Thanks for the email.
It is a difficult problem. The actual requirement is to have a vehicle that meets the spec., which works reliably, and I have confidence in. This doesn’t seem to be asking for too much.
The simplest way to express what is good for me is;
1) Make this car work properly and so that I have confidence in it – I no longer think this is possible.
2) Swap for a similar vehicle that also meets the spec. – this is the best, but I understand there is a difficulty in locating a suitable vehicle.
3) Swap for a different model that meets the spec – possible, see later.
4) Refund – this is bad as it leaves me without a car and as apparent from the above – no prospect of locating one that meets the spec. from Jaguar.
As mentioned before, the car I have meets the spec., plus has a few features I could do without. However , I haven’t recently been able to find a car that meets the spec. on the JLR approved used list. The one I bought was the third one I had located… the first one was at a non-franchised dealer and didn’t seem ‘right’ when I went to view it. The second which was almost identical to the one I now have, sold on the day I rang about it, then this one. Post purchase, I had also located an almost identical car at a dealer in the South. I have also been in touch with another owner who has a similar car (who confirmed he didn’t recognise any of the issues I am having). So, the cars are rare, but do exist.
The situation with this car is ridiculous, it has been in to the local dealer’s for warranty work countless times, and though I have every confidence in Stratstone’s ability, we still keep having issues. The final straw being, it had a locking issue, which resulted in a fail to start last week. It is the first time I have had a car let me down in 18 years of Jags. Problems occur with everything – but it seems these issues can’t actually be ‘fixed’.
This is the fundamental issue – there are problems on this vehicle that are being observed, but not fixed – they just ‘go away’ until next time. The locking issue of last week is a good case in point. It had an issue, failed to lock or start, spent 6 hours being analysed in the dealers during which time they confirmed the issues. Then the issue ‘went away’ and the car got returned. So, it is now working, but not ‘fixed’ as such. I fear this will repeat, forever.
It is as you say, booked in again for a whole week, next week. I don’t have confidence that it will be fixed. This time it is for SIM connectivity, the navigation not being able to log in (though WiFi connectivity is proved), and making the un-fixable headphones work.
Around the time we spoke in May, I was prepared to have one last go at a fix to the outstanding issues. I think since then the vehicle has been back in the dealership four or five times, some of those times for more than a week each. I have ‘stuck with it’ as I hoped it would be fixable.
To clarify the information below, particularly with respect to the refund. The situation here is that the part-ex had left your dealership and therefore no-one knew what may have happened to it in that time. I would be taking the risk of things happening* whilst neither in my or William’s control. At that time, I saw no reason why the car I bought couldn’t be ‘fixed’, so after seeing what the alternatives offered were, it made sense for all to persevere with a fix. *As it happens, the new owner of the SV8 has since been in touch with me and is extremely happy – no issues apparent.
I don’t recall any mention of a new unregistered vehicle being discussed. In fact I believe at that time, the equivalent car had been deleted from the UK market. Swapping for a new car would absolutely have been accepted – however, the car purchased was at the top end of my budget. It was purchased ‘used’ with 2000 miles on it as was a substantial discount for a barely used car.
There are fundamental requirements in the car I bought, and in fact adaptive cruise was my primary reason to change from my SV8. The alternative presented didn’t match the requirements even if I was to substantially compromise.
The car as supplied also has issues with the spec. which have been un-addressed. I realise that Williams probably sold that based on the JLR build spec sheet which can be called up from the VIN. From that it can be seen that the TV tuner and dual screen was included, was on the Williams advert, but apparently can not be made to work on the car. This difference is something that Williams may need to take up with JLR as it wasn’t what Williams expected when they sourced it. I did say I could accept it without this, and at one stage I did say I would accept something from CRC such as a Jaguar experience to ‘compensate’ – however, this really is an issue for the supplying dealer not CRC. As it happens, all of the ‘experiences’ I would have been interested in disappeared off the JLR web site at that time (some have since reappeared).
Again, this missing feature was not a material issue in the problems with the car, the main issues are in its ‘behaviour’. I would point out at in all its visits to the dealers for warranty work, at no time have they said they can’t find the major issues it has been in for (some minor ones haven’t always been reproduced on the day – but have been seen on subsequent visits).
There are also some interesting questions about its service history, I understand it had done only 2000 miles, but some service items are time related rather than mileage – it had only had one ‘A’ service whereas it should really have had an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ before delivery. This has partially been corrected by CRC as it recieved a ‘B’ service recently. However (though it may not actually be that important), it has had an A and B, whereas it should have had an A, B and A. Small point, but not quite as it should be.
To return to point 3 in the opening paragraph; Swapping for a different model.
The XF was chosen as it was the ‘right’ model in the Jaguar range for me. It wasn’t a compromise – it was the one I wanted.
The XE (I have had lots on loan), nice car but too small.
F-Type, very nice car, but no boot space, so no practical use to me.
F-Pace & I-Pace, may as well buy a Land Rover product.
I-Pace, not enough range for the occasional long journeys.
XJ, previously not considered this as I thought it may be too large. However, I have been pointed to an XJ that is on the approved used list at the moment, and the same price point as the XF-S purchased. Being the XJ, it seems to have all the options on my XF-S as standard. It is a car I haven’t sat in since a launch event in 2009, so I would probably have to investigate further if I was to properly consider it.
So, primary solution is to swap for an XF-S of substantially similar spec. (and mileage/condition)
Possible backup solution of XJ above
Anything else that gets me a car that meets the spec. and I can have confidence in, that keeps me in the Jaguar brand.
