First Time Jaguar Owner from Hartlepool

[A19KEV]

Hello everyone,
Hope it's okay to introduce myself to such great and knowledgeable enthusiasts as yourselves. I'm Kevin - or 'Kev' - and I bought a very nice XJ6 Sovereign 2.7L Tdvi, last October. And I absolutely adore it!
So I'm very pleased to meet you all, and to have discovered this fantastic club. I've already spent hours in the forums; and my word you chaps know a thing or two about Jags. Fascinating!
I'm a bit new to the genre, but in the short time I've had my car, have learned a lot.
I was actually very nervous about buying a used Jag: I knew they were relatively cheap to buy, but thought it might cost a fortune to 'run'. Well, not really, although I have been done for speeding, twice. So I suppose you have to factor that in really. Maybe Jag owners should be exempt from such things. If Prescott was still around we could have lobbied him.
Anyway, I've been really chuffed with my car, and relieved that it has largely been really reliable. We have a good Franchise Dealer - Stratstone, Stockton, and their staff are pretty good. They offered an extended Warranty, £600 per annum. Sounds a lot; but it's been worth every penny for peace of mind; and it includes Jaguar Recovery Assistance, which is phenomenal. Forget the AA - these guys come out in a top-of-the-range Range Rover, and their uniforms are cleaner than some of my best clothes! Anyway, if they can't fix it they get it picked up, and give me a hired Jag pretty damn quick. I've had my money's worth out of it: on the M1 on Christmas Day, a nearside tyre blew out at 95mph in the fast lane. (Don't tell the police). I mean the tyre just exploded. I was astonished at how I somehow retained sufficient control to get to the hard shoulder without much ado. Maybe that's down to the car, not me; although I was sober, honest.
Anyway, then it was discovered that transmission oil was leaking out badly, so the car had to be towed away. Jag Recovery got me a brand new hired XF within the hour (0n Christmas day in the morning!). Woah, pretty good really.
Also took out tyre insurance for £200. Then another Nexen tyre blew, so I've had two claims on that totalling over £400. They'll pay up to £250 per tyre. Not sure if I've been unlucky with Nexens, so I've replaced them with Pirelli's every time they catch fire. Maybe I should stop flicking cigarette ends out of the window, or pouring the meths from the primus stove away when camping.
Anyway, loads to relate; and very pleased to meet you all. It's nice to see such flourishing Jag clubs - I tried to start one in my home town, and we got all of four entities on the date of the inaugural meeting; and actually two of them weren't Jag owners. Dohh, that didn't work very well! Must be a Hartlepool 'thing'.
Well, Look at Life Again soon, fellow Jag owners - see you soon!
Thanks for a great club!
Regards,
Kev

[Brakebuster]

welcome 'Kev'

glad your enjoying the Jag experience,

once you go jag , you never go back

unless your name is tony ( internal joke )

keep up the postings , and its a rule here that you have to post a picture of your car, lol

BB

[A19KEV]

Thanks BB. A photo, yes that's a good idea. Let me see now..I'm not terribly good at this sort of thing, but I'll have a bash

[A19KEV]

Here's a photo of the Jag in repose while we eat Yorkshire puddings

[A19KEV]

As you can see from the last photo, I took along a motorbike as well, in case the Jag broke down. It has some weird and wonderful faults at times. There is a steep, twisting descent in Arkengarthdale, and every time I go down it, the Jag decides it will engage in 'engine braking'. That seems unusual for an automatic, and I hadn't engaged a lower gear. In fact it felt like the the dreaded parking brake had done carpe diem - seize that day. Well, I actually 'felt' that effect go off, and then it started free-wheeling again. Apparently the gearbox has a 'memory'. Oh crikey, would it remember a rather terrible conversation I had with my Fiancé? And then go into 'neutral'? I hope so; as the last thing we want is to re-circulate exhaust gases.
Oh well, have a nice day!
Kev

[Brakebuster]

good stuff


BB

[ptjs1]

Kev,

Welcome to the club and to the X350 section of the Bulletin Board. Gad to hear that you're enjoying your jaguar ownership. As you've probably realised, X350s are great cars and tremedous value for money at present!

Do please remember to update your membership record with the car details. You can do this by going to the Home Page of the website, select "MemberZone" then "My Account". At the bottom of the page, select "Update my car details".

Interesting to your views on the Jaguar warranty scheme. It certainly seems to have paid off for you.

You haven't mentioned what mileage the car has. If you've been reading up on the cars via the Bulletin Board, you will realise the necessity of periodically changing the gearbox fluid and filter. Have a look through the various threads to see what we all think.

Good luck with the car.

Paul

[A19KEV]

Thanks,BB; and thanks to Paul and everyone for the nice welcome. I will certainly keep the details updated, and thanks for that advice Paul. Yes these models seem like particularly good value: I believe that if I had bought my XJ when new, in 2008, it would have cost around £48,000. Phew..! I purchased it last year, with 51,000 on the clock, in lovely condition, and it cost me around £13,000. What a lot of 'car' for the money. The ride and the handling on these cars is absolutely astonishing; it seems to 'float', yet it doesn't roll on corners, and the turn-in is so sharp and precise.
Thanks for pointing out about the gearbox fluid etc; I should think that would have been taken care of when the pipe to the cooler had to be replaced, but I'll check with the dealer.
Well it's great to be among such enthusiasts - thanks, and I look forward to attending some functions as soon as I can.
Cheers,
Kev

[davidr]

Kev - interesting to hear your views and welcome to Jag ownership and the club.
You mentioned the Jaguar Assist and how good it is so "forget the AA".
It is very good and got me out of a hole a few times when I had a rather unreliable X-Type a few years back but it was my understanding that the guys who came out were actually employed by the AA!! I spent a fair bit of time in their company as I had a persistent non-starting fault on my X-Type and had plenty of time to chat as they ferried me off on several occasions to pick up an XF supplied by Jaguar. The replacement cars that they use belong to Jaguar but are administered by Enterprise.
The X-type was finally fixed only a couple of months before the 3 year lease ran out and the car was due to be replaced. The issue was an intermittent connection in the security module.
One good thing that came out of it was that I liked the XF's that they kept lending me so much that I bought one as my next company car!
Regards
David

[A19KEV]

Hi David,
Thanks for your welcome and your interesting response. Yes it wasn't quite spot on what I said regarding the AA vis a vis the Jag Assistance. I know Recovery does also use the AA, and very good they are too. I had two visits when the car was at home - once with the parking brake stuck on, and another when there was a problem with the EGR valves. On those two occasions it was a Jag/Range Rover technician. For my breakdown on the M1 it was indeed the AA they sent out to change a wheel. He also spotted that that the gearbox was leaking transmission fluid (which I hadn't spotted), so full marks to him. No I certainly didn't mean to be dismissive of the AA, they are great. I just assumed the 'Jag' guys were from Jag itself, but maybe they are employed by AA. Well you don't know what's what these days. We used to own India, now they own Jaguar.
I didn't know that about the Jag hire cars; I thought Enterprise owned them. Interesting.
Aha, and yes, the big danger of the hired car - you don't want to give the XF back! I liked it greatly, although I still love my Sovereign.
Oh that's great that you've got an XF now. They're a fantastic car to drive and they look great.
Thanks for your post - really enjoyed it.
Cheers,
Kev

[ptjs1]

Kev,

A replacement oil cooler pipe would have been an ideal time for them to change not just the oil but importantly the filter (which is an integral part of the sump). Sadly, I think there is every chance that they might just have replaced the pipe and topped up the oil. See if you can get a definitive statement of what they did and whether the fluid was fully drained and if the sump / filter was replaced.

Paul

[barrywi]

Good to have you aboard the well floating ship. If you get time write to me or Nigel Thorley about your experiences. We are always after owners thoughts on their cars.
Give me a ring or email me if you need any more advice about the car. I may not know the answer immediately but I can point you in the right direction.
Dont forget to seek out the puddles to drive through to avoid your tyres bursting into flames. Just like formula one racing!
Best wishes,
Barry Wilkinson JEC X350 coordinator.

[A19KEV]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the thoughts about the cooler pipe, yes it would have been an ideal time to sort the gearbox out. I think you're probably right that they just topped the oil up, but I'll check.
Thanks,
Kev

[A19KEV]

Hi Barry,
Thanks for your nice welcome. I'll certainly write to you and Nigel about the car. I've read two of Nigel's books and they are fascinating.
Yes, will be driving through puddles. Heh heh!
Cheers mate,
Kev