2002 Jaguar X-Type from North America - Comments

19th Jan 2004, 15:50

"Fun to test drive, a nightmare to own"

What things have gone wrong with the car?

First off, I experienced difficulty with the trunk latch. Although I discovered later that this was a well-known issue with Jaguar, the dealership's service representative treated me as if I were nuts, then told me that there was probably nothing wrong with the car, but he'd go out of his way to check it anyway. After 3 trips to the dealer, the trunk latch was finally replaced with a working version.

About 8,000 miles later, the electrical system started going haywire. The vehicle was in the dealership for a week waiting for a part before they took a new central electrical unit from another car to repair mine. Availability of parts was a constant problem.

The grab handle inside the vehicle's rear passenger side inexplicably fell off at one point.

The most dangerous issue I experienced had to do with the transmission. At about 19,000 miles, the car stopped downshifting when accelerating up a hill. I called the dealership to schedule service the following business day. I asked if it was safe to drive the car, they said Yes. They were wrong. The automatic transmission failed almost completely. Thank goodness I could manually shift with the j-shift. At 18 months old, the entire transmission was replaced.

I just got rid of the vehicle and I could not be happier. The workmanship was so poor I had legitimate concerns about my safety and my family's safety.

General comments?

This car was a blast to drive. Great acceleration and handling.

The ventilation in the backseat was poor.


21st Jan 2004, 18:33

I've had similar problems, I also traded mine in and took a hammering on the trade price. Replaced with a Lexus GS300, have done 37,000km without a single incident.

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