Problems with new Jaguar XF

I picked up a brand new Jaguar XF 2.2d SE on 17" wheels in November 2011 and immediately noticed that the whole car was vibrating at anything above 50mph. I did about 10miles and took the car back to the dealer. They fitted another set of wheels and tyres which made the car better but not 100% right.

Over the following week I noticed the vibrations were violent whilst driving after the car had stood for an hour or more but got less after about 10 miles of driving although they never go away, classic symptoms of a flat spot on a tyre.

The wheels were balanced a few times but this did not help. The car then developed a brake vibration, mainly from the rear (although it can be felt slightly in the steering) at around 1500 miles. The dealer fitted new discs and pads to the rear and fine balanced the wheels again to eliminate the cabin vibration which seemed to cure the brake issue but not the vibration and harshness.

Last week (3000 miles) the brake vibration has returned. It can be felt
and heard as a droning when braking from around 70mph. The car also
suffers from tramlining on what appear to be good surfaces and it also
transmits a vibration into the cabin all the time unless the road is
silky smooth, I have tried switching to neutral and the vibration
remains.

The car never seems to settle down but almost patters as you
drive it. The car has other faults as it pulls violently to the right
when braking on the motorway in heavy rain as if the spray is wetting
the brakes on one side only making then less efficient, even when
driving in the middle lane. The drivers side front brake always feels
hotter than the passenger side disc, I have checked and there is 35
deg/f of difference between the discs It also has a day time running
light "J Blade" that does not always work.

I did try to reject the car after 2 weeks but Jaguar would not support
this so I decided to live with the car. The car was taken to another
dealer this week who admit it has a fault(s) but are not sure what to
do about it although I feel it's not unsafe to drive at low speeds I do
not want to drive it in the rain on the motorway.

Asked on 22 February 2012 by k44ent

Answered by Honest John

All you can do is get a solicitor involved and reject the car as "not of satisfactory quality" to the original dealer. But, if he fights the case, this could get very expensive indeed. We have laws in theory that do not work in practice, and dealers know this. They only really work against small dealers for cars under £5,000. See: www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/consumer-rights/ I'd better add that my test XF 2.2d was on 19" wheels that should have exaggerated these problems, but did not. And I have had no other complaints of this from any other XF owners ever. Your problem car seems to be a one off.

Tags: new car rejection owning

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