Saw this today...coupled with the complaints I've read on this board, there could be trouble ahead for Jaguar. This is the first I've heard of the key draining the battery issue...bizarre engineering. Hopefully these gremlins will be fixed by the end of November when my baby arrives.

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/car...-problems.html

 

If you read it all through, including comments, it seems Jaguar are not alone with keyless entry problems, as it is the same with BMW. This is not surprising as it is very likely Jaguar and BMW use the same electronics supplier, and probably Audi, and Mercedes do too.

I would love to know what is wrong with a good old ignition key anyway !

 

I have an 11 XF rental and something bizarre happened about 5 mins ago - the car was unlocked and I didn't have the key with me. Anyway, I opened the driver side door to grab my phone and the whole alarm fire off.

WTF?

It's unlocked!

Anyway, it's a rental but its just another bizarre issue with the the keyless ignition and tied up alarm system.

I'll just keep my 07 VDP till this Series 1 issues are sorted out, thank you.

 

I don't think this kind of thing is peculiar to Jaguars. Unfortunately things on modern cars have got to be too much of a good thing when it comes to keys, alarms and so on.

You leave the car unlocked, walk away, and then come back with no key. In the interval, with no activity in the car, the system arms the alarm, but doesn't actually lock the car just in case you left the key inside the trunk out of range.

So you open the door, and Hey Presto, off goes the alarm !

I had a Mazda Xedos and the alarm would go off, usually in the middle of the night when I really wanted my sleep !! No thieves or anything, it was just a bit of wind blowing into the car via the heater, which disturbed the sound wave of the internal alarm. It was a real nuisance, but fortunately, one could turn it off, but you had to do this every time you locked the car. And this was a 1994 car too.

 

Considering all the problems with electronics, it's a wonder they ever get the space shuttle off the ground. It's nice to have all the bells and whistles, but sometimes they're more trouble than they're worth.

I'm in agreement with this guy that if you've dropped 80 grand on it, it should work flawlessly.

 

Well, the space shuttle has some of the most basic hardware out there and it's donkeys years old. Not really a good comparison IMHO....

http://www.popsci.com/node/31716

All the troubles of the 2011 XJ just go to prove the old adage "Never buy the first model year" is as true today as it was back on 2004 when I bought the first MY of a VW Touareg - a car that was truly my worst decision in a long time.

- Tim

 

What really irritates me is when you open up the door with the key and the alarm goes off. You have to hit the unlock button on the remote to shut the alarm up.

Car alarms can be a source of amusement though. Some years ago I had a rather noisy Honda Interceptor that would set off car alarms when I started it up.

 

If only the manufacturers would pay attention to the Poor Bloody Infantry, i.e the owners instead of looking to see what stupig gizmos their competitors are installing all the time !!

 

The problem is, who do they listen to the most? The naysayers of technology or the naysayers of falling behind other companies? Nobody is going to pay $90k for a car that has materials and technology well behind other companies. Look how long it took BMW to make the iDrive user friendly!

You can never appeal to everyone with one broad stroke, in the end the goal is to make the best functioning piece possible. IMO the XK, XF and XJ are some of the greatest jags yet. Every single piece of everything comes with problems, take it all in stride.

 

Well - as for the 2011 XF alarm, it seems that the driver has to be at least 20+ ft to ensure that the whole car locks. Otherwise, as I and some friends found out, the alarm appears to be "on drugs" as when you press the LOCK button, you can still open the door afterward. Rather funny when both of my friends commented "That's it, I will never buy a Jaguar, the lock button doesn't even works...look the doors still open".

The common expectation is that if you press lock, it will lock immediately - OH NO...not the 2011 XF that I was driving, you had to walk away at lest 20 ft before that LOCK buttons works as it should.

Good lord, who's the nitwit who came up with that design?

In the end, it was a rental but at least I learn something - give me back my 07 VandenPlas!

...back to the original topic.