HouTexJag,

Thanks for the words. I sometimes felt like your comments were directed towards me, though, I can understand your frustration with the XJ negativity, and am really glad your car has met all your needs. It would surely be better if all the owners needs were met, as I for one, did not expect to buy a new car a year into ownership.

I think I have a different perspective about the use of a car forum having followed a few as part of my insatiable car obsession. My experience with car forums started with a Ferrari forum I followed for years and progressed to an E46 BMW M3 forum.

Surprisingly, I owned neither car at the time. When I joined this forum, I was less looking for enthusiasts, rather, more looking for someone besides the dealer to answer my questions. Like you and others, I saw the progression of this forum from a lump in with the "old" XJ crowd to its own distinct site. Given the progression so far, I think it's only a matter of time before this page blossoms into what you are wanting, much like the other XJ owners and most of the other established auto and motorcycle pages we all follow.

I've not been extremely active with MBWorld AMG crowd, however, it has such a range of users, the variation of topics really does help enhance my overall ownership of my car. I was curious about the C63, so I actually went back to the 2008 posts to see what people were talking about when the car was launched and surprisingly...or not...it was exactly like this board. There were just as many posts from people loving the car as there were people talking about suing Mercedes for making a bull sh&t piece of crap. However, if you move to present day, there's a new post everyday about an owner loving the car, about a new owner trying to figure something out, or a car nut owner trying to find some new way to enhance the car. Point being; I think the new issues will die down. Those owners that are die hard to the car will begin to see a forum that adds value by looking at all the positives while glossing over those that post rants about the "known" issues.

For perspective, it's always good to understand with a new body style there are always going to be people on this forum who are still figuring the car out...who may be intimidated by all the negativity, and who are plain pissed at their user experience. I sure wasn't happy about my experience, but in the end, I can appreciate Jag for building an incredible car. I think Jag has always built a well engineered, beautiful automobile, they just need to get over production issues that seem to plague the launch and execution of their new models. I'm rooting for Jag though, which is why I will stay with this site and follow the progression of a mean beast!

 

This is a very interesting thread.

My Company installs exhaust systems with variable speed drives. We installed an exhaust system in a library where they were using solvents in their restoration work. We were asked to reduce the noise levels because they were too high and interfering with staff concentration. As we also report noise levels in our testing we set up our equipment and reported the results. The background noise level from our equipment was 45 dB (A) - it was a very quiet room. The noise was from the cooling fan on the variable speed drive.
Says it all really.

 

Au revoir Hunter. It's good to know that you have remained positive right the way through. Best of experiences with your new car.

I agree it is an interesting thread.

As is mentioned, starting a new section for a new model is always going to have a disproportionate number of problem related posts (that's forums), but over time we hope the section will grow as these cars become old enough to enter the second/third hand market, and we start to see more user fixes.

So far there are only 256 threads in this section so it really is early days at the moment, but with around 10 times the number of posts to threads this section is on a par with most of the other popular model sections. Which bodes well for the future.

I can fully understand someone being frustrated by cabin rattles, bumps, creaks and knocks, especially when so much money is involved.

I'm not in a position to experience ownership of one of these cars, but I sometimes wonder if some of the unwanted noises might be related to modern manufacturing and the use of different modern plastics from diverse sources reacting differently to heat changes.

Must be difficult to get everything to behave in the same way in say Northern Canada and Central Arizona.

Anyhow, that's probably a new thread.

(lost count of the number of old series LR I have owned/driven, if it didn't rattle and pop, it was probably because it had fallen off)

All the best to all, who are moving on, and to those who are staying please keep posting, the forum needs you.

 

From day 1 I've been taking out my frustrations on Jag NA and my dealer.

 

Then you should visit the XK8/XKR forum more often. We have lots of "I love my car" posts. Of course, that's because we own one of the most beautiful cars ever made!