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Comments
I'm glad to here that the car is behaving well for you as I was one of the people who encouraged you to get it. My '03 4.2 has been virtually flawless, although as I type this, it is in the shop having the instrument cluster replaced. I am very anxious to get it back, as I wouldn't trade it for any other car.
Craig
Craig
The dealer, by law, has to divuldge his insurance company and agent enabling you to make a claim under his policy for damage as a result of faulty workmanship. You have the burden of proof. Go get em.
That flies in the face of what we've had experience-wise with a couple of company S-Types and the dozens and dozens that I have sold as used cars.
It sure sounds like a lemon.. sounds like MD Lemon law is a joke
Happy driving, as the Jaguar magazine says.
(Funny that the last C&D test of the S-type said the interior was junky with rattles or something - all the magazines seem to change their minds every time they test the cars, so nothing they actually say can be taken too seriously. The pictures looked mighty fine, though, but that can only be attributed to the beauty of the S-type in the photos.)
There have been NO major problems with our 2000 S-type, and the only issues we've ever had were a coolant tank needing to be replaced and some interior rattles being sorted out. Other than that, with the car approaching 60,000 miles, it has been nothing but perfection.
Also, while this has probably been done on all of them, Jaguar reprograms all of its cars with the latest software every time it comes out and is available at the times of service, and the S-type received new transmission and engine management software to make the car smoother and the transmission much more athletic early when it came out. We have a sticker between the B-pillar and the door that confirms the car has this change, as cars (that had the original codes when they came off the assembly line)without it have transmissions that are quite lethargic and take a while to downshift when you put the petal to the metal; the new codes really fix the car up, so you may want to make sure that this has been done to the car you look at - it most probably has (I'm 99.9% sure it's been done to every S-type that needed the update, so you probably don't need to worry about it at all really).
Finally, some people have had front-end shimmies and have had to have the wheels aligned again to fix it. In our experience, we have never experienced any kind of shimmy to this date, but I guess some people have. I don't think its a difficult issue to iron out either.
That's all I can think of, and all of that is easily correctible if found. It's a fantastic car, and it has a superb chassis. My enthusiast friend has the S-type on his top ten list of best modern cars, and believe me, to be on that list, a car has to be really something special - the S-type is.
P.S. - Ours has the Sport Package (yes, from before they dechromed the ones with it), and while the CATS Sport suspension allows the car to corner with almost no body lean at all, it can become slightly harsh with the harder Sport suspension over roads that are not "freshly paved". For a more luxurious ride, the standard suspension is recommended if Sport will not do for you on rougher roads. The same is true of the Sport and standard suspensions on XJ, X-type, and XK, so for the acclaimed ride Jaguars are known for, get the standard suspension; for a road-clawing performance machine, get the Sport. Happy shopping!
If not, you can definitly have your dealer perform the update, especially since it is under warranty. Allow me to copy down what the sticker says, and then post it here for you really soon. While not the most athletic transmission, the upgrade does do away with the delay between the time you mash the pedal and when the car actually performs. Lots of early reviews noted this, but the update fixed it. I'll be back!
S139 ENHANCEMENT
Our car recieved the update March 2001.
Here's the label (Note that this photo is turned to be legible. The black latch on the right is really the door latch above the sticker on the B-pillar of the car.)
(1)Go to:
http://community.webshots.com/user/jagboyxtype
(2) Then click on "Jaguar X-type 5" (yes, this is a page for my X-type, but I put the S-type's enhancement label here). It is the last picture in that set, labeled "dcp_1003". You may have to click the "Next" link at the bottom of the page when viewing gallery 5 to get to the picture. Hope this helps you. Feel free to ask anything else if I can help you.
Sorry I couln't link it directly here, webshots resizes the pictures wierdly and changes the addresses so they won't work on other pages.
I was interested if anybody knows whether the S139 enhancement was applicable for UK S-Types? I have just got a 99 S-Type 3.0 Auto (17'000 miles) which has a full service history. The records do not mention this and I have not seen that sticker (will look in detail tomorrow). Only today when flooring it, I though it seemed MUCH slower kicking down than an 3.0 X-Type I tried the other day.
It has just been serviced (out of warranty) and I did wonder if they apply all latest updates as part of the procedure and how I could find out without just the dealers word to go by.
Thanks
Mark.
* Transmission fully warmed up.
* Measure the shift time
* Perform the troublesome shift several times, with a ~5 second wait between shifts.
* Measure the shift time.
I predict a significant improvement.
Mark
Thanks,
- Ray
Surprised to see the new 2004 XJ 4.2 rated at 28 MPG highway while the '03 S-Type is rated at 26 . . .
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
And at a steady highway pace, I'd expect aerodynamic and driveline drag to be a larger factor.
Cheers,
- Ray
Wondering what the '04 S-Type EPA ratings will be . . .
ANY Suggestions. I am embarrased when I am with my friends in stop and go traffic where you have to ride the brakes and they comment that I deserve this annoyance for buying a FORD product.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
I encourage you to take a drive in a Lincoln LS.
Self destruct? What do you base this on?
The V6 has been proven to be near bullet-proof. The V8 is earning the same reputation. I know of one that has been driven HARD for over 100,000 miles with no sign of distress. Many others in the 50,000+ hard miles with similar results.
000010 - Coolant sensor went south on the way home for the dealership after purchasing.
39,000 - New Engine due to faulty thermostate.
40,000 - 50,000 2 new transmissions & shifter
51,000 - 55,000 new a/c unit
56,000 - 63,000 new heating unit
64,000 - 66,000 Telephone System fails to communicate expensive part ordered.
67,000 - 68,000 Airbag deployment messages sent to Jaguar. No answer to problem which still persist. Emergency contact shut off until problem can be solved. No answer to date. Dealers indicates they don't know what's the problem.
4 sets of struts on right front.
69,000 - 70,000 - Intermittent ping coming from steering wheel area, maybe airbag, nobody knows.
That's my definition of self destructing. Do you think this qualifies? And not to mention resale value.
I am quite sure I left out some things. But this is what I came up with from the top of head.
As someone once put it, Jaguar has a consistency problem. Getting a good Jag is a crap shoot.
As far as fast service and one day service. That's a joke on this end. My vehicle has spent 142 days to date in service. I can only remember getting the car back the same day only once. I picked my car up this morning after it has been in service for 2 weeks. It took them a week to tell me the part was on National Back Order, and wouldn't be in for 5-6 weeks approx July 5th. Now I can pull along side those teens with the large exagerated mufflers and compete for noise. Driving away from dealership heard this scraping sound coming from the rear wheels (had brakes installed). Had to turnaround and have them fix the problem.
Also, if you're into audio, the LS's THX system is amazing ... gotta hear it to believe it.
Be in senior management at a Lexus dealership and drive a Jaguar to work
The way things are going with our S-type, I wouldn't be surprised if it could reach 200,000 miles with the proper care. Despite some of the horror stories you hear on message boards, Jag's reliability has been pretty excellent overall. These cars aren't the old XJ40's or Series 3's that had to be retuned in the shop all the time. Good luck finding the car for you!
After much debate, I opted for the 4.2L V8 and am glad I did. A very smooth, powerful engine with lots of headroom for highway driving.
I also chose a car with the 320-watt Alpine sound system -- incredible! If you listen to music alot, this option is a must. It's like having an incredible stereo system with a Jag built around it!
British racing green with sand interior. Gorgeous!