From experience which is better......a local european repair shop, or a Jaguar dealership? I know many folks who take their Mercedes and BMW's to this shop and have been very pleased with their pricing and service work done. After having been to our local Jaguar dealership and met with a service rep, it seems clear they are only interested in selling and making a buck. They did not even seem to want to look at a 97 model XK8. They were very snobbish and I didn't get a good feeling there, but if its impressive that Jaguar work on Jaguar then I can deal with it.

Additionally, any suggestions on what to inspect on my 97 XK8 with 45673 miles on it when i do get it to the shop? Tensioners were mentioned, but anything else?

 

Local shop if you have verifiable recommendations, dealers are a rip off for repairs.

At the age of your car anything rubber should be closely inspected, hoses and front suspension parts are troublesome on an 18 year old car regardless of millage.

Unless you have deep pockets you may find that working on the car yourself is the best option, these cars can get expensive to maintain if you are depending solely on a shop to do everything.

While these are great cars the XK8 is a little finicky especially with random electrical issues.

 

I wish I were closer to Naples - you can't do any better than this indy shop.
Ask for Rolando.

 

Dealer service/managers are great to talk to, but hard to deal with, as they have a tendency to replace entire assemblies rather than fix them, e.g. upper control arms, wheel sensors, etc., and their rates are high - $150 per hour in California. Best to find a factory-trained Jaguar mechanic who has gone out on his own. He can analyse problems much more quickly and will do more to keep you as a customer. A lot of expat Brit and Commonwealth mechanics in my area, as they seek warmer climes and an overflow market of British cars. Would imagine the same in the Naples area. Check the Land Rover as well as the Jaguar listings. Of course, with quotes of $200 to replace spark plugs, $500 for a water pump, best to be able to do small items yourself.

 

I think its more about how you build a relationship with your service provider, regardless of dealer or independent. Using either one "only when you have to" is not a recipe for success.

I go to my dealer for some things regularly, like oil changes. I give them the stuff that I don't want to tackle, like a transmission pan seal, and they support me in doing so by letting me poke around under the car on their lift and giving me honest advice. Sometimes I share things with them that they did not know about our cars (thanks to this forum).

I buy some of my parts from them even if I could get it cheaper online. Once I needed a part they could no longer get and they dug around until they found one in a mechanic's toolbox - and gave it to me free.

I feel fortunate to have a good dealer I can trust. I have dealt with the same guys for over 10 years and invested my time and money to nurture our relationship.

 

Very good advice...thank you. I plan on taking it to the jag shop a forum member pointed out. Anyone having had experience in Naples with them, please share your feelings.

 

Dealers stink. Jag is the worse it seems. Lucky for me I have a well seasoned European repair shop blocks away from me that I use.
Seems to me the Jag dealer rather not mess with anything less than 5 years old.

 

That is exactly the feeling I got from them. After having dealt strick with Cadillac over the past 10yrs., I was absolutely amazed at the brush off I received from our Jag dealer.

 

I do not use the dealership for work I cannot do, cost being the issue. Indies work best for me. However, I do buy miscellaneous parts from them and have a good relationship with the parts/service people. You never know when you're going to need that.

BTW, sometimes they surprise me and the Jag part cost is less. Plus I get to see the part to verify I have asked for the right thing.

 

I have some good indy shops within an hour of my area, and used one of them early on and had a good experience.

But upon having a recall done for my 97 XJR at Jaguar of Cary, I found them to be great, and very competitive with the indy shops.

They have a tech there that has been working on Jags for decades, and is their sole tech that works on the "old" cars. They've spent a lot of time with me, testing/diagnosing for free, but then again I bring the car in for the kind of service (boring/routine or too much trouble) for them to do. I too try to order parts through them if the price differential isn't too high, and it hasn't been in some cases.

So it just depends. If you have a good dealer in your area, it might be a good option to use them. In other cases a local independent shop might be better. You'll just have to ask around and perhaps give them a try to find out.

.....sounds like you've already determined that your local dealer is missing out opportunities to serve older model customers though, but that's their loss

.

 

I have been employed at both indies and dealerships, and have done everything from being a service tech, to being the service director. I can assure you that the dealership personnel are geared toward making money. If the tech encounters anything that isnt a "slam dunk" repair, they will avoid it, as they are paid on commission. Literally everyone at a dealership is commission oriented. The more iron they move through the shop, the more everyone makes. Kind of like rewarding bad behavior. That being said, the dealer has the correct parts, the experience of working on nothing but your brand, the service knowledge of the manufacturer, and the specific tools for the job. There is NO reason that a dealer cannot fix your car. Unless they just dont want to. Now, the indie guys are typically paid on flat rate as well. But, I have found that they sometimes have more rounded knowledge and a better understanding of how mechanical things interface with each other. They are better at "figuring out" problems, whereas the dealer tech can simply ask his area rep for help, etc. An indie is also likely to "repair" something, rather than replace it. A dealer will always throw parts at a job to ensure their *** is covered. It just happens. Our shop deals with manu unusual cars, so we are paid hourly. That takes the urgency out of rushing the repair. The owner is also very detail oriented. He considers every job a personal challenge to repair correctly, and he instills that into our techs and customers. Our business depends on satisfied customers. One last thing.... I dont mean to bash dealers. They are certainly equipped to repair the vehicles. It boils down to personnel, and how much integrity they will put into the job. I know some extremely talented dealer techs. And some incredibly inept dealer techs. That same goes for the indies. Get references from someone that has good luck with their service guys. And use this forum as a guideline to keep you asking the right questions when it comes time for repairs!

 

I am surprised a local dealer will even look at the car. In Jacksonville they will not accept a car more than 10 years old for service. A local garage is always better.
I have a '99 with 164k on it and had an alternator fail in Ft Myers. Check out Wynter Automotive in Ft Myers, he stayed late and got me on the road. Not a Jaguar guy but excellent work, very reasonable and has the software to work on the car.

 

So true. The clients that do as you do, are more like friends afterwards than the complaining customer the service adviser tries to avoid. I've seen service advisers go out on the limb to save their favorite customers money.

But if you can do the easy stuff yourself, wow... will you save some money.

 

Additionally, any suggestions on what to inspect on my 97 XK8 with 45673 miles on it when i do get it to the shop? Tensioners were mentioned, but anything else?


Not sure if it was mentioned, but the green shower is always a problem. Got my shower and had a indy fix it, $800.00 later.

 

1997, if not been touched, things to consider for preventive maint since these cars DO NOT LIKE OVER HEATING is inspecting all cooling system items. Hoses all of it. Prob all orig on that car. I would consider replacing them, replacing the WP, thermostat housing with tstat, Reservoir tank, valley hoses, octopus hose and plastic T that is on it on the drivers side. Most all of these specific items listed have threads here about the issues/fixes.
Not to scare you but these things I listed are important on a old Jag like yours, specially if you have no documented history they were fixed.
Last thing that I feel should be preventive maint is getting the cars main ECU looked at and rebuilt if needed. 1997 model the ECU has had many issues for that car. When it acts up it makes the car appear like it has multi issues at a time making the owner freak out. It did me on my 97, my shop chased all the issue the warning lights where throwing. Nothing was fixing it so I had ECU sent out, fixed it, no more issues.
Most everything here i have written are things you can do yourself. Many FACs here on how to do them.

 

Essay answer in Austin: the dealer won't work on cars over ten years old. And they sell parts for double what they should.

I will head for the well-regarded indie when I get out of my depth.

Good luck!

Tom

 

Does anyone know of an indie in Nashville, TN they would recommend to service my 2001 XK8.

 

We have had so many dealers come and go here in San Diego. It's hard to tell how good they are. My last XK8 was bought 10 years ago with an extended warranty and we got rid of it at 105000 when the warranty ran out. Even with the warranty it was always 1000-1500 bucks because something was always not covered. Like hoses belts etc. Cush Jaguars service manager was always saying . This is a high performance luxury car so you have to expect to spend some money keeping it up. That was after I asked that they check the battery for water as it usually evaporates. I asked them to change the rotors hen they did the brakes since I didn't want the labor charge again and to replace new pads. They told me the rotors were fine and just replaced the pads. 5000 miles later they said they had to replace the rotors and of course the almost new pads needed to be changed. I am now looking for a new shop for my new XK8. Coventry cars seems to be the best choice. I went by the original repair garage on the same street and the office door was locked and they had one mechanic working on a Toyota truck. No other cars in the shop. I don't know what happened as this was a great shop 5 years ago.

 

reedmtn, I've been hearing wonderful things about Rolando Vassallo (sp?) at Aston/Jaguar Advantage off of Enterprise/Airport Pulling - south of Golden Gate.

 

If you really are looking for a shop to work on your car and you live with in ear shot of Cincy, OH I have used this shop several times. All the wrench turners have been there for AGES and they work on stuff that make working on an XK8 kids play. They are very good. If you are close enough I would suggest you use them. To me if ya had to trailer your car in on a a weekend and drop it of and leave it with them for a week and get it the next weekend it would be worth it.

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