I am new to this wonderful forum, but I wanted to just throw this comment out there. Before purchasing my JAGUAR XJ6 I did a sufficient amount of research and found, as everyone on this forum already was aware of, and that is, there is a total disdain for the stretch of years these cars were manufactured. Reliability, reliability and the lack thereof. I purchased a 2011 ACURA MDX, all-wheel drive, fully loaded, 70,000mi. last year(2018).Beautiful vehicle. Solid history of Quality workmanship and Superior build quality. Did I mention 1 owner and sufficient maintenance records? Fast forward. This year I have been to the dealer 3 times utilizing my “extended warranty”. The tally, passenger door refused to open, locking mechanism in door jammed, recall on oil control rings, moon roof stuck open, lower control arms began clicking loudly, CVT BOOT ripped open damaging the CVT joint and there is a serious oil leak from the engine rear seals. Total warranty cost...$8,000. With the advanced technology in vehicle manufacturing and part construction and quality in these modern times being applied to a 2011 Acura, the age old argument of quality issues and reliability of one of the most iconic and well known vehicle brands during the 1980’s(...and presently) becomes a totally moot point/argument. Thank You.

 

Right you are. It cost over $1000 to get my wife's Lexus stereo fixed. I can fix a whole lot of stuff on a vintage XJ6 for that much money. We take it in stride when a modern luxury car needs repair but my friends see me under the bonnet of one of my old cars and they think it's unreliable.

 

Exactly!
No one thinks anything of it when their Brand X is in the shop for whatever has broken/refused to work/gone wrong this week (ex. $900 ea. for Toyota Highlander tires), but they take one look at a 70s Jaguar all shined up in the market parking lot, obviously driven there, and say,"What a piece of junk!" Sometimes to the owner's face!

I figure any repair cost on any of my fleet is comparable to a small payment once in a while. Considering what car payments are these days, I have no problem with repairs. Even at the Worst, I've not spent $1000 at one time since the Jaguar front suspension was finished, and that whole job didn't cost much more than that, and was a Whole lot more fun than shelling out money to a shop with no idea the quality work I'll get back.
(';')

 

None of the failures on my ACURA could have been avoided. There was nothing I could have proactively done in the way of prevention. Now, with this XJ6, I can do my research on the net and obviously through this forum and address some, if not all, of the issues that these vehicles suffer(?) from. Maybe replace the rubber gasket on the gas cap, or the entire cap. Drain the rust and contaminants from the tanks or replace the tanks. Replace the original fuel pump now. Replace the fuel lines with upgraded ones. Upgrade or repair that starter relay with solder reinforcement that I’ve heard “tales” of. Install reinforcement on those valve Tappets. Maintain that coolant system, etc.,etc., I’m in it for the long haul. It’s a dream come true. The ACURA was my wife’s idea.......that’s my story and ima stickin to it!

 

As a retired mechanic and owner of a large workshop I truly believe that a lot of failings in a vehicle are caused by poor maintenance and workman ship. I have lost count on the number of times I have seen cars go into workshops with one or two faults, only to be delivered back to the owners with three more problems.
Through poor health and major spine problems I can no longer do the heavy or awkward jobs, this means I rely on others. The standard or should I say sub-standard of work astounds me. Mechanics these days are not taught the basics. They are no better than process workers, the mantra being "The computer says this or that is at fault." Carbies? What's a carbie?
It is interesting that the early Jaguar's in particular does have a bad reputation for reliability, unfortunately not one that is deserved if it has been properly maintained and the owner is on the ball.
We have a VW LT35 motorhome with 360,000km's which other than regular servicing and maintenance has never let us down, along with three other cars. Have used our road side assistance once in twenty years, and that was for our MGA with a faulty condenser.
Reliability depends on the expertise of the workshop to a certain extent.

 

There are two myths that get constantly perpetuated in public consciousness: German Engineering and Jaguar Unreliability.

I personally have owned more than twenty Jaguars over the years beginning with a Mk 2 in the 1960s, several Series 3 XJ6s, X200s and an X150. Unlike the Audi I purchased a few years ago, not one of the Jaguars ever left me stranded by the side of the road. Remarkable for a marque with legendary 'unreliability' and Lucas electrical components. Whenever I hear someone saying that Jaguars need lots of work, or are always in the shop, I ask them which model they owned and invariably they've never owned a Jaguar, but a cousin of a friend's sister did in the 1970s.

As for vaunted German engineering, well I just don't see it in any of the German marques, which incidentally have quite a few electrical issues of their own.

 

Used to own BMWs and found them very well thought out and easy to work on. Much rather be chasing an electrical problem through a BMW than a Jag. Having said all that my fascination with BMW runs out in the 90s. I had a couple modern ones as loaner cars and they were are best an average experience.

 

I am with Landdfall and others.

I have only had Jags, so a tad biased.

The previous "experts" are always the issue, and that has stood me well in MANY arguements on Jaguar reliability.

NEVER had a flat bed situation.

The X300R went Hissy in a car park, I knew what it was, gearlever linear switch went female on me, limited tools, called Roadside, waited, waited, gave the gearlever a HARD smack into "P", started the car and drove home, and installed the new switch that was tomorrows job. The car had just come out of a shop for work I cannot do anymore.

Talking with people at Ayers Rock years ago, we took the XJS for a drive, and they were looking for the Jaguar Support vehicle, and failed to understand we were on our own.

My current daily, 2010 X Type is just plain BORING. Opened the bonnet the other day, just to see if something needed doing, stood there with a beer, shut the bonnet, and moved on.

 

Reliability to me equals service and preventative maintenance. Only been a jag owner over the past 5 years and never been let down on the road. When I had my Range Rover many said to me they have electrical gremlins, air suspension
problems blah blah, but regular maintenance kept it sweet and a daily driver for many years.
Look after your wheels and they’ll look after you.....just my 5 cents worth.

 

damn right

 

I have found that reliability of modern Jaguars is excellent, having owned two aluminium XJ saloons. However if there is one issue that Jaguar need to pay more attention to, it is durability of components subject to wear and eventual replacement. I found with the XJs that the suspension bushes had a very short life, with the lower shock bushes wearing out around 30k miles, and the rear lower wishbone bushes starting to wear out around 35k miles. There was also the issue of a blocked heater matrix that really should not be occuring at low mileages. On the other hand the tyres lasted a very long time.

 

My XJ6 is the car we often used to pickup our German car from the mechanic's shop. The XJ6 rides better, is more luxurious inside, you can actually see past the door pillars when you're driving, and it's been the most reliable in our fleet the last couple of years

I've got less money in my XJ6 than my last year's repair bills on the wife's Benz. Got rid of the last of my German cars and bought a Toyota SUV last month- now I have more time to fiddle with the Jag

 

Lest we forget the excellence of German engineering, most of the suspension components are of German origin made by Bilstein and LEMFÖRDER/ZF.

 

The real cause is the desired ride quality allied to the production systems. The ride of a modern Jaguar is extremely good, but to achieve it the bushes have to be compliant (ie soft) and thus they wear. To assemble the cars as efficiently as possible, the minimum of assembly steps is a must; therefore the components are one-shot, pressed-in, not individually-replaceable, items. This gives great accuracy of assembly but horrendous replacement costs as entire suspension components, rather than individual bushes, have to be used.

 

Agreed ride quality is an engineering target as is ease of assembly during manufacturing. However, there are other design methods that could be used to allow individual service parts such as bushes to be more easily replaced whilst still meeting the ride and ease of assembly requirements.

 

I have to chime in here and add my $.02. I think G in F and NBCat are both up to date in their opinions. My Son is a Technician a the local GM dealership and I hear him tell of unbelievable issues with new vehicles. Repairing cars today has become a practice of replacing an entire unit instead of replacing/repairing just the bad/worn part within the unit. Buying the whole front hub assembly for a 2004 Suburban is easier than buying a wheel bearing to fix yours. Just yesterday, my Son told me a little about two new engines that GM is putting in their vehicles: one is a 2.7L four cylinder (turbo-charged) that will be in new 1/2 ton pickups. He said it puts out something like 320hp, but will have even more complex, impossible to fix, mechanics. It will have some kind sliding cam arrangement that will allow it to change cam timing/profile/lift by moving the cam back and forth to contact the lifter with a different grind on the lobe or an entirely different lobe. He said he has no idea yet how GM will outline the repair method.

Back in the '70's, American cars rode like clouds on balloons, but you could actually repair/replace a part that had gone bad, not the whole car. On the other hand, todays cars are examples of our engineering knowledge and technology creating the replacement of a whole units necessary when only a small, but extremely complex part failed. Sadly, our repair shops are more of a replacement facilities and the costs are through the roof. The shop rate at the local dealership is $125/hr (labor only) which makes the repair of a customers car time sensitive. At the same time, repairing a complex variable valve timing part ($100 if it could be sold individually) will usually require replacing the whole cam/timing unit at a cost of $1500 (this is quite often quicker). This is also a sensitive number when the customer goes to pay the bill.

The manufacturers profit margin plus government regulations influence the cars we drive and how they are repaired.

Rant completed.

Dave

 

My Addie had variable cam timing and it works very well. PFM I say.
I got it at 75000 miles, now clicked over 122000 after a mere 3 years driving the wheels off.

We are well aware that any engine problems will result in either new engine or another car. Which it is will depend on relative cost against performance.
(';')

 

Two examples of modern car stuff have perplexed me:

1. One of the Ford engines had a new type of spark plug. Fewer threads. Ugh, they developed a propensity to blow out!! Surprise??? A fix was developed. But the swap on trucks was to remove the cab to get at them!!!

2. I forgot the brand. Nissan Altima or one of the Bimmers. FWD V6. Access to the rear three spark plugs. Remove the intake manifold!!!

And, WOW, there is no easier engine than the XK to swap in new spark plugs...

Around here, shop labor is at about 125 per hour, so it mounts up quick...





Carl

 

Unreliable, I don't think so. I have not lifted the bonnet on my JX6 in six months except for an oil change. Since moving out of the city 6 months ago my milage has gone through the roof, I have done more k's in 6 months than I used to do in 18 months. The only vehicle suffering issues is the 2011 Jeep, and that is because it is also doing a truck load of k's more than it used to.
Mainly my fault because it was averaging 5000 km a year before and I didn't keep up with the preventative maintenance. ( all garage time was focused on bikes and the XJ6 before). But now the Jeep has to be pampered a bit too.

 

Would like to thank everyone for chiming in with their experiences and successful memories of owning JAGUARS. It is really reassuring. As I reflect on my earlier research of the car, before making the purchase, I don’t recall any authors of the negative rants being an experienced mechanic or “fan” of preventive maintenance. Oh My Goodness!, everything is suddenly crystal clear. (- :