Not necessarily my cuppa, but by their actions, they keep the marque alive…good on’em!
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My cylinder head was sent to machine shop and it appears the cost was approx. $8000? Don’t know all that was included in that.
Yes, you are correct as it does make sense no mechanic wants to finish someone else’s job. The liability is too great as no surgeon would
want to complete another surgeon’s operation. Even in large metro areas, jags are not welcome unless its a jag dealer, as per my earlier experiences.
Even then, it’s close to impossible, again as per experiences. On one occasion, I had to rescue my xjs from a Jag dealer because they kept it for 2 weeks
with no diagnosis. I also had to have AAA intervene to recoup my payment. They could not diagnose that the wiring was faulty ($5000 ). And so it goes!
In my former profession, I made CALL IN MY jAGUAR. The person was a former owner operator of a reair garage. He rold me that he frequently worked a client’s similar car. to mself, i thought. Yup. like an annuiuty.\Localy we had two shos that were not afraid of older jaguars. One has changed hands. each had a run on my car. relitively minor issues. It worked just fie Comptent techs. the wner opertr
or dump the car and get something else… or buy a low mile one like I did
Except the wheels, the intake trumpets, the side mirrors and the missing side repeaters at the front, he did a decent job…
If the heads are still out, any competent mechanic could easily check what was done and if it was done properly.
another thing… I can’t blame the new generation for not becoming gear heads… it would absorb all your time to keep up with car repairs… too complicated… not like when I grew up… even home repairing is getting sophisticated… I have tried to teach my three sons and they have been coming along ok on their homes… I remember when I was young most of us had no extra money and my friends dad’s were always fixing their own cars and things… it’s too complicated now and discouraging
Not to mention, most new cars pretty much have onboard computers, and they’re going towards proprietary software so you must bring it to a dealer.
My wife’s Volvo, you cannot change the transmission fluid without resetting the computer for the transmission mileage that it’s keeping count. Otherwise you risk ruining your transmission. Only Volvo software will work. They also continually have software updates to improve the car, so you have to bring it to dealer. Independents, or consumers, can buy the hardware for a few $1000, download the software for free, and pay $70 for a three days license. This isn’t how DIY should be.
Plus, if the computer doesn’t tell them what’s wrong, they can’t diagnose a fault. I was surprised when the guy fitting my windscreens said his 18 year old son was an AA service tech. I asked if he was a mechanic and was told AA put him through a 4 week training course. Some time later, my Nissan Dualis failed to restart after a comfort stop out of town. The AA man duly arrived, never stopped the engine on his vehicle and proceeded to squirt some fluid down the air intake. No joy, so he said he would call a recovery vehicle. Only when I asked him if he had an OBD scanner did he deign to turn off his vehicle and do some diagnostics; said it was a TPS error, then called a recovery vehicle and left. 4 hours later and $200 poorer we were home; I pulled off the air cleaner and found the TPS jammed shut, squirted some carb cleaner at it and 10 minutes later the car was going again. Japanese cars are generally so reliable I never carry tools, but in this case just a flat blade screwdriver would have sufficed. But as Greg says, some of these cars are now too complicated for the home mechanic to do anything but the basics on. I will happily ( well not happily, but do it anyway) take on pretty much any job on my S1 XJ , but dread working on the XK8 , X100, later models would be more complicated still. To be avoided.
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Most kids these days either don’t want a car, or want modern electric only that can self drive. It would be like our generation gladly giving up coal engines with manual everything for gasoline with power everything.
When i go to car shows or see people working on their cars, I rarely see people under 50. Gasoline powered cars are going the way of record LPs.
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Hey, LPs outsold CDs the last few years. And more and more new releases are on vinyl. Nothing sounds like analog through tubes…
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So you’re saying old Jags will outsell Teslas one day?! 
Plus we can still play our LPs, even if they are a bit scratchy. Also, it seems what goes around, comes around. We can probably keep our pre-computer Jags running forever, whereas a computer controlled machine in otherwise perfect condition can be disabled by a software fault.
Yep…20 characters and then some
Two points:
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Aye, each of my cars have a decently equiped tool box. passed from car to car for a very long time. troube is that the 94 jeep and the 94 poered jaguar are too comlex to diagnose and fix roadside!!
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i have road service via allstate. i have come home on a fatbed more than nce. y toold are now the roadside card and my cell phone. teh atter let me down once. No sevice ina park lot. I dumped that pheone and servce for a better deal.
Each time the service went the flat bed. Qick and courteous.