My wife's 2006 XK8 Victory Edition convertible was sold new in Beverly Hills, CA by Hornburg Jaguar in late June 2005 and was always serviced there until the owner moved to Hilton Head, SC in early January 2007 where it was always serviced at Hilton Head Jaguar. In mid-July 2008 the car was sold to the second owner in Jacksonville, FL where it was always serviced by Matheny Jaguar until the factory warranty expired in late June 2009. It was then serviced by World Imports USA in Jacksonville, FL until we found it and managed to make a deal for it just prior to it going to auction in early February 2012 at just over 36,000 miles....

It took me most of one afternoon to track down the service managers at the three Jaguar dealerships and the one indie shop by telephone in order to chronologically assemble the car's service records. All four of those folks were quite cooperative once I explained to them that I was considering the purchase of this car sight unseen and I needed as much service history as I could get my hands on in order to make the most informed decision possible. Matheny Jaguar even offered to visually inspect the car for me for $100 (I readily agreed) and then wound up not charging me a penny for the inspection because they found only a couple of minor cosmetic flaws and felt they could not justify charging me since I was already aware of those small issues....

There were a total of 8 service records, all of them rather routine except for the replacement of the right front shock due to leakage at just over 5,000 miles and the replacement of the left headlamp assembly at not quite 18,500 miles. I was told that neither of those repairs was due to the car being involved in an accident and I have never found any evidence to dispute that....

While going through the contents of the glove compartment shortly after the car was delivered to us here in North Carolina, I found the name and address of the last owner in Jacksonville FL. I had been told that he and his wife were in their mid-70s and this car had been their toy for the past 3.5 years. I wrote him a very complimentary letter thanking him for taking such good care of the car and asked him to write, email, or call me with any additional information regarding the car that he thought I should be aware of. Unfortunately, he never responded....

 

A few remarks. On my first cuppa coffee so this is more like blurting out a few thoughts rather than comprehensive discussion

I think a lot of it comes down to the individual dealer.

I spent 30 years working in dealership service and parts departments and company policy on service records varied between them, and even changed from time-to-time within a specific dealership.

Typically the amount of activity a VIN file has, and type of repairs done, would play a role in the purging parameters. If there was no activity for (let's say) 2 years the electronic file would be purged and the shop copies of paperwork destroyed. And exception might occur if warranty work was involved as the factory often has specific requirements for how long those records are kept.

A VIN file with current activity wouldn't be purged but it might be scrubbed.....with both electronic and paper history being dropped after (let's say) 5 years.

The systems I was familiar with allowed easy changing of these parameters and also allowed some fine tuning. For example, you could select keeping/purging "full history" versus "summary history" and how long for each. The difference was the amount of detail, obviously

I've been out of the business for 11 years so I'm sure things have changed a lot. But, when I left, there was still a lot of paper involved. Work orders had a shop copy an an accounting copy (the invoice you get a copy of when you pick up the car). Accounting copies were typically kept for a fairly long time. I wanna say 7 years was typical. But these physical invoices are not filed by VIN so it's virtually impossible to find anything that way. Shop copies were disposed of much sooner....although this came down to manpower available as much as anything else.

I never worked for a Jaguar franchise but worked for many others, American and imported, and the records-keeping requirements were all pretty similar as far as the factory goes. The factory told you specifically what they needed and wanted per the dealer agreement. What you did with the rest didn't concern them.

I was never involved in a franchise buy/sell situation so I can't comment on the legal issues nor common practices. It probably has a lot to do with state-to-state franchise law.

A common misconception is that all dealers share a data bank for service histories. Not true. Dealers buy/lease in-house computer systems that are not linked. However, dealers have xxx-amount of access to the factory data base which includes warranty repairs or any other repairs that are billed thru the warranty payment system.

Cheers
DD

 

Jon89, your detective work was bolstered by knowing where this vehicle had been serviced and your efforts at least produced something revealing maintenance done. I won't criticize the owner you corresponded with, at the end there, but if it was me, I'd be more than happy to tell you or give you any maintenance records(verbal or hard copies).

Hi Doug- I didn't expect to have a reply to my last comment and yours was enjoyable and helpful to read. Since I know the prior owner(the second, to my best knowledge)owned this Vanden Plas for 5 years(estimated by family), it's probably reasonable to assume that the electronic and paper history would be unavailable. The owner's shop did some work on the car and the next door neighbor business did some work, but I'll have to ask again for any records of what they did. Essentially, this is more likely a dead end pursuit , because it has been over 5 years now, since this car has been out of warranty and in the hands of the prior(but deceased)owner.

True, I did think, having a background in computers, that all dealers share the same systems(if they're selling a single brand). I might find something, still, if I ask Hennesey if they could tell me whether any records of warranty work were done on this VIN Jaguar. I won't hold my breath.

Thank you for the top of the morning, first cup o' joe feedback. Again, it helps me put more into perspective, as this is a blindfolded endeavor. I don't expect anything, but if I find something, even one or two things done under warranty work, I might bang the drums or pans, like it was New Years.

Cheers back to all!

 

Hello again to all who replied to my recent post. I discovered an Carfax Car Care application for android(may be available for iOS). It has a history, schedule maintenance, costs for parts and shops nearest my location. The history was helpful in showing the March 19,2005 Vehicle service/ Pre-Inspection at Nalley Jaguar and warranty services (5k done at 1,185 miles-early, 30K service performed at 9,602 miles, 40K maintenance at 37,967, 50K maintenance at 52,1411 miles at Hennessy Jaguar Land Rover North Point August 9, 2013 , and then the trail tapers off to emission inspection dates and passing, one Valvoline Instant Oil Change service 12/03/2005 and no receipts).

I'm mentioning the Carfax Car Care app(for phone, windows, and probably other platforms) for tracking your car's history when you have NO record/no clues as to where and when the car was serviced. Granted, it's not receipts of detailed service performed, but in my case, it showed the originating dealer when new and services performed at the warrranty intervals. Post-warranty....unless the indie shop specifies work done, all that could show up(as it did once in this app)is "Vehicle Serviced". At least you will see dates of service.

So though it's no replacement for the real McCoy maintenance records, this app can have some value tracing past services performed.

Thanks guys.

 

Hi Phil,

Good that you found some history on Carfax, even if it wasn't as detailed as it could have been.

In case others look to Carfax for info I'll mention that not all dealers and repairs shops participate .....so if a Carfax doesn't show any service/repair history it might mean nothing more than the car was serviced at a non-participating business

Cheers
DD

 

That's right, Doug. I was aware, but forgot to insert that important point. I sure love this 2005 Jaguar VDP...so far, anyways. My wife's car...she is doubly in love with it, our first "luxury" sedan. Now to the races(repairs or fixes)! :-)

 

Well Scott Jaguar was pretty helpful to me. I bought my car sight unseen from a small dealer in NC with no maintenance records (what was I thinking lol). My car a 2003 xk8 convertible, had a Scott Jaguar tag on the back so I gave them a call. They weren't able to give me a ton of information but there were some items on record with what they did. Transmission noise/added additive, windshield, window sensor and a few others but, it was a start and they were pretty helpful.

Finding previous owners information in the glove box I did a little detective work and found all but the first owner (only had it 6,000 miles). I ended up emailing all the owners via email and got responses from all of them. They were a lot of help in telling me what they had done to the car and even sent me pictures they had. Not the best way to gather maintenance records but, it was a start and I know the car was well taken care of.

 

This comment was prophetic. The Hennessy-Atlanta monopoly has created a complete customer service disaster. They routinely mark up parts 200%+ and have horrible techs. They just tried to overcharge my wife almost $4K for a water pump replacement on our Range Rover Sport Supercharged (they initially wanted $5,700+ and I ended up getting them to $1,900+, which is still too much). It took them 3 months and 11 days to do the work, and then they banged up the front bumper and forgot to even put the huge steel splash shield back on, so it's going back in the morning. I can't even fathom worse customer service.

 

Yep...

I got VERY poor service from Hennessy (Piedmont Road) a number of years ago. In my case, it wasn't the money, it was the service. Messed up stuff.

I got a recommendation from a friend to go to Jaguar/Cadillac of Northlake https://www.kuhnauto.com/ . They are the best. Totally competent. Totally honest. I know they are short handed right now (I just got brakes done), but the wait is well worth it.

Jack

 

Well-respected long-time-in-business locally-owned indie shops are the only way to go these days for anything you cannot DIY. I have not darkened the door of a Jaguar dealership for at least five years and that was only to purchase a part I needed that they happened to be selling for a reasonable price (unlike most of their prices nowadays)....

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I don't need anything now but most places around here will not touch this car anymore