I know this is beating a dead horse, so I'll move on after this post, It's easy to critique the engineers when we have the benefit of 20-20 hindsight.

Every engine maker has been using plastic parts for a long time. Even back in the stone age, when I was working at Triumph of Oklahoma City in 1969 as a green motorcycle mechanic, the Triumph twins had plastic slipper facing on the primary chain tensioner that ran from the crankshaft to the clutch drum. Those were very durable and lasted 10-20+ years before wearing thru, no problem. So It's unfair to criticize all plastic bits as being the result of poor engineering.

Every engine has its Achilles heel. Ask the owners of the Porsche Boxer what they think of the intermediate cam idle pulley bearing debacle, and get ready for an earful.

No matter how extensive the pre-release testing is, there's no substitute for thousands of cars being driven by actual owners, all with different driving habits. Real world testing exposes design flaws better than any lab or test track can ever do. No manufacture knowingly puts out a product that they know , or suspect, will fail sooner rather than later, putting them in the unenviable position of having to honor hundreds or thousands of warranty claims, not to mention the public relations mess.

Yes, perhaps some of the new designs and newish technologies put into the early XK's could have used some more development. But a product engineer can't spent 10 years testing every component that might be a question mark. They have 18 to 24 months to make their designs a reality, not forever, and certainly not as long as they would like to have.

I'm more inclined to believe that the engineers were just pushing the envelope with some cutting edge ideas, with the result that although they had a bone fide winner, there were a few unintended consequences. With the time and money constraints they were working under, they did damn well. Many of the other cars designed in the late 1990's, while being in the same price range (or much.more costly), have much worse flaws and reliability issues than the XK's do. Especially the expensive Italian hardware. The Ferrari prancing horses shine bright like a super nova when new. But speaking from the maintenance and repair side of the coin, I can tell you from first hand experience, the Ferrari light fades under hard use, and as a group, they are nowhere as durable as our XK's

Z.