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My saga of F Type ownership began on November 19th, 2014 when I placed my custom order through Jaguar of Troy. Now I say saga, because after the initial order not one thing down to the DMV issued custom license plate (received today, spelled my name wrong) went smoothly. Some things went so far from smoothly it was down right comical. My displeasure for the way this was handled and Jaguar N.A. as a whole has been documented in many threads, but not consolidated; so lets review:
Order placed: Nov. 19th, 2014. Original estimated build date: Week of Feb. 5, 2015 Original estimated delivery date: Week of April 12, 2015
I began waiting for several months for my vehicle to be built, eagerly awaiting any news of my purchase. In late January I received word that my vehicle had begun being built, early in fact. I knew I had a very early car, likely within the first handful built. Along with this the dealer informed me that the expected delivery date had been moved forward to March 20, 2015. This is about the time that everything went downhill...
Vehicle departed for the U.S: Feb 17, 2015 on the Atlantic Conveyor. Vehicle arrived in Baltimore: Mar 1, 2015, just a couple days late. Vehicle cleared customs into the holding yard: Mar 3, 2015
At this point you could say I was a bit optimistic that I might receive my vehicle on the expected delivery date. Every few days I got in contact with the dealer and Jaguar N.A's customer service call center and every time I was given the same response. "We don't know when cars will be shipped." Turned out there was a port hold to update radio software and eventually transmission controller software. It took dozens of phone calls to find this information out, but eventually I did. A port hold is commonplace and I was not at all surprised to hear this.
First 2016 AWD F Types hit dealers: April 2, 2015 Micks41 takes delivery of his 2016 AWD R April 4, 2015
Member Micks41 had ordered a vehicle on the same date as I did. His vehicle was on the same boat over as mine was, and he lived in the same part of the country (Ohio) as I did. Further follow up showed that my vehicle had still not yet left port. Several phone calls and manager escalation was needed just to find out that only about a dozen vehicles had been released and the next batch would be released the following week (4/12). Jaguar N.A. simply didn't seem to care about giving me the information I needed; where my car was and when it would be released. And don't even bother trying to find out why it was pushed to the back of the line. At this point, I wanted answers. I sent a PM to Ryan@Jaguar and voiced my displeasure for the lack of concern with my vehicle and the fact that management refused to call me back or answer my questions. Ryan pulled some strings and my case (finally) was escalated to someone called an "Executive Liaison" for Jaguar Customer Service. This individual did some research and said that my vehicle needed new TCM software to fix an issue with the stop-start. Which is all fine, but I still wasn't told why the vehicle was pushed to the back of the line. Day by day more people who had ordered after me were receiving their vehicles. Finally the "Executive Liaison" gave me the following dates:
Expected TCM Update: April 14, 2015 Expected Shipment Date: April 18, 2015
On April 15th I called him and was told the vehicle had been updated and they were still targeting April 18th for shipment. This never happened. To make a long story short, (and this is already a long story) my TCM had been destroyed and a new module was required to fix my car. I had been flat out lied to in this instance and was none too pleased. I was told the part would be in "soon" and daily I called the liaison for an update. Every phone call was either answered with a "soon", "quickly" or "shouldn't be too long" or went unreturned period.
By April 30th, I was fed up. Another call to the "Executive Liaison" which resulted in an unknown status was the final straw for me. I told my dealer to locate another (as similar as possible) vehicle, and by that evening they had.
Vehicle located from Naples, FL: April 30, 2015 Vehicle signed and paid for: April 30, 2015 Vehicle delivered to Jaguar of Troy: May 11, 2015 (No idea why this took so long.)
The vehicle arrived at Jaguar of Troy, and being a 2016, had the awful color matched rockers and rear diffuser. The sales manager thought this looked good color matched and urged me to take a look at it before giving the go ahead to paint the vehicle. I agreed and went down to take a look...
What was obvious to me, was apparently invisible to the Jaguar end of line quality control, the port inspection personnel, Jaguar of Naples and Jaguar of Troy... My car had one 2015 side skirt and one 2016 side skirt. Instantly noticeable to me being completely different, but somehow missed by everyone else. This new car happened to be an even earlier VIN than the one I ordered, so I'd imagine it was one of the very first 2016s built. These things happen, but for everyone to miss it was shocking. However this was a happy accident, I absolutely hate the look of the 2016 skirts, regardless of color, and had them order a replacement 2015 version at no cost to me. This would of course take a few days and then had to be painted.
Today the saga finally came to an end. I took delivery and while I'm not pleased with Jaguar as a company (extremely dissatisfied in fact and would never order from them again) I do love my vehicle. Its put a smile on my face all afternoon.
Original expected delivery date: March 30, 2015 Actual delivery date: May 15, 2015
I will take proper photos with a proper camera this weekend if it decides to stop raining. Thanks for putting up with my banter and rants for the last 3 months!
Hot Damn!!! Congratz! The wait is over. After I took delivery of mine it rained for a week. Don't worry about it. Get out and test out how well that AWD works!
Car looks great (and unique) with the skirts black. (might think about painting the front side lips as well. I think it would be a great match.
Please keep us up to date on how you're liking it, especially after break in. (I just hit 1500 miles on mine!)
(And I bet your stereo sounds excellent with no rattles!)
Good "bad" - all's well that end's well - recap Stohlen. Congratulations!
(Personally I think I would change that "Aston Martin Jaguar of Troy" license plate holder...a bit confusing to some and perhaps even a little distracting; from the beauty of the car itself. My 2-cents).
Stohlen, Congrats on getting your car. I'll be waiting about 2 months longer than you to get the car after I ordered it on 11/25. At least in my case, I was made fully aware of what to expect. Don't let the delivery experience ruin your enjoyment of the car.
I have it on good authority that the real reason for the delay was not a defective TCM module, but rather they had to build a paint shop at the port to paint and fit 367 passenger side skirts to all AWD cars in the initial shipment.
Newly hired line worker 'Mannfred "deutschland über alles" von Porsche' has been terminated for cause...
Glad you finally got it. You have a lot of aggravation to burn off, and now you have just the car to do it in.
One slight correction: there was no April 31 this year.
When I took my car in for the annual inspection (after driving it for a year), I was told they couldn't inspect it as the registration didn't match the plates - one digit was off by one. Had to get new plates. Nobody noticed for the initial inspection!
glad it's over. so the rear valence/diffuser and the side skirts...on the 2016s they are color matching...did you get them all replaced so they are black like the 2015s? or does the black pack make the rear valence black and you only did the side skirts?
glad it's over. so the rear valence/diffuser and the side skirts...on the 2016s they are color matching...did you get them all replaced so they are black like the 2015s? or does the black pack make the rear valence black and you only did the side skirts?
I had them painted black before delievery. This was planned all along, I wanted mine to look like a 15' coupe as I think (most will agree) it looks much better. The 16' skirts are almost 2 inches wider at the point where you get out of the vehicle and look just terrible. Since mine came with one of each variant, it only made sense for me to get the 15' skirts.
I had them painted black before delievery. This was planned all along, I wanted mine to look like a 15' coupe as I think (most will agree) it looks much better. The 16' skirts are almost 2 inches wider at the point where you get out of the vehicle and look just terrible. Since mine came with one of each variant, it only made sense for me to get the 15' skirts.
Nice, if you black out the front corner lips it will complete the MY15 black pack look.
Stohlen's 2016 F Type R AWD
