I had posted earlier about my local dealer's insistence that the battery discharge issue related to the use of an OBD reader is a myth. That issue led to a "discussion" with my service advisor that was unpleasant at best. Amongst other things, it now leaves me with a complete lack of trust for anything my local dealer tells me. With that said, I'm asking you to query your collective wisdom:

• As part of the battery discharge issue, I had asked my advisor about the Jaguar software upgrade program for 2016 - 17 vehicles that some forum members have posted about. The advisor states that there is no way to tell if my particular vehicle had the upgrade without plugging in to the car. There is no VIN or similar type of database maintained by Jaguar on software (or other types) of updates/upgrades/faults. Is this true?
• The advisor also stated that just because an upgrade/update has been pushed out by Jaguar, the local dealer advises against installing unless the particular car is showing symptoms addressed by the update. That doesn't sound correct to me?
• Shouldn't all available updates be checked for by the dealer when a car comes in for service? It seems odd that if I hadn't asked, they wouldn't mention the above update to me. My advisor did say that they were "very well aware" of it - which leads me back to my question.

I would appreciate your thoughts and comments.

The dispute with my advisor has unfortunately poisoned my decades long love for the marque. I'm still wrestling with how to resolve it all. Although I had initially tried to only talk directly with my specific advisor, after things went waaaay south, I decided to try and talk to the general manager - who won't return my message (honestly, I'm calm, sane, and don't yell - so no reason not to call me back). Is there a way to escalate to Jaguar corporate - in your experience do they actually care?

Thanks for reading and letting me blow off a little frustration here.

 

Well, there's your problem, "you're calm, sane and don't yell." Sometimes the squeaky wheel rule is necessary.

 

I would try the GM one more time then call Jaguar North America.

 

Same ^. Call Jaguar North America if you don't get a call back. In the meantime, I would try another dealer.

 

I think that dealers don't get paid by Jaguar for doing software updates unless it's done as a warranty job, hence you have to complain about something to justify warranty work. Dealers don't want to take a hit for a software update that might cause them a lot of hassle - you know how smoothly all software updates go!

 

I have to warn my service department not to apply updates since they will automatically do so if the record shows that the most recent update hasn’t been applied. They will always check at each of the annual services.

 

My dealer doesn't like doing updates, I have to ask for this explicitly and they still don't always do it. It ties one pod in the garage and a diagnostic tool for 2-3 hours. Apparently, updates are very slow.

 

It is truly astounding that JNA does not insist on consistent maintenance practices among its dealerships.

 

Basically, the Advisor is stating that the only sure way to know if an update has been applied or not is to plug into the car. He's correct. Even if the dealers are tracking it, it's a manual effort to do so which means it may not happen (i.e. a tech could apply an update but never update the system that it was applied to the VIN). However, the last I checked, the car manufacturers were only tracking "recalls".

If it's not a recall, they aren't going to do the work if you aren't having the problem. In other words: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Sometimes the updates can cause problems that didn't exist before. With that, if your car doesn't have a problem and it's not a recall, they aren't going to apply the update.

 

To add a bit of perspective, the GM is not going to call you back at the end of the month.

If you you still want to try that path, after the holiday weekend, leave another message or stop in for a face to face. He’s also allowed to take a day off and/or go to lunch but during regular office hours it should be easy enough to connect.

Service Manager might be able to help get resolution or answers as well and I find they usually care more about the service experience.

 

I experienced the same, also some owners in Belgium, so in two [three with the above] countries the policies agree.

They only do a software update [under a guarantee] claim on a defect or malfunction known by JLR to be corrected by a certain update.

So if your car is not in guarantee, or a problem is not likely to be solved by an update, they won't do it.

For me the cynical thing about the satnav update is that now its android-auto enabled, but its illegal to use in the Netherlands so its not
available in the playstore... Next time in Germany I should remember to connect with a local antenna and download the app there..