I put a title that I hoped got a reasonable amount of attention, without resorting to "Aliens Abducted my VDP" - but anyway I just want to make a request of the many intelligent, mature and kind folks who use JaguarForums. I use those terms in all sincerity, as I recently parted ways with a Scion, an entire brand of which has a narrow marketing focus on younger buyers. What at first was joy at how many forums, performance and other parts soon turned into the horror of using forums where a lot if the posts were from inexperienced, and in a word obnoxious "kids" who often wrote things that were so patently stupid it wasn't humorous but rather sad (and annoying when seeking real information)

This forum is the very antithesis of those boards and I am grateful for it. The wealth of broad, long term experience is often a real comfort when you are sweating out an issue and having visions of huge repair costs on these high end cars that we so love. I have seen a lot of folks taking a crack at some problem posed and, without a specific fix, trying individually and as groups to have a dialog that ultimately leads the person with the issue to a solution.

These CAN be expensive vehicles to own, and maintain, and yet with the huge depreciation that goes with the European Luxury vehicles, Jaguar in particular, often because of the potential buyers fear of these repairs, we can often get fantastic value on a used Jaguar. More importantly with a fair amount of mechanical and diagnostic ability, along with a good set of tools, AND the good works of forums such as this, a Jaguar owner willing to tackle all but the more intensive repairs can do amazingly well. I guess I am preaching to the choir on that count as anyone likely to be reading this is already in that demographic!

And at last... my request. You knew I would get to it eventually, right? uhm... right? *crickets* anyway, I just want to cast out a friendly but sincere plea that:

When you ultimately resolve your issue, or for some reason do NOT resolve it, could you kindly circle back and help close the thread that you started or joined, where the original question was asked?

I don't have to tell anyone here how incredibly frustrating it is to chase a solution, only to have the thread fizzle out and die. Oh the humanity! The smoke and flames and passengers dying! - okay.. alright... I guess it's not as bad as the Hindenburg crash... but it FEELS as bad, let me tell you.. And the let down when you realise you just went down another dead end.

If this reaches and causes even a few people to change their rotten ways, it will have been worth it, A HUGE thank you to all the good folks who make this such a great resource. I can say without exaggeration that this forum alone has been source of information that is tremendously valuable.

 

I'll second the plea to post a follow-up -- even if it's "I goofed". The next person along at least knows what did/didn't work.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with this! I take pride in posting all kinds of pictures when I work on something to share with all and if one of my threads seems to be unfinished, rest assured - it is still in progress with updates to follow!

There is nothing more frustrating than "unfinished" threads.

I still *love* this forum!

 

Always nice to hear the outcome of any problem good or bad this can help other members . I'm a mechanic by trade and I find this forum a fantastic knowledge base sometimes you just need that little bit of information to send you in the right direction ( invaluable)

 

I totally agree.

 

Great thought .... thanks for bringing it up.

In fact, maybe the moderators could see fit to move this thread out of the "model-based" section into a more generally read area of the forum.

Possibly even make it a sticky?

 

Please don't think that the relatively reasonable tone of my previous post in any way detracts from my inalienable right to be obnoxious.

I've waited a long time to become a curmudgeon, and by golly I intend to enjoy it!


Thank you.
Retro