From todays E mails the common answer seems to be some of you
bought cars that had not been looked after initialy.
In the UK we the ‘‘sensible ones’’ do not do that, we buy
( pay slightly more ) one that has Full Jaguar Service History.
Not foolproof but it helps.
I have finally stopped laughing enough to respond. While my car was under
warranty, the Jaguar dealer(s) did all the work. Once I started maintaining
it myself, I was appalled at some of the ham-fisted things that I saw that
had been done by dealer mechanics. Paying dealer prices is no guarantee of
workmanship.
I was appalled at some of the ham-fisted things that I saw that
had been done by dealer mechanics. Paying dealer prices is no
guarantee of workmanship.
I have owned and driven Jaguars since 1970 ( 32 years )
As yet I have never as you guys say been ‘‘Ripped OFF’’ by a Jaguar
Dealership, Mechanic or Sales ,
So according to you Listers I have been lucky for 32 years well
only about 10 more to go, then I’ll be too old to drive.
SERIOUS THOUGH
Do you not think that perhaps it’s the fact that your Dealerships
lack the expertise, What is the average age of their mechanics,?
How often to they do training courses at ‘‘MECCA’’
With the new Jaguar it’s ‘‘monkey see’’ ‘‘monkey do’’
But the real Jaguar needs a little more than that something called
expierience.–
BLEASIE
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
I was appalled at some of the ham-fisted things that I saw that had been
done by dealer mechanics. Paying dealer prices is no guarantee of
workmanship.
I have owned and driven Jaguars since 1970 ( 32 years ) As yet I have never
as you guys say been ''Ripped OFF'' by a Jaguar Dealership, Mechanic or
Sales ,
Do you not think that perhaps it’s the fact that your Dealerships lack the
expertise, What is the average age of their mechanics,? How often to they
do training courses at ‘‘MECCA’’ With the new Jaguar it’s ‘‘monkey see’’
'‘monkey do’'But the real Jaguar needs a little more than that something
called expierience.
Well, some of that could be true. The few dealer mechanics that I have
known have been Jag Factory trained (age anywhere from 22 to 50’s… most of
them older range). What’s going on here could simply be an attitude
difference. I know a LOT of people who have been ripped off by the
dealerships OUTSIDE of this list. (Can you imagine being charged to set the
time the clock in the car??? Can you imagine a dealership mechanic capping
off the rear brake lines after customer complaints of brake
problems/leakage???) I suspect that mechanics in the UK might actually
CARE. I don’t think the attitude of many of the dealerships here (US), and
thus the mechanics, is oriented towards service, just sales (service as a
sale too.) Most dealership mechanics, and/or parts counter employees I have
met HAVE been willing to pass on good advice.
It’s more likely that independent Jag mechanics are FORCED to care to keep
clientele. A number of them I have met also actually have factory training.
My impressions of the service quality of local dealership here, however, are
fairly good. They still charge $$ per hour (average to moderate dealer
rates.)
I think if Jaguar had assembly plants in the Southern US (before Ford took
over) as BMW & Japanese companies now have, US specific problems would have
been easier to spot & correct. What’s the average humidity and temperature
in the UK? How would one think that affects cooling?, rubber parts?, etc?
Esp. over the years with an older car…
There are good dealers and bad dealers across all over. I have been
fortunate to find one that is good. The mechinc looks to be between 40 and
50. He went to Jaguar and Ferrari “official” training. Kinda laid back,
very knowledgable. Not afraid to use better-than-Jaguar parts. It works.
What I’m not terribly happy about is the mark up on parts-and that
dealerships have a lousy stock on hand.
Many parts I’ve found else where for anywhere between 1/4th and 1/10th
the price for standard COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) parts. Recently
the air check valve they wanted $96 for and I got it at NAPA for $17
and some change. The part was carried on dang near every car built since
the 1970s-dodge, GMs, Fords-name it.
Somthing we all have to consider is that until Jaguar was bought by Ford,
they were comparably a small company. They were definitely in need of
money by the time Ford purchased them. What this means in terms of
developmental engineering, is that the more parts they could purchase “off
the shelf,” the less money they had to spend in developing the part. not
only that, but things which are produced in bulk arer immensely cheaper.
So what happens, they buy chack valves from people that mass produce them.
They buy transmissions from GM. They buy electronics from LUCAS, Borns,
ect-or oxygen sensors from Bosch. Common cooling hoses. They save
as much money on commmon elements of the car as they can so that they can
spend time working
on important things like the structural integrity, suspension design,
engine design…cooling-this must have been the last element as they
were trying to make budget!
So it goes with other manufactures. This is why the Camaro and Firebird
shared a body, the “cloud cars” (stratus, Cirrus,…ect) of chrysler are
pretty much the same drivetrain. Heck, I bought a manual for the Sebring
and it literally covered 4 cars! This interchange is nothing new.
The point is that it would take one person a heck of a lot of time to find
all of the interchanging parts. This is the main advantage to our list
and being able to pool all of our resources together so that noone has
to do all of the footwork. It makes the car a lot more affordable.
At 12:59 2002-10-26 -0500, Robert J. Hill did say:
the air check valve they wanted $96 for and I got it at NAPA for $17
and some change. The part was carried on dang near every car built since
the 1970s-dodge, GMs, Fords-name it.
FTR, the former XJ Parts Interchange was expanded to cover the full Jaguar
model range:
<http://www.jag-lovers.org/interchange/>
If you have specific parts crossrefs, consider adding them to the interchange.
