I have not much more to say about the Jaguar X-Types, I have simply had enough. I have owned the 2004 Jaguar X-Type AWD 3.0 V6 Manual since April 2014, and let me tell you that I have now about £5,000 invested in this piece of crap while buying it only for £1,600. And I only made 8,000 miles on it since. A few months ago when I finally thought I got all the perks fixed, the water pump started leaking through the shaft seal, but that would still be manageable; however, when the last week my air conditioning compressor seized, I said enough is enough. And all of you smart ones, yes, I have always used my air conditioning, always, mostly on Auto Mode, for the entire 3 years, never drove without it. I am getting rid of it soon through the "www.webuyanycar.com" for £200, because I will save a lot of money in the future by just not having the car. This Jaguar Piece of Junk has been like my twentieth used car in the past 30 years and it is the least reliable car of all of them. Yes, the 231 horsepower engine is great, the all-wheel-drive is great, it is a really beautiful car to drive, but that's where it ends. Almost every time I took it for a ride something went, small or big, but always something went. The most reliable car I have ever owned was a 1971 Pontiac GTO in California and I kept it since 1991 until 1998. A simple small block 6.4 liter (400 Cubic Inches) GM V8, Nitrous Oxide Injection, 480 Horsepower, simple to repair, cheap to repair, but nothing was going wrong with it, I was just changing the old parts for the new ones for the hack of it because they were so cheap and easy to replace. So all of you who still think that the ill-designed and ill-manufactured X-Types are the way to go, PLEASE BE AWARE, they really are the MONEY PITS! Stay away from these miserable pieces of junks.
Thank you for reading this. Paul

 

Geez, having to replace a water pump on a 13 year old car hardly seems like something was ill design or ill manufactured. Sometimes parts just wear out, whether from use or from time. Replacing that is something a person can do on their own and it is not that expensive.

The A/C compressor is certainly more costly, but again, you have a 13 year old car! You reference often your beloved 1970 GTO. Back then you were lucky if you got a couple years out of a car with useful air conditioning. Yeah, it sucks when you have an issue, but you seem to forget that it DID work for 13 years.

EVERY car on the road today is a lot more complex than a car from almost 50 years ago, making it much harder for non-factory trained mechanics to work on, either because of the electronics involved or because so much stuff has to be fitted into a much tighter area. On the other hand, cars are so much more reliable today than years ago. Might have been easier to change the plugs on your GTO, but I highly doubt they would last 90K-100K miles like they do today. Or changing oil. Back then you would change it every 2K-3K miles. Now days, manufacturers recommend 6K-10K miles between changes. Who adjusts valves today? That is part of the trade off of the fuel efficiency and reliability you have today, which is light years better than anything from 1970.

$5K spent over the last three years for a car you bought that was already 10 years old, doesn't seem like a ton of money, especially if some of the maintenance wasn't kept up by the previous owner. Plus, I would have to guess no matter what car you would have bought instead of the X-Type for $1600 (or whatever the conversion rate is) you would have had to stick some money into it. The X-Type does have it's quirks and you do have to keep up with maintenance, but to say they are money pits and ill designed and poorly manufactured is simply not true. I had a 2005 3.0 manual X-Type for almost 7 years and put over 100K miles on it myself after buying it with 42K already on the clock and it was one of the most reliable cars I have ever owned.

 

Buying old cars at low prices (1600 pounds) and not being able to DIY is always a wallet drainer. Most people don't need to buy 20 cars to figure that out.

 

Paul, that's your experience; not mine or many others I'd wager!

 

Thank you all for your polite replies. You from the USA and Canada have always been nicer people then the people here in the UK. There was so much malice involved in the comments from the UK counterparts that I am deleting my account from that website (JaguarForum.com - The World's # 1 Jaguar Car Forum). I used to live in the USA for 15 years and I have never experienced any hatred towards my ethnic origin in California (I was born in Czechoslovakia under the Soviet Union rule but defected via the Iron Curtain in 1987 and went to America). Now I have lived in the UK since 2011 and the prejudice agains my person is just unbelievable, especially after their idiotic Brexit, you would not believe the way the people are treating me after the Brexit vote... unbelievable. I thing it's because the English are islanders and have no knowledge of the mainland Europe. Even the Germans were less prejudiced than English, and that is something to say (I lived in West Germany for 18 months before I was allowed to enter the USA as a refugee in 1988).

 

Also, regarding my Jaguar X-Type, I don't believe that I bought a bad car like some of the English counterparts suggested. If you go on the X-Type threads, you will see how many problems people have with the X-Types, all sorts of perks, small or big. I will rather change spark plugs on the 1971 Pontiac V8 every month rather then on my Jaguar X-Type only once! What a stupid car designer/engineer would design a car in which you have to remove the intake manifold to replace the spark plugs? Or the car in which it takes 10 hours to replace the engine oil pan gasket? Or the car the sills of which go fully rusty after 10 years of driving the car? These new cars today are built to last 3 years during the warranty and are designed to go bust after that.

 

I looked on your thread on the UK forum and, to me, it sounded like the posters there seemed very respectful and wanted to help....at first. That is until you started fanning the flames. In the end it sounded like you are basically frustrated that the A/C compressor went and you are facing a big bill. Anyone could understand that, but, again, you have a 13+ year old car and that can happen with ANY car. There was even one guy that said he lived close by you and would basically do it for the cost of the parts, but because of your attitude on there, he had second thoughts on helping you. I didn't see anyone other than you going out of their way to be disrespectful. So, you reap what you sow.

I hope you can get your car repaired in a cost effective manner. Good luck with it.

 

Any car with a transverse V6 layout will most likely need the manifold removed to access the rear bank plugs... Im surprised that of all the GM engine you boast the Pontiac V8. They had notorious oiling issues and piston scuffing problems... You would've said a GM 350 sbc I would've understood, they never die. But a Pontiac 400? Meh I wouldn't hold that as a symbol of reliability... Is the X-type the most reliable car ever? Never. Is it the worst car ever? No, that would be the Renault Alliance... But like others said, any cars over 10years old is a risk to some extent and if you can't diy anything it gets expensive quick. Also, AC compressor goes for 150$ (80pounds sterling?) around here. Parts arent expensive but labour is... All the parts around the engine will go out as the car ages, sooner or later. (alternator, starter, p/s pump, master cylinder, ac compressor, tensionner , water pump , belts etc.) They're all wear items... But its does suck that you have to put money in it again. But I do agree that cars today are not built to last. Its the same with house appliances, back then you had a 10year waranty now you're lucky if you get 3years... Its called planned obsolescence. Its a way for company to make money by being certain customers will have to comeback and buy their products again. Working in the engineering field I can tell you thats its everywhere from your alarm clock to your toaster all the way to brand new cars.

anyway, good luck with your AC

 

a jag basher and a brit basher all rolled into one!
methinks he you have "other" issues that a replacement car can never fix.

 

Warracer, I can't agree with you about the planned obsolescence/reliability of cars and cars a few years old out of warranty. Years ago you would be lucky to get 100K miles out of a car. By then it could be a crap shoot if the transmission would last, the engine might be close to needing a rebuild, or not to mention the car dying from rust. Look at cars today. 100K is nothing. Heck, some manufacturers don't even recommend a "tuneup" until close to then. Bodies can still look pristine after 10 years if taken care of and with the factory undercoating and other different materials used to make cars. The key is in the maintenance.

Hop in a 10+ year old car today in winter and unless it has a host of other issues from neglect it will start every time because of electronic fuel injection and you can drive off immediately. Try doing that is a carbureted car from the '70s and good luck. You might get it to start, but it would take a while before it would idle and perform smoothly. With all the electronic wonders in cars today they are so much more reliable, but at the same time, their level of complexity make it that much harder for a DIYer to do some of the work themselves. On the other had, because of those same electronics it makes it much easier to diagnose when issues do come up. I am not a mechanic, but just from being on this forum and seeing the same codes over and over, I can pretty much tell what would need to be replaced/repaired when a code comes up.

 

Well, I do have mental health issues, so I have lost the way of dealing with people in a "proper" manner. I don't really give a damn anymore, we all gonna die sooner or later... for me personally, sooner the better. I am just tired of the rich getting richer and us poor doing nothing about it...

 

I'm sorry for your personal issues; that is not something I can be of much help. But as for your ac issues, maybe you could get a used one from a breaker yard or maybe you could ask around to find a trustworthy independent shop to do the repairs. I wish you luck.

 

I never had any codes come up, all my faults were without any warning lights. They were all mechanical like the disintegrated clutch, broken coil spring in the left front, then another broken coil spring in the righ front, wheel bearing, put the new tires on the rims that are now leaking. Had to put new rear sway bar bushings and links (that was a real hard one - taking off the old rusty bolts), full tune up with new spark plugs, new intake air filter, new cabin filter, removing the broken locking wheel nut. Myself changing the fluid in the real differential (there wasn't any in there), myself changing the fluid in the transfer box (there wasn't any in there), myself changing the fluid in the manual gearbox (there was almost none in there), had to have the rear right sill weld-repaired otherwise it wouldn't pass the MOT, I just cannot remember all other countless repairs I've done on the car. That is all in 3 years while doing only 8,000 miles. I do believe I was extremely unlucky and bought the lemon. But in that case all the service records from the 2 previous owners must have been forged.

 

Naa, I am getting rid of it as a trade in at the dealer and buing a new Mini Cooper S Countryman All4 2.0 liter twin turbo petrol manual 192 horsepower, all wheel drive. Will lease it for 3 years and all repairs will be done in warranty. My jag was doing 14 mpg on average, the Mini does 40 mpg on average. The Minis are basically the BMWs, so German quality should be noticeable. I will let it go in 3 years and then get another new one, and so on. No more old junks, todays cars are made to last 3 years / 60,000 miles during the warranty. After that all these pumped up small displacement engines like 2.0 liter having 200 horsepower will go to dust, the engine internal parts cannot handle such pressures for too long. The big V8s from 5 to 8 liters could go forever.

 

You are absolutely right about the planned obsolescence. In my opinion, the entire consumerism system of this capitalistic product pushing by all means will brake in its seems very soon. The economy cannot grow indefinitely, especially with the world seriously overpopulating and the resources being depleted.

 

You are right about that. And I am not hiding me having other issues. Yes, I do have serious mental health problems; therefore, I cannot handle having the unreliable car. It is all the problem with my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder, Depression & Anxiety, just name it. Generaly tired of life because it is basically a nonsense because we all have to croak sooner or later, so whatever we do goes into vain anyway.

 

I'm giving up because I know for sure that after spending £500 or so on the a/c having fixed, just 1 month later something else is gonna break. There are so many opportunities in the X-Type to go wrong that I could write a book about it. The suspension is very vulnerable, it is all getting rusty from the bottom. The auxiliaries around the engine block will start failing one after the other, some computer controlled components might go, so on and so forth. Just tired of it, getting too old for it. Plus there is no more enjoyment in driving the car, the roads are clogged up by cars, a lot of people are dangerously tailgaiting, stop-and-go traffic like in the Los Angeles (8 million people) now happening in Sowerby Bridge (50 thousand people), etc., etc... idiots in econoboxes trying to race me and tailgait me... I've had enough, no more fun in driving on the narrow and overcrowded English roads.

 

For what it is worth, I am going to give you some great unsolicited advice. Screw the Mini and go get yourself the only thing that might have a chance of making you happy: Go find yourself a 1970 GTO. Problem(s) solved. Dude, seriously consider that.

 

id agree but drivin a GTO in england would suck... not enough road space and too much attention from others.
after hearing your full story i apologise for my earlier off the cuff remark.
look into ayawascha...(google it)
it would likely help you muchly

 

At least he could work on it himself and replace parts whenever he wanted. Would be good therapy.