Jag XF - niggle-mania
Discussion
So I bought a nice 2010 Jag XF 3.0D S Portfolio in March, 22k miles, and I've done 6.5k since then. However, it's a regular back at the dealer. All warranty so far and I am quite picky, but it is a niggle-fest of tiresome proportions:
creaky brakes
squeaky window
3 different pieces of noisily vibrating trim
creaky steering (needed whole new steering rack)
variable service meter telling me it needs a service after about 1k of careful driving and way before schedule
cracked veneer trim
clonk under braking (they tell me it's fuel sloshing around in the tank??)
bluetooth phone system only stores about 100 numbers (not phonebook entries, numbers)
sat nav is utter toss and has a penchant for taking me off nice clear A-roads and through quaint villages
economy is quite poor (hence them whacking a 8sp auto in the facelift after mine)
the touchscreen is quite old technology for the year and quite laborious to use
Today i've discovered an issue with the symptom of juddering steering wheel, probably tracking or something bust in the steering or suspension. The missus was in the car and came out with the line "FFS swap it for a Merc". Maybe she has a point? I had a Merc before and whilst the current range is not what you might call beautiful (esp in comparison to the XF), they're solid and won't drive me nuts. For a car that does 20-25k miles a year I guess not being driven nuts by little things is more important than I considered.
creaky brakes
squeaky window
3 different pieces of noisily vibrating trim
creaky steering (needed whole new steering rack)
variable service meter telling me it needs a service after about 1k of careful driving and way before schedule
cracked veneer trim
clonk under braking (they tell me it's fuel sloshing around in the tank??)
bluetooth phone system only stores about 100 numbers (not phonebook entries, numbers)
sat nav is utter toss and has a penchant for taking me off nice clear A-roads and through quaint villages
economy is quite poor (hence them whacking a 8sp auto in the facelift after mine)
the touchscreen is quite old technology for the year and quite laborious to use
Today i've discovered an issue with the symptom of juddering steering wheel, probably tracking or something bust in the steering or suspension. The missus was in the car and came out with the line "FFS swap it for a Merc". Maybe she has a point? I had a Merc before and whilst the current range is not what you might call beautiful (esp in comparison to the XF), they're solid and won't drive me nuts. For a car that does 20-25k miles a year I guess not being driven nuts by little things is more important than I considered.
Sounds like you may have bought an ex company car that was not driven or run in sympathetically?
When I was on the company car list, I was the only one who took it easy and ran it in slowly increasing the load and speeds. My colleagues just said "It's going back in a year, what do I care"!
Makes a huge difference ,even with modern cars.
When I was on the company car list, I was the only one who took it easy and ran it in slowly increasing the load and speeds. My colleagues just said "It's going back in a year, what do I care"!
Makes a huge difference ,even with modern cars.
Jaged said:
slippery said:
I can't see how not running the car in properly would contribute to any of the issues listed by the OP.
Well if you can't see why a lot of the mechanical faults he list could be down to it, I won't buy a car off you anytime soon! 
The car had only done 22K in 2 yrs, so not your typical company car use.
One thing I would say is I ran company cars for many years and never took them back between services, which were 20K (about 8 months) on several of the cars - if it rattled or squeaked I just lived with it.
Deva Link said:
I can't either?
The car had only done 22K in 2 yrs, so not your typical company car use.
One thing I would say is I ran company cars for many years and never took them back between services, which were 20K (about 8 months) on several of the cars - if it rattled or squeaked I just lived with it.
I'm glad it's not just me then! To say that not running a car in properly can cause the kind of problems listed by the OP is total nonsense. These are build issues, pure and simple. I must admit, rattles and squeaks in a car are a pet hate of mine and garages are usually very poor at eradicating them if they are related to interior trim. The car had only done 22K in 2 yrs, so not your typical company car use.
One thing I would say is I ran company cars for many years and never took them back between services, which were 20K (about 8 months) on several of the cars - if it rattled or squeaked I just lived with it.
I had one as a courtesy car and was very excited as i was planning on buying one next year, but boy was i disappointed, loads of errors on the computer, tons of rattles and squeks, truly shocking, but it turned heads like no german barge can, and got lots of thumbs up and compliments
This thread has somewhat put me off what I thought would be my next car but looking at the alternatives, FFRR apart, the Jag still is a front runner.
Audi: Had about ten of them when they didn't have the bad image and the kj lights.
BMW: Just doesn't appeal at the moment (drove a current, 5 and it just didn't feel special enough). Don't get me wrong, I generally love my BM's.
Lexus: Anodyne
Audi: Had about ten of them when they didn't have the bad image and the kj lights.
BMW: Just doesn't appeal at the moment (drove a current, 5 and it just didn't feel special enough). Don't get me wrong, I generally love my BM's.
Lexus: Anodyne
stewy68 said:
This thread has somewhat put me off what I thought would be my next car but looking at the alternatives, FFRR apart, the Jag still is a front runner.
Audi: Had about ten of them when they didn't have the bad image and the kj lights.
BMW: Just doesn't appeal at the moment (drove a current, 5 and it just didn't feel special enough). Don't get me wrong, I generally love my BM's.
Lexus: Anodyne
The a6 and a8 are extremely good cars Audi: Had about ten of them when they didn't have the bad image and the kj lights.
BMW: Just doesn't appeal at the moment (drove a current, 5 and it just didn't feel special enough). Don't get me wrong, I generally love my BM's.
Lexus: Anodyne
Sounds like unusually bad luck, Jaguar are generally up with the best now with reliability and build quality. Certainly our experience on our leasing fleet is as good if not better than the German opposition.
I believe the service schedule is 15k miles and not variable (2012 model cars) - previous model cars were fixed at either 10 or 12 k miles which may be why the service reminder came on. Also the Sat Nav settings could be set to avoid major roads or other route types, alternatively it could be the TMS system being informed of delays on the chosen route and redirecting you to avoid.
On both my previous XF SV8 I suffered a failure of the head gasket at 9k miles, after that however up until 60k miles never had any other issues.
The 2012 model touch screen and nav system is much better than the old one, my i phone contact synch in full (over 300) and the displays nicely laid out. I did find on both the old and new cars that the brakes could be a bit grabby when cold, never had any trim issues although the passenger seat rattles when it is empty and is due to be fixed when it is serviced in a few weeks.
I also like to run cars in, although my experience is that it does not seem to make much difference on most modern cars. Our lease fleet has a variety of drivers and we tend to find that the cars with the most problems are the ones that were chosen for the driver rather than by themselves!
Sounds like you have been unlucky with your car, It may be worth asking the dealer to have the car for a week and loan you a car whilst they fix all the problems and look at some of the system settings and arrange to test drive it before accepting it back. I know our dealer is actively looking for stock due to shortages of 2 -3 year old cars and it may be worth looking to see if it is viable to p/x for a newer car.
I believe the service schedule is 15k miles and not variable (2012 model cars) - previous model cars were fixed at either 10 or 12 k miles which may be why the service reminder came on. Also the Sat Nav settings could be set to avoid major roads or other route types, alternatively it could be the TMS system being informed of delays on the chosen route and redirecting you to avoid.
On both my previous XF SV8 I suffered a failure of the head gasket at 9k miles, after that however up until 60k miles never had any other issues.
The 2012 model touch screen and nav system is much better than the old one, my i phone contact synch in full (over 300) and the displays nicely laid out. I did find on both the old and new cars that the brakes could be a bit grabby when cold, never had any trim issues although the passenger seat rattles when it is empty and is due to be fixed when it is serviced in a few weeks.
I also like to run cars in, although my experience is that it does not seem to make much difference on most modern cars. Our lease fleet has a variety of drivers and we tend to find that the cars with the most problems are the ones that were chosen for the driver rather than by themselves!
Sounds like you have been unlucky with your car, It may be worth asking the dealer to have the car for a week and loan you a car whilst they fix all the problems and look at some of the system settings and arrange to test drive it before accepting it back. I know our dealer is actively looking for stock due to shortages of 2 -3 year old cars and it may be worth looking to see if it is viable to p/x for a newer car.
I've had my XF Portfolio 3.0 S since April 2010. Have had no problems apart from a brake warning light that came on which when about 6 months old and the dealer fixed it in about 10 minutes. Having said that the last time I cleaned it I noticed some very, very small corrosion bubbles on the inside lip of the dual tail pipe finishers that were fitted from new as an optional extra, I understand that these are no longer available so it will be interesting to see what the dealer says when it next goes in for service. It's been a lovely car and certainly attracts a lot of attention here in France whenever it's parked up.
craigjm said:
Deva Link said:
Maybe the previous owner turned it in early as they were fed up with it.
Thats what I did with mine. Did 18k and gave up after a list of faults as long as your arm and frequent visits to the dealer where I was on first name terms with the service managerpb1695 said:
Sounds like unusually bad luck, Jaguar are generally up with the best now with reliability and build quality. Certainly our experience on our leasing fleet is as good if not better than the German opposition.
The thing is, the German opposition isn't the best in terms of reliability. You go Japanese for that. Unfortunately most of the Japanese stuff looks either bland or ugly. Jaguars don't score well in the reliability stakes at all, but they are great looking machines.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff