Dropped my car off at the dealership first thing Thursday morning for wheel alignment and a couple of TSB outstanding. Got a Discovery Sport as a loaner. It's Tuesday morning and I'm starting to get antsy that I want my "F" fix again.

I've checked in on the Remote app a couple of times during the day and it reports locked and alarmed which makes me begin to suspect it's been sitting in their service bay with nobody doing anything. I would have been happier for them to postpone than wring me out like this ;-)

Other nearest dealership is 150 miles away. Anybody else get the sweaty palms after a few days away ? ;-)

 

days? How about HOURS? My F Type R came with some scratches, so I dropped it off for 4 days and drove a loaner (2017 XF 3.0) instead...oh, the horror!!!

 

Mine is in storage since November, F-type is a summer car and it isn't summer weather here right now. Even if I wanted to drive it, I'd probably damage the front bumper within days.

You get used to not driving it in a few weeks.

 

Lol.. yes!

Mine is going back in next week. They had room on Thur/fri, but I knew I'd lose her for the weekend and made a mon appt.

At least you got a disco to try out.. my loaner was a forking Kia.. I used it to drive home and then parked it.

 

Yeah I couldn't live in one of those summer states where the car is parked up for six months...

 

But it's like getting a new car every spring.

 

So I just spoke with my service advisor. My car has been sitting there untouched as yet. I was under the absurd assumption that making an appointment allowed them to schedule technician resources with the jobs incoming. Apparently my dealer makes an appointment so you can get your place in line for someone to do the work. Silly me. No parts neeeded and he estimates the workshop time to be a day or less. But apparently there are four or five cars "ahead" of me. I think this is the start of a non-existent relationship....

 

My dealer did something like that. When I mentioned I might come pick it up 'til they were ready for it, he commented that the loaner car might not still be available. They were remarkably incommunicative, which is why I've thought about doing the 2hr drive up to Scarborough Jaguar in Maine - they went way above and beyond for the Lobster Run.

 

Ding ding! Yes I got something like that, you bring your car in when we know you can have a loaner, then we sit on your car until we get round to it...if you bring it in when we might have a technician, you might not have a loaner.

Seems like someone needs to work out the logistics a little better....Audi never seemed to have this problem ;-)

 

I am so fortunate to have a great dealer. Last week scheduled an appointment on Sunday night online and showed up the following morning. Of course, they hadn't fit me into schedule yet, but said they would squeeze me in. After an hour, they determine what part was needed and ask me to come back in two days when the part would be in. Brought the car back, they put me in a loaner and had the car ready the following day. They also took care of the canister hose and service notification TSBs at the same time without me having to mention them. Some of the Jag dealers know what good service is all about.

 

Well just got a call to say they are all done - after sitting there since Thursday apparently they only needed about six hours. Guess the squeaky wheel does get the grease after all...Austin does have a good indie Jaguar place but for warranty work, you're back to the main dealer....

 

Noting that you're in Austin, I thought being withdrawl was normal? 😜

They do seem to be having some difficulty with their stakeholder management though...

 

Don't let the location fool you, after twelve years here, I still get asked which part of Australia I am from. Correct answer is Cambridge BTW. I've been practising my "howdy y'all" for years and it still gives the office a laugh. Almost as much as muttering bollocks on a conference call.

I did get a follow up from my service consultant (love those job titles) who said he had escalated my concerns to the service manager and the GM and that was what pushed my car into the actual workshop. I think when I said "if it was your F-Type that had been sitting there untouched for five days how would you feel..." that may have swung it. We shall see when it's time for routine service in May.

 

I take the Velocity guys advice and reset my ECU back to stock before it heads to the dealership in case they fancy updating something without telling me. First thing I did when I got home was re-flash the tune. It's quite a nice reminder of how much better it feels with it when you periodically take it away....

 

That's not normal from my experience and I own a lot of cars.

They typically pay you the courtesy of assuming you need the car for daily use, meaning they need to hurry the F up. Secondly, it's in their own interest to get you in and out as quickly as possible for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that it's decent customer service.

So yeah. I'd move on from a place with such a cavalier attitude. I'm sure that's inconvenient for you.


Tangential story below. Read at own risk.

Sometimes I call the general manager about issues like this because if it were my business, I would want to know this kind of feedback from a dissatisfied customer.

This happened when I bought my 911 recently. I was planning to go to two dealers; the first was where I bought my last Porsche and the second was where my sales associate moved to after that transaction.

The first place told me I shouldn't come in for our scheduled test drive because of possible impending rain later that day. Mind you, I have a busy schedule and was driving in from NYC into the suburbs. I have a finite amount of time to devote to buying machines of pleasure, which I assumed is typical of their other clientele. Secondly, it's a bit insulting to assume that I wouldn't think to drive safely in the rain. It's a Porsche, not a Caterham.


The second place gave no such hassle. I test drove the car. Bought the next day. No rain occurred after all.

I told the business manager of the first place what happened and why he lost a sale. I think he was appreciative. Maybe not. But he deserved to know that his sales person let him down.

 

In my experience Porsche dealerships tend to be arrogant and take their customers for granted, to the point that if you look under 45, sales won't even talk to you about a new car. At least that how my local dealer behaved toward me, when I showed up on Saturday morning to see an empty showroom, I was told all associates were busy and I need to make an appointment.

My local Jaguar dealership is quite the opposite. They don't go for snobbery, and this makes them approachable. Service is also run by a former mechanic manager who happens to be a car guy. Both sales and service make me happy to the point that my next car will probably be also a Jaguar. For me, all routine service done the same day - show up, swap to loaner, come back after work and pick it up. They will wait for you if you stuck in traffic and call ahead. For larger projects (e.g. clutch swap) they warned me ahead that the car will be in the shop for couple days. When they run out of some kind of fastener and had to special order it causing 1 day delay - they called and apologized. They also give out JLR cars as loaners, so you are not driving garbage rentals. They don't even care about fuel level when you return the loaner, it is on the house!