wife wants a Jag
 

OK, off topic, but important to me. My wife has a hankering to get something in a car, she has a Jeep Liberty now, and has taken to the Jaguar X series of cars, the all wheel drive sedans. They make a 3 liter "sports" version, so i am asking the Club if anyone one here has any experience with this car, happiness, reliabiltiy, that sort of thing.

There are very few sedans i actually like, but this one i have always thought a pretty handsome, somewhat distinctive car, not like all the other cars that all look the same.

thanks, hal

I still have a weakness for Jaguars. It's cool Ford hooked up with them, best of both worlds and a "link" to the Cobra! Good call, go for it!

Ernie

Just crawled over them at the Cleveland Auto Show...
Beautiful cars.... Even with all the cars on display, the Jaguars stood out...
After seeing everything they had to offer, we both fell for the new Mustang... I was trying to steer her into a T-Bird but she liked the Mustang convertible (04).

Hal,

Most wives want a Jag. I think there is probably some kind of forum for wives on this topic alone.

I have no practical experience with the car. But I think that if she wants a car so bad you should suggest that she find a good replica of the jag and start building. :D

Hi,
My friends' got a 4 liter V-8 S type about a year ago, very impressive car for touring, would give Beemers and YES even some cobra's a run through the twisties. Plus it oozes with class.
Perry.
:cool:

Jaguars at the "dance".

Everyone is ohhing and ahhiing over the Vettes and Vipers, the Jaguar waits quietly in the background,,,,,,,,

When the last dance is done, it's the Jaguar they want to take home. Thats class!

Ernie:)

HAL, My brother runs a JAG, MERC, AUDI and honda dealer here in il. and the jags seem to be as reliable as any other euro. car. I think they also have a 3.0 supercharged (0-60 in 5 sec) Just incase the wifes late for hair app. or something. Personaly I think there nice autos. Ya only live once....................sparks

My brother-in-law owns a Jaguar/ Land Rover dealership in Fla. He was thrilled, when Jag announced the X type, and he says he hasn't been disappointed, they are great cars.

X Type not too bad and reasonably compentent. It is the same platform and drivetrain as the Ford Mondeo (s*^& you not) sold in Europe and I've driven a lot of these too in my travels. Too bad Ford doesn't bring the platform over here as a sedan.

Ron

Hal, one of our scof bros. bought one for his wife last year. Give Dave Rodak a shout.

Brian

hal, you have private mail. bill.

Hello Hal,

Here's an item that may be of interest - it's both hilarious and sad and even well-written.

Might be worth a read.

Remember, this is a guy who repairs and restores Jags for a living :JEKYLHYDE

Classic Jag X-type experience

Enjoy,

Tom

PS: If you enjoy this story, you might want to check out his Viper experience :LOL:

If you are looking at that Jag - you would be INSANE to not AT LEAST wait for the new Audi S4 to come out and test drive it. They're putting a V8 in it... :)

Hal
Try to get a slightly used one. You will save alot. These cars and Range rovers don't hold value well. I paid 68,000 for a 99 range rover..... 2yrs 4mos later dealer offered me 21,000 to trade up.. oh... and a 1000 discount on the new for 'owner loyalty' . That did it I bought the BH(better half) a G500.

My Jag-you-are experience...
 

First of all, Hal, you need to learn to properly pronounce the name of the cars from Coventry....they're "JAG-you-ars"...and never, ever shortened to "Jags"....never. It's just not done in Merry Olde...period.

My wife and I leased a Jag-you-are XJ8 Vanden Plas model in 1999. Absolutely a beautiful automobile....dead quiet at speed...just the sound of the Pirelli's skimming over the pavement. White Gold in color, with Biscuit leather interior and all burled walnut trim everywhere. Solid handling, smooth riding...very comfortable Connally hide seats - both front and rear. Great climate control system, excellent sound system. Trip computer was very nice, and worked well. In short, a very nice automobile that we planned to buy after the lease period was over. Actually, the car was leased by her business....we decided to let the business absorb the depreciation off the dealer's lot, and we'd purchase the car if it proved to be a good vehicle. Jag-you-are's warranty was bumper-to-bumper and good for the length of the lease, and I figured by then we'd know about it's reliability and what the true cost of ownership may be.

I don't know if it was a dealer problem or not, but everytime the car was taken in for an oil change, or some other normally scheduled service, they always managed to find something else wrong with the car. On one trip for a scheduled oil change, they said they heard what was described as a 'grunch' in the right front suspension. Cause...? They claimed they found a small rock up under the lower control arm in the spring perch which was causing noise everytime the suspension flexed. Funny, but we never heard it, and we never asked them to look at it. Further examination of our work order showed that we ideed had complained...in their words "Customer states there is a noise in the right front corner of the car". When we picked up the car after another scheduled maintenance trip, I noticed they had replaced one of the overhead cam cover gaskets to the tune of 6.5 hours of labor at $65/hour labor, plus parts! Again, a repair action not requested nor authorized by us!

Then one day the battery went south...no pre-warning, nothing to alert is it was going out. Car just wouldn't crank. Had it flat-bedded in to the dealer. Guess what....? Surprise...the battery wasn't covered as part of the 36 month lease warranty....and they wanted $260 to replace it! When they called me with the diagnosis, I asked why so much. The answer they gave me was that Jag-you-are didn't put a large enough battery in from the factory, and all the electronics in the car often caused batteries to play out. Too bad it happened in the third year of their "Bumper-to-bumper" warranty period....if it had happened in the second year, the battery manufacturer would have pro-rated the failed battery....yada-yada-yada.... I told them to PUSH the car outside, and I'd be by to take care of it. Stopped off at Sears and picked up an $85 DieHard before I went to pick it up. Put it in the trunk when I got to the Jag-you-ar dealer's lot, hooked up the cables finger tight and went in to borrow a wrench - er, a "spanner" - to tighten the cables. "Nope, can't let you do that Mr. Rice, it's against our insurance regulations! We have to perform that service....and how did you get back to where your car is parked?" On and on and on and on.... I finally told them to either give me the car "NOW" or they could make the remaining lease payments...and they had 15 seconds to make up their minds. The service people just stood there and looked at me with dumbfounded looks on their faces until I started to count down the 15 seconds....at 6 seconds, they handed me the keys. I fooled with the cables until I got the car to start...drove it home and took my own 'spanners' to tighten the cables and battery hold down clamp. Car drove fine for another 3-4 months.

And then there was the time they replaced the entire exhaust system because they said it was rattleing somewhere in the catalytic converter. Again...funny we never heard that! Labor charge to Jag-you-are warranty program was over $1800 for that little soiree.

Bottom line, after 36 months of lease ownership, I figured I couldn't afford to own this beast. At $65/hour labor, I figured it was going to cost us close to $3 grand a year just for service work if everytime I took it in to them they found something else wrong with it that we were obviously too stupid to notice. So, we let them have it back after 36 months....

My experience tells me that Jag-you-ares are alright to lease when the dealer and the Jag-you-are service network is toting the freight for maintenance costs. But, after that...YOU DON'T WANT ONE! They're one of the prettiest cars you'll ever see broken down on the side of the road, or on the back of a flatbed on the way to the dealer for a $260 battery!

What are the two happiest days in a Jag-you-are owner's life? Easy...the day he gets his new Jag-you-are, and the day he gets rid of it!

Hal,
PLEASE don't consider any German or French products, (not that the French have any great cars) until they come in line with the ideals on terrorism with the good old USA. The Jag works.
DID I SAY BOYCOT? SHAME ON ME!
Happy Shopping,
TL

Jag X type
 

The Jag X type ( yes we do say Jag over here ) is built not in Coventry but in Liverpool.

The plant used to make compact Fords, Escorts etc, but has now been turned over to Jaguar.

I have visited the plant many times and the whole team there are absolutely obsessed with quality. We in my company are having to jump through hoops, quite rightly, to get to supply them with products that arent even on the car when the customer gets it.

The X Type is a great car, and I will be placing an order for mine in August . This is from a guy who drives a BMW 5 Series and has a BMW V8 in his Cobra.

The supercharged version is absolutely the " Dogs Bollocks" as we say here...............

Buy her an X type, gratitude is a great apohrodisiac..........

Cheers,

Tony

Hal,

My wife also wanted one. We compromised - half jag (rear IRS) half cobra. Still fighting over that potpourri holder though. I may have to give in to avoid yellow daisies on the hood instead of meatballs. ;)

Hal,

I bought my wife an older (1992) Jag Sovereign and she loves it. The rate the dealers charge for servicing is criminal so I service it myself. Overall I'm impressed with the engineering. A 10 year old car is going to have a few wear and tear problems so I've had to fix a few things. The car drives superbly and still turns heads. I figure it's done most of its depreciating already so I don't expect to loses a ton of money when I sell it.

My wife now has her eye on the new S-type to replace it in a few years.

Cheers

Hal,

Just got the wife a 2002 S-Type. Beautiful Aspin Green that changes color from different angles. Putting chrome wheels on it. Too early to tell if it will be reliable. I liked the way it looked on the surface, but when they pulled the wheels off and I got to see all the cast aluminum suspension pieces, I was really impressed.

Several people I have met, love the S-Type and report no problems. The X-Type is pretty new and I have no feedback on it.

I can tell you that my wife was VERY appreciative! :D

Paul