I'm looking at an f type which is well optioned and extremely well priced. It's a lemon law buy back. This will be my first jag and I have no experience with their dealerships obviously. Of course they say the car is now back to perfect condition and remains under warranty. Does anyone have any experience with JLR and lemon law buy backs?

 

Someone on the forum I think bought a lemon and was able to get JLR to take it back. Do lemon laws apply to used car?

 

Personally, I believe the only downside is that if you purchase a Lemon Law Buyback, that will be on the cars permanent record and would likely affect resale value down the road. A neighbor had a dealer take back a BMW that had a series of electronic glitches and weird behavior that the dealer simply could not ever fix properly. Out of curiosity he looked up the CARFAX history several years later and the car continued to have service visits for electronics problems. So perhaps the idea of a "lemon" is not just superstition.

 

It depends on what the lemon law buyback was for. If its superficial and you plan on buying the car then you'll get a great deal. My guess is that the F Type you are looking was lemon lawed for one of these or combined:

-Fuel filling issue(not really a big deal as their is a fix now)
-Transmission goes in neutral which is tied into the eco/stop start system(software fix)
-Speaker rattling(can be a hit or miss and your perception of what a sound system should sound like)
-TPMS sensor (There is the window when JLR went from 315Mhz to 433Mhz)

 

Run, don't walk from it. Having that stigma on the Carfax will be the kiss of death for resale value.

If you are absolutely in lust with the car, at least make sure that they make it a CPO.

 

It seems to have had issues with a number of cosmetic problems which I would think have been adequately resolved. However, there has been numerous issues with the power steering. The transducer was replaced, later followed by the central junction box, then the central fuse box, and then lastly something called an all terrain module was replaced. They road tested it then 200 miles and had no issues.

 

Uh, would it happen to be a black 2015 R coupe with ivory interior? If so, what is the VIN? It might be my old car...my old car was SAJWA6DA9FMK15490

 

I'd say it is your car. It is black with ivory interior. Has 8572 miles. Just to confirm, did you have paint bubbles on the rocker panels?

 

All Jaguar required vehicles come with a warranty that mirrors the CPO warranty.

 

no. but they were repainted several times due to paint flaking off on the edge between the rocker panel and the rear wheel well

Just curious, where are you located and what dealer did you find the car at?

 

Never mind. I found it. Newport Beach is my dealer and where it was purchased/serviced. Guess they decided to buy it from JLR.

 

I'm east coast. I've never purchased a car from a distant dealer so this is all new to me.

So what's your take on the situation beyond the obvious that the car had too many flaws for a car you purchased new? Did it seam like the power steering was still not fixed? Was there ever an explanation why these issues, including the trunk and the fuse box, were cropping up?

Honestly I am probably going to pass on this deal but I just wanted some feedback on whether anyone here had had a good experience with a buy back. I'd say it's pretty good luck to find the previous owner, too. That is, if you don't mind to comment on your felling about the car.

 

power steering going out was a symptom, not a failure. Issue was that car had electrical faults that would disable dynamic mode and the power steering unit. Most of the parts replaced ended up not being defective at all - it was a fishing expedition because they couldn't figure out what the issue was. Finally a factory manufacturing rep had to get involved and after even more parts were replaced, they finally tracked it down to a faulty wiring harness to the computer. The entire harness was replaced. Trunk issue was traced to a bad computer which was replaced - 3 times!

I turned it in with 7000 miles on it so someone's been driving it. I drove it for about 500 miles after the final fix but didnt trust the car. I owned the car for 12 months and it was in the shop for 8 of those. I once put 2000 miles on it between fixes only to have the same issue reappear, so didn't want to take a chance.

On the positive side, Newport Beach did all the work so they are VERY familiar with the history of the car.

 

So your feeling was that the issue was resolved but just didn't trust it after all the mess? That makes me feel better about the idea but still I'm uncomfortable. I guess I'll just have to think about it a while.

 

I would probably say that there is no guarantee that the issue was resolved permanently and won't reappear at a later date. Personally, I didn't feel like dealing with it anymore and got rid of the car because of that.

While the price looks good, personally I don't think it's worth the potential trouble in the future. But then again, I'm biased based on my history with the car.

I will say that JLR was very fair with the buyback process and I did it all without a lawyer. It basically cost me $0 (just gas and insurance) to drive the car for the year I owned it.

 

What's that I hear???

It's a world of laughter, a world of tears
it's a world of hopes,. it's a world of fears
there's so much we share
that's it's time we're aware
it's a small world after all!

WOW!

 

Right, not superstition at all.

I spent many years neck-deep in warranty and lemon-law issues. Sometimes cars come along with such weird (and, typically, intermittent) problems that not even the 'field engineers' that the factory sends out can nail 'em down. Someone mentioned a 200 mile test drive. That's good, but as often as not, with weird intermittent problems, it isn't always enough to verify that the problem is really solved.

OTOH, as has been touched on, in some cases it is easy to verify that the fault(s) have been repaired. The car 'went lemon law' simply because of too many repair visits and/or too long out of service....as often as not due to the dealer dropping the ball rather than a serious or insurmountable defect.

Cheers
DD

 

You might also consider whether there is risk of a psychological effect on you, knowing it is a lemon law buyback. I know that for me, knowing it was a lemon law buyback, I'd be constantly watching for issues and my wariness would get in the way of me having full enjoyment of the car.

You may be less neurotic.

 

l

That is a good point but I think that aspect of it would not be so bothersome to me. The main issue should something go wrong would be the fact that the closest dealership is an hour away. If it requires numerous visits, then it would be a major inconvenience just to get it to the shop let alone simply dealing with the problem. I hope it's fixed and that someone gets an amazing car at an awesome price. I've decided that person won't be me though.

 

I know we discussed this a long time ago, before you started having problems. Did the NB GM get involved and help ease you into a replacement. He certainly helped me in every way possible to slide into my 2nd FTR with minimal sense of loss on my side of the ledger.