the law and giving the dealer and/or manufacturer a chance to make you whole again but based on the service you're currently getting from Jaguar, dump them.

 

I agree with you 100%..I hope Jaguar NA and all their concerns are reading this..All you FACEBOOK and Twitter people..get the info out there..Jaguar and this dealership needs their asses handed to them..

 

Man, this story hurts. You buy one of Jag's premier cars, and get the runaround like this. Not good.

Wonder if Mike@Jaguar could do some digging and help move things along...
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...lations-95705/

 

When I was on the BMW forum buybacks came up more often then here for sure, but it was usually a process. The advice there was to work through it and not lawyer up. BMW is excellent at burying their problem cars by buybacks. I agree with others that you bought a halo car. Lack of communication is the part that is hard to fathom, along with the rental. You didn't buy a Yugo. There is a jag rep on this site, why no help for a customer who dropped over a 100k for a car? Dealer should be stepping in to smooth out any bumps. Keep us posted and hope this gets resolved to your satisfaction.

 

Jaguar called me today and offered to repurchase the vehicle.

I still don't know what is wrong with it but from what I am able to piece together the engine RPMs drop when decelerating and this creates a stall condition that throws the transmission into neutral. Given that the extra horsepower came via remapping the ECU it would make sense that this is the source of the problem, which also means the fix would be to remap the ECU and that could require a regulatory approval cycle. I have no reason to believe my car is unique therefore this issue would affect all of the XFR-S delivered to date.

So I owned an XFR-S for 4 weeks, but really only 2 weeks because the car had less than 400 miles on it and was in my driveway for 2 of the 4 weeks. I'm done with Jaguar and Land Rover now, they could have handled this better from the start by giving me a better loaner car (mid-range XF isn't a bad car but it's not even close to what I bought) and then communicating with me at the brand level, and in a transparent and authentic manner. The best description I can describe about how I feel is that it is soul crushing... these cars are not utilitarian people movers, they trigger strong emotional responses and while I could handle the vehicle issues what I cannot handle is the inferior customer experience they delivered.

 

Glad they made it right with you..time to move on...Maybe a nice AMG Benz

 

On balance, aside from the fact that the dealer mishandled the rental agreement with Hertz, the manufacturer stood behind their product with relative lightning speed, and the solution went far beyond what their official obligation was. I suspect we'll be seeing some kind of recall of the XFR-S. By the way, did you see the video of the guy who drove his 16 month old M6 to the Frankfurt auto show and proceeded to bash it with a sledgehammer to show his feelings toward BMW customer service? I guess things could have been worse with the Jag! But, good luck!

 

Good ! Obviously they had no intention of delaying the inevitable any further






What's sad is that these situations can usually be salvaged if the manufacturer was more proactive.

As mentioned, the top-of-the-line model from prestige manufacturer having a major failure right out of the gate deserves immediate, continual, and personal attention.
In my many years of dealership experience I saw many situations go from merely unhappy to flat-out hopeless because the manufacturer was agonizingly slow moving and indifferent. Some situations require an especially elevated level of customer care and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to identify them.

(FWIW, and this probably won't make you feel better, two weeks from dropping off the car to the manufacturer agreeing to repurchase it is actually rather fast by industry standards. But, what transpired in the two weeks is obviously at issue)

Sorry you had this lousy experience....your disappointment is almost palpable.... but glad Jaguar stepped up.

Here's to better luck with your next purchase.

Cheers
DD

 

Did I miss something in Jeff3545's postings or is this just reflexive anti-dealer sentiment?

Near as I can tell 3545 has a beef with the manufacturer, not the dealer. In a different thread the dealer was described as "really solid".

Cheers
DD

 

Glad to hear they are at least buying the vehicle back for ya.

I think I would feel the same as well if I were to receive that level of customer service.

There's a good quote I usually use during presentations, and I believe it was once said by the CEO of Pepsi at the time (I'd have to dig up the quote, but he may well still be the CEO of PepsiCo.....anyways), it goes "When the customer comes first, the customer will last".

Unfortunately this didn't happen here and they lost a good existing customer with potential future business they could have had.

Keep us posted on our next purchase. Sad to see someone steer away from the JLR brand.

 

Perhaps I did read between the lines a little more than you..but this is obviously a ball dropped by his Dealer, you're a smart man, you can see that I would think......just didn't seem the Dealer in Jeff's case was very helpful, at least when they kept his New car for over two weeks, plus this issue too...

And for the record, My Dealer and their Service people are stellar in my book..and I would recommend them anytime..

 

I am not so willing to give the dealership a bye on this because, in my book, they should function as an advocate for their customer in a situation as seemingly clear as this. On the other hand, no doubt that is exactly what they were doing behind the scenes and it resulted in the fairly fast resolution to the problem.

 

I've been down the road many times.

How much actual influence a dealer has over the manufacturer in these instances varies on the circumstances at hand and the specific dealer-manufacturer relationship. Dealers can advocate for customers till they're blue in the face but the manufacturers don't let dealers dictate decisions, especially buy-back decisions. After all, 'tis the manufacturer, not the dealer, repurchasing the car.

It's not like a dealer is gonna tell the manufacturer "I'm gonna stop selling Jaguars unless you buy this one back" :-)

In a borderline case (and this one certainly isn't) a dealer on good terms with the manufacturer can often tip the scales. Sometimes it depends on the balance of favors given and favors owed. If a dealer is owed any favors he's gonna reserve them to take care customers who bought their cars from him, not purchased from another dealer. The non-selling dealer who is simply trying to repair the car generally has less sway.

A dealer who sells LOTS of cars will often have more influence than a low volume dealer but that doesn't totally obviate the merits, or lack thereof, of any single situation.

Repeat buyers ("my family has bought six Jags in the last 12 years") often get lots of attention from the manufacturer.

Well, I'm just rambling, sorry. This is not a gray-area situation. It's a flagrant fault in a very expensive, 2-week old car.

Cheers
DD

 

A dropped ball, yes. But somehow I don't think it's at the center of Jeff's discontent. I could be wrong.

Cheers
DD

 

And you are..but the point I was making wasn't about anything being the center of Jeff's discontent..it was the grand scheme of everything he went through including the dealer's lack of attention or concern to his loaner car issues and putting him in a bad light....

I think this has been bantered about enough..he got them (Jaguar) to buy back his car and he has been made whole for the mean time..let's move on shall we..