Faults:

The majority of problems encountered have been cosmetic and covered under the Select Edition Warranty. The head liner began to sag and was replaced, the CD player, the seals around the sunroof and two pieces of wood veneer all had to be replaced (free of charge).

The only mechanical difficulty was with something called a trumble bearing (unsure of spelling) in the rear wheel area. The dealer had difficulty reproducing the problem. Once they did, it was promptly fixed at no charge.

General Comments:

I love this car. I wish I had purchased the long version for more legroom in the back seat. Other than that, I have never owned a more comfortable car to drive for long distances. The front seating area is very comfortable. Acceleration, braking, handling are all excellent in this driver's opinion. I do wish they had relocated the interior trunk release button. At 6'1" I sometimes hit the trunk release with my knee at inconvenient times.

The Select Edition used car warranty from the dealer is wonderful. It's better than any new car warranty I've ever had. Whatever I complained about, the dealer either fixed or replaced.

There is some slight cracking in the front leather seats. Had I caught this in time (before the cosmetic portion of the warranty expired) the dealer would have even replaced the leather.

Once the Select Edition Warranty runs out in August 2004, I may or may not start shopping for another vehicle. Chances are I'll keep it until my first really big repair bill.

Faults:

The "timing advance" mechanism went out almost immediately. We used a local independent Jaguar garage and it cost $5,200.

Within 30 days, the timing chain cover began leaking, we then took it to a different garage; cost to repair: about $1,000.

Within 30 days thereafter, the car simply stopped running. There was no knocking, no excessive oil consumption, no warning. It started up one morning, then quit, and has no compression!

It has now been out of service for another 30 days, with mechanics scratching their heads over the problem.

When we 1st purchased the car, our local Jaguar dealer supplied various maintenance and repair services (minor), was excellent and very easy to work with, but has the reputation for being very expensive. However, our next step (last resort) now is having the car towed to them for their opinion as to the problem.

General Comments:

This car is an extreme pleasure to drive, and an extreme pain to own! My wife purchased this car to use in her real estate practice, and only drives about 12,000 miles per year. However, she's gotten nowhere near that far in this one, and has had to revert to our smaller Chrysler for business (this after having sold her large Chrysler).

Her cars are pampered, and generally remain trouble free. This V-8 Jaguar, however, has been trouble with a capital "T".

We have owned several other Jaguars over the years (usually as a 2nd car), and, with the exception of the old Lucas electrics blackouts, have been reliable, enjoyable, and the (6 cylinder) engines seemed to run effortlessly forever!