After one year of ownership, I've thrown in the towel on my F-type. I recognize that owning these cars out of warranty isn't for the lighthearted, but I never expected to shell out as much money as I have to just keep this car working normally for more than a couple of months straight.

1. Three engine mount replacements (I suspect that the shop didn't do it right the first two times)
2. Two coolant system leaks
3. Two valve cover replacements from coolant leaks or something else pooling on them
4. Cracked injectors
5. O2 Sensor/Cat issues that came and went
6. Numerous squeaks that were so bad, you couldn't drive the car with the windows up in peace (never found the sources of the squeak, so had to sell car with all squeaks)
7. Wheel bearing issues
8. Supercharger coupler

I know I haven't had as bad of issues as some folks on here, but if the feeling you get from a car is that you dump a TON of money into it, only to have new/worse problems pop up shortly after, I truly don't think the ownership experience is worth it. I also recognize that I ate a lot of the common failure points of these cars, but I have little confidence that all the work would have saved me more bills down the line.

Maybe I'll be back, but I'm so wrecked by unreliability that I bought a damn Land Cruiser as a replacement.

Curious to hear everyone else's experiences with F-Type ownership past 50K miles!

 

Sorry to read of your horrible experiences. With the 2017 at 34,000 miles, I'm hoping NOT to have to go through what you have. Other than an annoying plastic rattle in the right door, the car is remarkably solid. I try to read through all and any threads that may apply to this 2017, and have made use of the owner experiences to work successfully with the dealer/tech. BUT, I'm now out of warranty and perhaps will find myself in your shoes at some point.

 

Did you have the car from new? If not, you're rather at the mercy of how the previous owner(s) treated it. I've had a 2001 XK8 at over 60,000 miles and a 2004 XKR at over 90,000 miles and neither were money pits, just occasional things to fix as you'd expect at the mileage. So I don't find Jags to be exceptionally unreliable if you keep on top of the maintenance and treat them well - I guess you've been unlucky.

 

I bought a 2017 Coupe new, drove it for 12K miles with no problems. Decided I wanted a convertible(after a brief fore to a C8 Corvette). Went with a 2020 Convertible 12k miles and am loving it. Some cars just seem to be lemons. Maybe the problem? Hopefully yours was an anomaly?

 

Not quite past 50K but:

I read maybe 200-300 threads on these forums before buying my 2016 R last year and have always kept a short list of the most common failure points for my model year. I'm the third owner for my car, I bought it at 36,700 miles and I'm at almost exactly 44,000 as of today. I purposely bought a CPO car with about 4 months of warranty left to have a fighting chance against this car (very) possibly being abused by its two previous owners. It's my daily driver, I don't believe in the idea of having a 'weekend toy' and a commuter (maybe I don't make quite enough money, idk...). After a year and two months I have dealt with:

- leaking valve cover and timing cover (~$3,200 but covered by CPO)
- failing pinion bearing in rear differential ( almost exactly $5000, all-in differential replacement, covered out-of-pocket, expertly fixed by private shops)
- vertical scratches in windows (there is a TSB for this but after my amazing local dealer wanted to charge me $1,500 to replace both waist seals, a 12 minute job according to the TSB, I decided I'd just deal with it)
- a bunch of fit and finish (rattle) issues, 90% of which I've fixed myself and now I'm under the impression that I'm the supreme automotive trim overlord of the universe, fearlessly taking apart my interior and trunk, chasing down rattles and fabric taping everything, etc. I've learned so much and gained so much confidence with cars this way.

The whole reason I bought the car is because I've been under the impression that everyone piggybacks off of each other when they claim Jaguar is unreliable... no one I've heard that from privately has actually ever owned one and I think they're "cool" so I decided I'd buy one and find out. Purchasing an F-Type is absolutely not not a value proposition as a new car, but as a prior-year CPO car, it definitely is. Has it troubled me more than my 2012 Altima coupe did? Definitely, but I think an F-Type is generally a much more complex performance car and I sort of expected problems going into it. When you say owning these cars out of warranty isn't for the lighthearted, I think that hits the nail on the head; I don't trust my local dealers one bit, very few non-dealer shops seem to want to have anything to do with the car and fixing things myself is daunting, but I always feel the need to work on the car myself and that takes a lot out of me. It doesn't help that I'm generally anxious and I feel down whenever even something small goes wrong with the car, but it's a used (and maybe abused) performance car.

Knowing what I know now, even with the problems I've had I think I would buy another one, but I'd be a lot more strict about what I'd accept and I'll know how exactly how to inspect a used car to see if it's worth buying, that knowledge is worth a lot to me. Switching brands would mean starting over. If I buy something else, it's going to be something renown as bulletproof or super reliable, like the LC500, to mitigate the need to learn so much about the car. I think the way people drive these cars is a huge factor in how well they hold up, I know it's sort of a fatuous overstated thing to say but it's so important. With respect to your situation, I don't know any specifics and really want to avoid commenting matter-of-factly, but I don't think I would have gone with a '15 R as a first-time buyer; everything I read pointed to MY 2017 and on having less problems than prior models (and even less for 2018 and on) and I went for a '16 anyway just because it was spec'd exactly the way I wanted it. Next time I will buy:

- 1-owner
- CPO
- <15,000 miles
- MY >=2018
- R or SVR
- Not from Florida, Texas or any rust belt state, must match my state of residence
- Thoroughly inspected by me with all this newfound knowledge I have about this specific car and brand

A lot of rambling but, I hope this all means something...

 

Thanks! Yeah, I'm sure you'll have a much better ownership experience. To @scm 's point, I didn't buy the care new, so I'm sure that had something to do with it!

 

Thanks for the context! Yeah, my wife and I have another car we use for transporting things and people, but I'm with you on buying a car to USE it. I used mine well and had a lot of fun, and I always babied it in terms of maintenance and everyday driving.

In terms of working on the car myself, I fixed a few smaller squeaks on heat shields and what not here and there, but definitely was too intimidated to work on anything major, and the final squeak that I sold the car with was near IMPOSSIBLE to nail down. I worried about having to tear the entire car apart just to find the source.

Despite my ownership experience, the F-type is one of the most beautiful and exhilarating cars I've ever owned, so I'm with you on trying again in the future. LC500 is also a really compelling buy with being another one of the most beautiful cars out there haha. I don't think I'll ever sell the 200 series I just bought, but I might save up a little and try a GT3 next

 

I ordered my MY2015 coupe October 30 2015 and took delivery February 20, 2016. The car just turned 40,000 miles. So far, only dealer service (I am going to start looking for a good independent), but I do trust my dealer (Ray Catena, Edison).
Under warranty I had a coolant leak fixed that required the removal of the supercharger. This year I had another coolant leak (manifold next to supercharger, no supercharger removal necessary). Missing front wheel bolt required replacement of entire front hub assembly and 10 day wait for parts. Starter motor failed at 30,000 miles: $1,900 part due to Eco star-stop that has probably saved $10 in gasoline. I always switch off Eco start-stop now and will pull the 2nd battery when I replace the original AGM battery this fall. Minor squeek on passenger side. New tires, regular oil changes, car has been delightful to own. I don't use Dynamic mode as much as I though I would and I have never tracked the car.
I am following the forums and if I keep the car (likely) I'd like to pull the engine and do a major overhall. This is a major job, as many of you know, motor comes out from the bottom. I would love to find an independent shop to help and I would purchase all the parts ahead of time. New injectors, valve covers, replace plastic coolant bits with metal (have major set, more are being designed/manufactured), service the supercharger (change oil), put new belts couplers on, etc... Do it all in one big session, put it back together and enjoy for another 7 years.

 

sorry but this is not entirely true - some cars are just not good. I had a 3000 mile Audi that still had new car plastic on it when I bought it - It spent 158 of the first 180 days of ownership in service and the experience ended in court. After many years in the car business, I can say that there have been bad Camry’s and great Kia’s built. I bought my f type used and it hasn’t given me a minute of trouble but that doesn’t mean I want another nor does it make me think that another jag would be the same. Again, not being argumentative - how a car is cared for matters, but there is not a 100% correlation with care and longevity.

 

Cheers, I read scm's comment as being about Jags, and certainly that has been my experience with them, though through participating in various forums (fora?) for my various jags over the years I did see some people plagued with trouble with them from new, especially the diesels which I think are just a pox on the brand and on the earth generally, but I promised myself not to rant about the filthy things when I started typing and so I wont.

I should add that my first Jag XF (a 2008 4.2 v8 petrol bought new in 2008) had numerous problems in the first two years and was in and out of the service department like a honeymoon old feller, it was dreadfully inconvenient and embarrassing, but I put that down to first year model blues and actually after the second year it was pretty much trouble free (if we dont mention the crack in the roof which developed) and I had it for another 3 years or so and loved it. My subsequent jags, including a used XKR which I kept to about 5 years and 60,000km, have been spectacularly good.

 

My comment about buying used leaving you at the mercy of the previous owner(s) stands. I didn't say you couldn't get a lemon, and indeed there are folks on here who seem to have been unlucky. I've had a Nissan that leaked from new - turned out the factory had run out of sealant when they fitted the front wing and couldn't be bothered to find any more so let it go out unsealed. I spent some time being insulted by the sales guy when I took it back ("had you left the sunroof open?") but I walked outside to calm down to avoid decking him and they fixed it.