I am at the moment fighting a battle with Jaguar cars to get my 18 month old S-type fixed.
My main complaints are,
Faulty transmission which I've let them have two attempts at fixing before realising that there is an inherent problem.
Premature wear of the rear brakes which lead to the pads and disks needing replacing and a bill of £400
Crappy dealers, I've tried three so far.
But most annoying of all is the fact that they can't fix the problems with the transmission even though it is clear that many other owners are suffering the same type of symptoms.
Google has the full details and you can find the pages by clicking on this link.
These things have had problems with the Ford transmission since the car was in development. Ford management forced the damn gearbox on Jaguar engineering, claiming it would save $1,000 per car. (Our guys wanted the ZF box the car now has). In the end, the crappy gearbox has been a nightmare, costing driveability, customer satisfaction, warrnaty costs, buy backs, you name it. But, some beancounter, somewher in Ford probably got a big bonus and a promotion for this dumb ass decision. A friend currently drives an '04 Ford pickup. Guess what? It just got recalled, needs a major trans repair!
I am sorry to hear how you have been bitten. Yes you are not alone with these problems and the list keeps getting longer. This is not opinion, this is fact as you personally know now.
Let me ask you this...when you first bought it did the transmission shift slowly? Did it shudder sometimes? There has been a few transmission controller firmware updates did you stealer(dealer) mention this? Did he mention what revision number yours has? I can get you the update numbers if you dealer plays stupid.
FORD has had a bad habbit making silky smooth shifting, something that will damage the trans is driven spirited. Performance shifts and sudden and rapid; does this sound like yours? Slow shifting allows friction disk slippage and ultimately lead to failures unless you drive like grandma.
Here is another fine example of a corporation that knows they have issues and do everything to cover it up until the Government steps in or a group lawsuit is pending. People say "Oh the Jag has been completely re-engineered and is not similar to the FORD. If that is true then why does the Lincoln LS and the Jaguar S type suffer from the same failures? Hmm.
People on this board dont like me ranting and they make personal attacks instead of asking for my proof or facts. Quality is not leather wood and chrome, its longevity. Quality is not having every conceivable gadget know to man, its piece of mind. I had a junky little car called a Suzuki Swift. I put 325,000 miles on it and all I ever did to it was change the timing belt and replace the clutch disk. It was the most reliable car I have ever owned. Now that is Quality.
As for dealerships..I think they get blamed way too much. What people dont understand is that the factory dictates what the time is to do a warranty job and how much they will re-imburse the dealer. I would say that 85% of warranty work ends up with the dealership eating the difference. Factory says "!.0 hour to do the work", reality is 2.5hrs. If you were a dealership would you want to do warranty work at your loss?
Praise corporations, praise the way they treat us. They are simply infallible; anyone else that differs from this mantra is an asshole. (Like me.)
Blake
Are you suggesting that is a good idea to keep the transmission in Sport mode so that the shifts are crisper? Not fixing the root cause, but getting more life.
My 2003 S-Type R had a shutter making a left turn within a week of buying it (new). Brought it in and the dealer fixed it. Replaced a controller part if I recall correctly. Not sure if it was in the transmission or the brake assembly. I also took it in several months later for a transmission recall. When I got it back a note was attached to the receipt saying to drive it without Sport mode for 500 miles. I did. However, with Sport mode turned off it tends to bang into the next gear, more so when downshifting. So I leave Sport mode turned on where it shifts smoothly.
LMAO! Actually, the post '02 models with the ZF 6 speed are quite good. The original used a Ford Explorer-derived truck 5 speed that simply sucked eggs. Ford forced it on the Jaguar design team, claiming it saved $1,000 per car. Unfortunately, it COST over that much in warranty repairs, and lost revenue from bad press & customer dissatisfaction. Typical Ford bean-counter madness.
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