Bruce,

Jaguar bought out my lease and without having to take drastic measures. If I lemoned the car they would have cxl'd my lease and returned most of my money which is something I let go for a quicker resolution. I always said I wished they would have simply offered a replacement so I could give the XKR another try but they said the remaining 12's in my color combo and wheels (I believe 2) had been sitting unsold also like mine since last July. They were not willing to offer a 13 which I would have waited for and continued to make payments on while either driving my XKR or the loaner until it arrived; they wanted me to start from scratch again and the new lease terms would not be close to what I had as the programs were only for 2012's.

 

I'm saying you should have let them fix it...and you're still saying you'd have accepted a replacement. Big difference. The car would not have to be Lemon'd...but you were determined to do that, and threatened to. You pre-judged your future with that XKR...and they used that to pre-judge their future with you as a customer. They simply cut their losses, and we may very well read here how your car's next owner is enjoying it.

You're just refusing to accept your responsibility in this outcome, and using JD Powers to do it. That's obvious, and just plain sad. It's all sour grapes now.

But regardless, that's all in the past now, and I do sincerely wish you luck with your new car.

Bruce

 

Thanks Bruce for the good wishes.

Gotta disagree, I was simply not willing to have a new cylinder head installed or a replacement engine put in a brand new car and that was the fix I was told would be offered. If the car had 10,000 miles on it I would have considered it, but not 1000. Remember the car had 12 other issues that were just repaired in the first month or so of ownership, enough was enough and a replacement engine or cylinder head was the straw that broke the camels back.

 

FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Exactly...that's the bottom line, and we are now in full agreement. I can sympathize with that 100%, and may very well have felt the same way you did if it were me...I just hope I never have to find out.

Had it not been for that the dealer could have had you drive the car until the head or engine replacement was in, and it would not have met the criteria that protects consumers under the Lemon Law. After-all, I think you said it had been off the road for 3-5 days resolving the other issues, and doing the head or engine replacement shouldn't have taken more than a few more.

It's been hard for me as a proud and happy owner, and probably many others here, to see the references to Lemon Law and JD Powers ratings used as they have been. Noone would dispute that your vehicle had a serious defect, but we all recognize that this does unfortunately happen on occasion with all brands, and I would accept whole-heartedly that the chances of that happening on a Jaguar is greater than on a Lexus.

A large part of my research prior to buying was focused on that very thing, as I'm sure it was with you and most others here, but I weighed out the pros and cons of the vehicles that closely compete in this catagory, and I'm happy I ended up here. At the end of the day it came down to the Vantage, Gran Turismo and XKR, and although Jaguar was the only one that had a JD Power rating, all other sources of info, including their owners forums, pointed directly to the XKR as the top pick for reliability, overall ownership costs and value.

Your experience doesn't change any of that, or make the choice of an XKR a poor one, but it does remind us all of how bad an ownership experience can be, regardless of how infrequent it might be. I had a horrible experience with owning a BMW 735i 25 years ago that I still haven't fully got over, and I'm just glad BMW hasn't built anything since that I fancied...well, nothing other than the Z8...so I totally get it. I just hope you can leave us on a positive note, and accept that your bad experience came down to little more than just bad luck

Bruce

 

Having had a *very* bad experience with the 1998 VDP (replacing the engine after a bad tensioner broke a timing chain), I fully believe that had I not been royally screwed by the old idiot that was in charge of the service dept at Hennessey in Buckhead, Jaguar would have made good on the engine. The old idiot that I dealt with basically blamed me using the guise of improper oil changes, care of the car, and that it was used - all the way from Canada! As I said he was an idiot of the highest order and completely misrepresented my position with Jag NA. As a result I had to pay for replacing the engine myself. And the bad tensioner thing was WELL KNOWN problem with those AJ V8 engines with the molybdenum cylinder coatings.

That was 12 years ago. That's the kind of thing that if Jaguar had done it *directly* with me I would probably have moved away from the brand. However, other than the experience with the old idiot, Jaguar has never been anything but very responsive with me or issues I've had which have been few. In RJC's case, they actually bought his lease out. Granted he paid some money to drive the car but anyone would have had to do that anyway. I think Jag was very responsive here. And RJC has professed that the dealer did what they could for him.

As to the cylinder head being the cause of the misfire, that may very well be the problem but I find it hard to believe that is the problem. As to replacing the whole engine - wow that's an extreme fix for a misfire. Sort of like replacing the whole wheel to fix a leaky air valve. The fact that they even considered such an extreme fix tells me just how far Jag was willing to go to fix the problem and serve their customer. A whole new engine with 0 miles on it? That's the cylinder head and a whole lot more!!! If they would have done that for me I would have jumped on it.

This thread has been an interesting one. While I don't wish for problems, I sure hope Jag is willing to bend that far with me in such a situation. I have to believe most other dealers/brands would not have been that accommodating.

 

Agreed. RJC said it didn't start misfiring until after he had had it for a little while. Hard to imagine the cylinder head changing, but a wide range of other things could have, with an electrical/electronic component seem more likely. Defects of that nature tend to show up early. I don't think the dealer or Jaguar NA knew what it was with any kind of certainty, and maybe still don't. A $50 part could end up causing the engine to be replaced.

 

It may be less expensive for Jaguar to replace the engine rather than pay the dealership shop fees to replace the head and who knows what else. This is a common tatic with Porsche; they don't let the dealership dig too deep into the engine to mitigate costs.

 

Well, in any case replacing an entire 5L engine could not be cheap, and is an extreme way to repair a misfire. I can't get my mind around this any other way.

And if it is/was a $50 electronic part as Bruce suggests (which is entirely possible) then they would have replaced a $20K engine without fixing the problem. Pretty big risk they were willing to take...

 

Actually, the rims are the only part of the car I do like the look of. Other than for the quality issues you (alone) seem to have suffered, I think the SL will be a significant step downwards from the XKR. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get the same feeling when going into the garage every morning if I was looking at an SL, let alone the same level of enjoyment from just the drive to work.

 

They don't know what it is (or know and keeping close to vest) and don't want a goose chase paying the dealership. They will get the engine back and can investigate without having someone hands in the engine.

 

What does FTW mean?

 

Jaguar was directing them all along and told them after weeks of testing and sending ecu data to Jag in the UK it was the left cylinder head or a cylinder itself and they would replace it or the entire engine. This was not the first car with this probkem so im sure Jag UK knew what they were doing. Glad it's not my problem any longer....

 

If you don't mind, can you remind me of what those other 12 issues were?

 

They should be listed in this thread earlier on

 

Sounds like many others on here are glad as well.

No disrespect meant, but honestly enough already..You got a car with problems. No different than the thousands of people who get one each and every year with ALL brands. Even those at the top of the JD Powers list. Toyota has/had horrible track record with their V6 oil sludge problem but you don't see it reflected in the JD Powers numbers and lets not forget about the surging engines from not long ago..again no reflection in numbers.

You didn't want to accept the fix and pushed for the resolution you received.

Go enjoy your MB and drive the hell out of it.

 

Yup no replacement engine/head for me on a brand new car. The guy with the new XJ having the same problem wasn't willing to accept that either. He got a replacement car but it took his car of being in service for 3 mos before that was offered... don't have that kind of time to waste.

Thanks for the well wishes on the MB.

 

+1

THIS IS A JAGUAR FORUM. WE DON'T BASH JAGUARS ON A JAGUAR FORUM.

We bash other competing brands, like MB. Wait until RJC starts having problems with the SL as a first model year car. We have had to tow my wife's 2010 MB E550 coupe (first model year) to the dealer 3 times now for a dead battery because something keeps draining it down. The last time they said it was some sort of fan in the A/C system that runs silently for a few minutes after you turn off the car to keep moisture out and mold from forming, but sometimes it just keeps running.

 

No one is bashing Jaguar just stating the FACTS as they happened to me and citing the actual quality numbers.

I always gave Jag USA and the dealership the benefit of the doubt...go try to bully or silence someone else cause IT'S NOT GONNA WORK WITH ME!

 

Not many agree with HugTexJag's approach but you must admit that RJC's death scene is approaching somewhat of a record.

RJC- Shoot this horse and be done with it. Start a new topic/post when you get the new MB and let us know how it works out. Most of us aren't too chauvinistic to welcome the insight of an experienced Jag pilot on other great cars. No specs please. Just your subjective observations.