1998 Jaguar XJ8 review from North America

I entered into an agreement to buy a 1998 XJ8 from Heritage Jaguar in Freeport, NY and was hoping to pick up the car today. Fortunately, I saw the remarks posted here and found articles by Jaguar Clubs of America regarding the chain tensioner. I provided the dealer with the article and the recall and informed them that I wanted the device replaced before I picked up the car.

Heritage Jaguar REFUSED to fix the device before delivering it to me.

The service manager also stated that he had never seen a problem and had only heard of them as if it were a virtually unknown issue. Obvious to me, he was lying. I am not buying the car. Thanks to all that posted here.

For anyone interested, there is an actual letter from Jaguar to a customer in Berkeley, CA posted at thevenom.net/jaguar/jagletter1.gif that shows that Jaguar is simply refusing to fix the problem and is trying to get people to wait until the warranty expires.

I was told that I should buy the car and that the problem was covered under the warranty. However, the warranty would only have covered the car until it hit 50,000 miles and the device commonly goes a bit later than that.

DO NOT BUY THE CAR. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH HERITAGE JAGUAR IN FREEPORT NY.

Cory.