My A4 had a real nice high pitched chirp when the doors were locked but my new XE has a depressing honk that sounds like a clown car. Any way to change it?

 

Jaguar cleverly used the car horn as the indicator for the all locked mode in order to save weight and avoid the need for a speaker to be installed which would add weight and another componet that could fail. The "Chirp" sound is not made by a car horn in the Audi...the chirp requiires an additional underhood speaker, not a horn.

You can go to any third party alarm installer and have an aftermarket system installed that will 'Chirp' of it really bothers you, but I'd recommend sticking with the factory system.

Finally, my car does not beep when I lock the doors....it only beeps if I try to lock it twice...as it was already locked. So it does not have to make any noise at all the first lock request. To confirm you're locked, just look at your side view mirrors, and if they are folding you are locked. That way there is no noise at all....and you won't have to get depressed at all.

 

I like that I DON’T have to let the car make a noise when activating the security. Although, to activate BOTH layers of security, you do have to trigger the horn-sound.
Over the years of owning a car in NYC areas, you begin to appreciate the value not drawing so much attention to the car you’ve just parked on a strange block—as opposed to the older attitude of “Hi, I’m NewLester, and I’d like everyone and his family to see this fresh expensive car I’m walking away from right now—see it? See how I’m leaving it unguarded?”

But, yes I did laugh when you said it sounds like a clown horn. That’s one nostalgic trip to the days of British teacups and riding crops, that I’d prefer Jaguar gently leave behind. (I’m not sure that’s the same horn-sound the XE uses when you’re driving down the street, though…)

Thanks for that information about the weight-design, Austin-7! Beautiful engineering considerations…