Good Morning All,

My names Mike and I just wanted to introduce myself. I work for Jaguar Land Rover and have just been appointed to my new role as Social Media Executive. I will now be looking after this forum taking over from Kelly who will concentrate on various other pieces of work.

I have worked for JLR now for over a year within the Customer Relationship Centre so have the knowledge to be able to answer a wide variety of questions. If I am unsure of the answer I will know the right person to ask and then get back to you.

As time goes on I will interact with your general conversations on the forum and give advice where necessary. But in the meantime if there is anything you would like me to respond to please just send me a PM.

I am looking forward to getting stuck in and getting to know you all.

Speak soon.

Kindest Regards

Mike Cotter
Social Media Executive
Jaguar Land Rover

 

Cheers! I must say that the local Jaguar dealerships around here (New Jersey) have given me superb service. Always kind and waiting on me hand and foot, I suppose that's what you get for the money haha, and now that I have a Land Rover, as well as an XJR, I will probably be there more often for some parts :-)

 

Thank you for the feedback it is appreciated!

 

Mike - welcome to the forum and let me say that interacting with your customer base in this way is a smart business move. I have to say I did not know there was someone doing this before you. I would suggest you also interact with the XK/R forum (specifically model year 2006 onwards); there is quite a bit of activity there and we have an interesting issue going on currently with the owner of a new XKR-S.

I would like to make a comment to you: I speak regularly with a Jag salesman from whom we purchased our 2011 XJL. His name is Stefan Greskiw and he is an outstanding salesperson. He is an older gentleman that has been in the car sales business for a while.

During our conversations we talk about Jaguar and how the company is positioned in the automotive market. Understanding that the American market is only one of many in which Jaguar operates, one thing they still battle is the perception of quality. Sometimes when someone asks what kind of car I drive, when I tell them a Jaguar I get a response such as, "so it's in the shop being fixed huh". During my conversations with Stefan we both agree on many occasions that while Jaguar has improved its quality *significantly* over the years, and they advertise "to a degree" for sales, they *do not* spend or work hard enough to get the word out that Jaguar cars are quality automobiles. Many of the other automotive manufacturers spend much more and pay more attention to the message of quality, and (in the case of the niche in which Jaguar operates) luxury.

I (personally) am convinced that if Jaguar were to push much harder and invest in a campaign of expressing and demonstrating to the world that Jaguar quality is among the best the return on that investment would be incalculable in improving the perception and desire to own a Jaguar.

No car is perfect; all cars have issues from time to time. As a current Jag owner my dealer(s) have treated me as I expect to be treated with owning such a great car. Jaguar has improved in so many areas and its shows. But that albatross of poor quality (even though undeserved now!) still hangs around Jaguars neck.

That's the only area I see (as a customer and a Jaguar lover) in which Jaguar is falling short.

Hope to see a lot of your posts.

 

Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post.

Your feedback is very much appreciated and I will be sure to pass this on to the relevant marketing department. I fully understand your point of view and can only hope this negative perception will be change over time.

The more feedback we have the more we can progress and improve.

Thanks again.

Kind Regards

 

Walked up to a demo XJ in a mall recently and an older lady right next to me happened to be scanning the big cat, as were group of other people.

Then, she started off with how unreliable Jaguars are and that she hates the styling, they ride terribly, then......just proceeds to say whenever you drive them, you must carry a container to put it under to catch the oil (i think she was serious - maybe knew of someone who owned an older model Jag).....not sure why she would make those comments about a brand new car, but the negative notion is still out there as rscultho stated.

I asked her if she owned anything new from Jaguar's product line, her response was a no. Without sounding pugnacious, i just told her to go drive one and see if her opinion changes.

 

Welcome Mike. Even though I'm not a Jag owner for the moment (hope that will change), I still lurk around here.
Along with rescultho's comments, you should also do a search at the batteries and the problems they cause.
There was also a problem with the glass roofs "popping" in some XJ's. This problem should have been corrected by now and a permanent fix made available to all owners (at no cost) who experienced this problem.
Jaguar is a great automobile and should not have these niggling types of problems.

 

My two cents when it comes to Jags can be divided in a few sections:

This refers to the US market:

1) Perception of product;

People out there for the most part love the Jag designs. What they also love to do is bad-mouth the car, due to the perception of it being a Ford product, and being extremely unreliable. Cost of repairs is also perceived as prohibitive.

2) Perception of brand;

Most people admire Jags for their history as well. But the general consensus is that Jaguar is a company that somewhat behaves like banks. The attitude is 'if you want a Jag, we're doing you a favor by producing them, so sign here at your own risk'. While this might seem harsh and unjust, the truth of the matter is that banks need us, we don't need them. Same goes to Jaguar.

3) Perception of depreciation;

All cars lose value, that's fine. Jaguar still has a lot of work to do to prove to the market their cars can withstand the test of time at the same levels of Japanese brands. If that isn't one the priorities, lots of customers will keep walking away from Jaguar purchases.

4) Perception of second/third ownership;

It is not fair to stigmatize any brand of car. But truth to be told, even though reality might be different, 7 to 10 year old Jags have the reputation of ending up in the hands of the Russian Mafia (in the west coast) or in the hands of nostalgic broke seniors.

In conclusion, I'd say that the newer Jaguar designs have a great potential of being established items in the minds of consumers, not as unreliable pieces of junk, but as great long-term-ownership luxury cars. While Jaguars have a great asset that is their tradition and racing history, the reality of the markets today is very different. People willing to pay that kind of money for a car, nowadays expect functionality, reliability and low cost of ownership. Sure, the arguments of "no car is perfect" will abound, but there are different levels of imperfections, and they are also tolerated or not tolerated depending on the price range the product is positioned at.

So I believe Jaguar is slowly learning how to carve back the piece of the market it lost. The products are improving. The post-sale experience still needs lots of work. It's all about perception, and customer experiences after the sale. A good combination of honesty, fairness, ethics and marketing can make this brand shine and become a true nightmare for the competition. GO JAGS!!!

 

Hello Mike,
Welcome,

Some of us have suffered of bad relations with some dealerships. I am speaking for myself.

Anyway I wanted to point out this thread for you,
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...13-xkrs-94340/

A few of us here are curious to see how it will be handle.

Thank you,
Pierre

 

Hello Pierre,

I am sorry to hear that you have suffered bad relations and can only hope that this doesn't continue.

I have subscribed to the thread you mention and I will keep an eye on this to see how it develops once a technician attends the vehicle.

I look forward to future discussions.

Many Thanks

 

Hi Mike,
Just wanted to say that I think its great that Jaguar / Land Rover has decided to have a more active presence on the web. I've always been surprised that car manufacturers don't tend to make themselves available in a format like this, if only to monitor conversations and make semi-official "clarifications" from time to time.

I also wanted to echo what rscutho said and give my perspective on the quality issue. About a year and a half ago, I bought my first Jaguar (2011 XK) which was also the first "premium brand" car I ever bought. I can say with relative certainty that if the 2011 model year hadn't been offered with maintenance included, I probably would have wound up buying something else.

Now that I'm over a year into ownership, looking back I'm not sure that even makes any sense because I'm so much more comfortable with (and confident in) the car... but at the time, I wasn't willing to spend the money I had scraped together on something that might have surprises in store as far as maintenance / repair costs goes. I realize a program like that is probably expensive to offer from a manufacturer's standpoint, but for me it was the part of the deal that made me feel ok about going with an unfamiliar brand.

Anyway, welcome, hope to see you stick around...

 

Hello,

Thank you your feedback and everyone else's for that matter.

I appreciate all of your comments and loyalty to Jaguar. The more information and feedback we have the better. It will enable us to see where/how we can make improvements in the future.

If anyone has any specific questions please PM me and I will do my best to answer them. Alternatively I will be browsing through the forum and I will respond to as much as I can.

Thanks again.

Mike

 

You're most welcome here, Mike. As others have said -good customer relations.
Of course this is the best Jaguar Forum there is...
I've put a sticky link in the XK8/R section to this thread - it is very active.

 

Thanks a lot Mike!

It's nice to see someone standing like yourself.
All the best.

Pierre

 

Hi Mike

From my perspective here in the NW of England it is plainly obvious that Jaguar are now (2013), doing a lot of things right, in fact, almost all, I would say, as the XF is a very, very, common sight around here. However, not so much the XJ saloon. OK it's a newer model and a much higher price but I am now seeing a few more around. Maybe the price hike when the new XJ replaced my X350 XJ has something to do with it, as prices are way higher than the previous model.

The old Jaguar company once had a "one-model policy" with saloons; it was the XJ or nothing. Now there are two, (XF & XJ), and was once three when the X-type was in production just up the road from me in Liverpool. (I still see loads of these cars as I drive around, and they must be much missed).

It seems to me at least that the XF has taken over the mantle once occupied by the "single model" old XJ saloon. And before the XF
it was the S-type. It has to be said that in the UK large and expensive luxury cars are now a very small market as most folks seem obsessed with driving trucks (or SUVs as some call them !!). Quite why this is so is a mystery to me.
So it seems to me that with the XF taking the volume sales that the XJ is not going to be a mass seller due to its price and the competition from SUVs. Here in Cheshire they are literally everywhere ! Some of this is surely due to our obsession with very low speed limits because in Germany it is completely different; large and fast saloons are still around in large numbers as I have seen on two recent holidays there.

In terms of my input as a used Jaguar owner, the price of a used Jaguar is low enough to make a very attractive proposition, but is it too low ? The used market represents to the owner the totally unprotected purchase.The factory warranty is likely expired and the buyer takes on the full risk with the car. OK, there are insurance-based warranties available, but they don't cover wear and tear or as I am wont to call it - "unfair wear and tear" !!

In my opinion, Jaguar engineers need to pay much closer attention to this aspect of ownership. Just take the example of my old Mazda Xedos 9. I had no significant expenditure on this car for parts from 37k miles up to 128k miles when I part-exed the car for a Rover 75. Yet my Jaguar has already, at less than 55k miles, needed two new rear wishbones due to the bushes wearing out, a new rear rollbar link, a rear track rod, an air compressor, a new lights switch, a door latch, and a few other minor items. The car was on a warranted mileage of 30k miles when I bought the car in 2010.

So my question is - does Jaguar think this is reasonable ? Frankly, I don't, and until this aspect is addressed, used Jaguar prices will remain low, and hence make the cars unattractive to a buyer of a new Jaguar due to the huge depreciation. I rest my case.

 

Subscribed to this worthwhile thread.

 

Hello,

Thank you for your post.

I thank you again for your positive comments about how Jaguar are progressing with their new models that are now available.

Taking on board your comments about out of warranty repairs it is very difficult for me to comment due to not having the full details. I am unable to say if the failures you have experienced are reasonable or not as now they have already failed and by the sounds of it already repaired I am unable to find out the hows and whys of what's happened and possible causes. I understand this isn't very helpful at this time but what I would recommend is if you do have any failures in the future you feel are not reasonable then the vehicle is taken to one of our Jaguar dealerships and they contact our Customer Relations team to see if we are able to assist or not.

Please if you have any further issues do not hesitate to PM me.

Many Thanks

 

On the issue of quality, newer car owners benefit from new materials, new design methodologies and technology. As long as a car manufacturer employs these benefits in their designs, automotive quality improves.

Jaguar is definitely including new materials and technology in its cars, and we as owners will benefit from this. This will affect depreciation and the secondary ownership market (used car market).

Contrast this with how Jag tried with the X Type (I am sure this was a strategy pushed by Ford when they owned them). My local independent Jag shop say they are pieces of crap and they are falling apart all around them right now (they get a lot of them in their shop). To me that sounds typical of how Ford tries to save money on some the car models they manufacture. While Ford helped Jaguar modernize and wrote some big checks which helped that, I am personally *very* glad Ford does not own Jaguar anymore.

Jaguar should launch a quality campaign and utilize its very loyal ownership base to help with this. There are ways to do this that would make owners feel empowered and a *part* of Jaguar and what they are doing.

Jaguar - be proactive and reach out actively. Form an *official* Jaguar ownership club sponsored directly by Jaguar Cars, not just be associated with regional Jaguar clubs.

Jaguar marketing needs to be as new and inventive as Ian is with the new designs.

Would be a win-win situation for Jaguar.

 

Hello Mike,
Thanks for starting this thread. I know, like others, that I have not had the best results with my nearest dealership. I have enjoyed my 07 Xk since it's purchase over two years ago. The only problems I have seen with it is quality control on my door panels. The leather has come loose and is hanging. Before it's warranty was out(year wise), I contacted my dealer and was told to live with it. I also contacted Jaguar North America after that visit and was basically told the same. I hope at some point, Jaguar will realize that this is a problem and do something to correct it. I know that others on here are having the same problems as I.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the post. Please see the PM I have sent you.

Many Thanks