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Hi I bought my XKR from a main dealer with a 12 mth approved used car warranty. I have had the car for 5 months and done 2500 miles. The front suspension has never felt 100% with a few knocks being felt through the floor pan especially when cornering over bumps. I took the car back in for inspection and told the anti roll bar bush has split and moved out of position (this is probably causing the knock I feel when cornering) also the V joint and ball joints have split and there is play in the steering column. How much of all this should Jag cover under the warranty or is it reasonable to put it down to fair wear and tear?

Hi Inca,
On the grounds that you have only covered 2500 miles since buying the car from the same dealer, I would expect any such dealer to take a reasonably sympathetic view of the necessary repairs despite the fact that the issues you mention could be classed as fair wear and tear on a car that has covered a few miles. In pursuit of more customers, Jaguar has won quite a few customer service awards in recent years. So, these days, it's less usual to hear of a dealer interpreting Jaguar warranty terms so harshly. If you meet with a blank refusal to compromise I recommend you to press for a meeting with the dealer's local Jaguar warranty representative to put your case directly. The dealer will almost certainly refuse to involve the representative but just asking for a meeting will imply that you are not going to let the matter drop which may bring forth a sympathetic offer from the dealer. Mike.

Thanks Mike. My Jag dealer has agreed to replace the anti-roll bar bush as it is totally shot but say as the play in the V and ball joints aren't yet an MOT failure they don't want to replace them under the warranty. As part of the purchase I also have 12mths MOT cover (thought other members would be interested of this additional cover ) which covers me for the first £750 of repairs required to fix any MOT failures next time it's MOT a year after purchase. I asked whether this would cover the V and ball joints and my dealer said he doesn't know but if i'm only doing another 2500 miles between now and then it should still be OK - surely they are missing the point the car should be fit for 10,000 miles. Sorry to rant on this one but is it me being unrealistic or them giving poor service?

I'm inclined to agree that if a car is bought as a retail purchase it's not unreasonable to expect it to be capable of a year's motoring without major expense. Unfortunately, with car sales at an all time low it's inevitable that dealers and manufacturers are leaning towards precise literal interpretations of their warranties whose words were devised more to protect them than their customers. There's nothing worse for business than a persistant unhappy customer so I'd advise that it's worth pursuing your complaint and query about the MoT insurance for as long as you have the stomach to do so. If you believe the ball joint wear would be sufficient to fail an MoT why not go for an early test? If it fails now, your argument contains the fact that the car was unroadworthy within 2500 miles. At the end of 12 months it will have done 6k or 7k miles and your argument will be that much weaker, not only that but your wallet will have to bear the unnecessary cost of additional tyre wear. Mike.