Goods luck finding the near perfect AND have fun and style at the same time. Just look at that KIA again after a few thousand miles. Here how everything rattles when you close a door and so on. I have KIA's and Hyundays in my family and I do highly recommend that as a reliable car to get you from A to B. But please.....little knobs are falling off from airvents, plastic is everywhere and not even straight, trim falls off. and so on. And the handling....well ....no comment. You can go straight and make turns but don't expect anything exact or tight. And the fact that the exhaust pipes are blown through on a 2006 Hyundai Elantra at 60k miles is not what I consider perfect at all. OK cheap and easy fix. But NO, none of that 10 year warranty is in place if you buy used. NOT at all. Only goes for first owner.
BUT you are absolutely correct in one thing: For the price and the brand name associated with KIA and Hyundai I expect and accept all that. But still, even a EQUUS isn't close. I actually read a test in a magazine where they pinned the EQUUS against Audi A8, Jaguar XJ, BMW7. Rather interesting how it came last by a LONG LONG shot. So, you simply get what you pay for. Don't forget the XJ starts in the $ 70k range and the supercharged in the $ 80k range. Now look at Mercedes or BMW prices and make sure to take all extras AND make sure you look at equally powered such as AMG. Check the prices. You will find the Jaguar to be a bargain compared to those. So, again, you get what you pay for and to me, I got a whole lot with my Jaguar.
In other words. I would buy it again. I got mine last year in August. Got about 6k miles. Only 2 visits to the dealer in the beginning for TSB stuff and roof pop. Great dealer technician got ALL the noise out of the roof. Not just the pop. And the fix lasted. And I am REALLY noise sensitive, because as a German I expect perfect, just like you. I just had to concede, none of any of those cars are. Just a matter of what tradeoffs one can deal with. A bit noise for good handling? Boring and kind of old style, but near extremely quiet and near perfect in quality (Lexus LS) and so on.
I know you are sittin gon the fence. So just something to consider. I would buy the car again. May be in part because I have a good dealer with a great performing service department. (Otherwise, who knows as I won't accept to go back every months to have them tinker with noise and what have you issues).

 

Thats is good news. Simply great. It means the car does not have any major design flaw. It means they have a few 1st year production kinks to work out. Have fun. Keep us posted.

 

Hi jrwb,
I am traveling to Trinidad about 2 times a year for business and made some great friends there. I noticed if anybody actually can afford a luxury car, they rarely ever take it out. Too much poverty and crime and nobody wants to provoke kidnapping or car jacking. A shame though. My friend over there "knows the right people and has the right friends" (sure you know how it works in Trinidad) and he had been kidnapped once before and he is one of the few in Trinidad to legally carry concealed. His Mercedes never leaves the garage. His Opel Corsa and his Isuzu Pickup Truck is all he uses.

 

Hi ExpatJag,
You got that little crack in the front roof sunshade? I do, too. Interesting. No I am not worried something is wrong. Took me 3 months to even notice. Sure dealer could adjust, but not worth it for me to go back. I will tell them once I have my 15k mls service visit. Not even sure its worth opening the roof for that. (It is super quiet, no noise, I don't want to challenge it.)

 

Hey gears,
Its the back roof sunshade and I never ever close them but just happened to one day and saw it. I needed to take it in anyways because I was getting the rim changed out and my dvd player is set for the wrong region and one of my front bumper sensors started acting up so it needed to go in anyways. I am also trying to get an estimate on how much it would cost to change out the front video screen and put the dualview screen in. So fingers crossed.

 

Back when my dealer was fixing my roof popping issue, when they reassembled the front roof shade they could not get it to close all the way (left a little crack). They finally figured out that they had installed some clips in the front of the rails backwards (left one where right should be and visa versa) and when reversed it corrected the problem--they said that they were marked wrong by Jaguar. Not sure if this is what your problem is, but thought I would mention it.

 

Folks, I sympathize with the concerns about noise and I absolutely agree that when you buy a car of this caliber, at this price point, you should expect a high quality experience. I would, however, counsel patience: a few rattles shouldn`t be grounds for replacing the vehicle (to be clear - it isn`t acceptable either)!

I have a keen interest in these discussions as I just test drove an XJ Supercharged yesterday and was very impressed. If I decide to upgrade and experience the same difficulties that have been detailed in this thread, I would be disappointed and would expect them to be fixed promptly, but I wouldn`t expect the car to be replaced.

I hope and expect that Jaguar will deal with your concerns expeditiously and hope that you will give them the chance to deal with them.

 

Sounds very encouraging cbras9 & kudos to the Jag dealer for sorting it

 

I hate to even write this but the rattles are back,worse then ever. Not sure what happened the car has been sitting in my garage since I picked it up Friday. I drove the car approx 1 mile and it is making sounds the whole time. I again contacted Jaguar and they are to tell me what to do. I will keep you posted

 

The economy of Trinidad is quite good, and their are Jag, BMW, Audi and Merc dealers there, and lots of people buy them. I do not know what part of Trinidad you visit, but in the south people do use them quite regularly; the only thing is they usually buy the small models - A4s, 3-Series, etc, things like XK Jags, 7-Series BMWs, S Class Mercs and Audi A8s are comparatively rare, although there is a rich contractor who's got a Bentley, and years ago there was a fella who had an Aston. There are a couple odd Ferraris hanging about, too.

 

Hello HouTexJag and ExPatJag,
regarding the little open crack in the sunroof shade; its gone. It fixed itself with a little trick. Guess what, simply a self adjust like the reset of a power window.
I intentionally stuck my fist between frame and the closing shade to trigger a reverse. It reveresed, did a little back / forward adjustment cycle and voila, it closes perfectly with no gap. I will post this in a new thread in case anyone else needs to know. (the one or other dealer tech may be as well).

 

Hello jrwb,
I usually do business in Port of Spain and San Fernando. Also in Carapichaima and Tunapuna. I know the economy is good. (for the rich at least). But I never noticed so many high end cars. I believe they are there as there are dealers. May be they are not flaunting it or not in certain areas because of the high crime rate? Haven't seen a new XJ there yet.

 

Dude, are you serious?... Unbelievable.

 

They're there allright - although in terms of what you see in the street you may have a point...I lived in the better areas, so I suppose you'd see more there.

 

Who is bashing Kia handling! I test drove a Kia Optima a couple weeks ago and found that it was about as nimble as my X350 (not sure how it compares to the X351).

 

I never lived there. Just get there for a few days once every few months. So that is probably why I really don't know whats going on exactly. It is nice to chat with somebody who actually kows Trinidad. Not a lot of people even know where it is.

 

I sure wasn't bashing Kia. My buddy who also owns a 2011 XJL SC bought him self a KIA 2009 KIA Sorento as a winter car. Has it, he drives it all the time, (like when the Jag is too showy) and he loves it.
Also, I recently bought my niece a Hyundai Elantra and it turned out to be a great car.
BUT the handling, well, approbriate for its class for the Sorento. And the Elantra is surely not for the ones with sporty driving ambitions despite a (for its class )great high tech 4 cylinder.
In other words, no point of comparing the handling of a KIA or Hyundai with the XJ, XF, Xk, or any Jaguar for that matter; neither is it comparable with BMW, Mercedes or Audi. It just makes no sense to compare such unlike products.
Again, Hyundai and KIA make some good cars for its price class and they do outperform a lot of other contenders in its class. Just not any Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes, Audi and such when it comes to handling. I don't believe that statement is bashing any KIA or Hyundai.

 

I'm sure it was haha!
...and my Morris Minor used to outhandle my Lotus Elan.

 

Too much crime, too much traffic, but a good network of roads, though.

 

Too much traffic for sure. But at night you get a whole stretch of road from Port of Spain to San Fernando you could use as a race track. Except the crazy drivers. I saw some freaky accidents there. (One involving a horse ending up more or less completely inside a compact).