35 replies to this topic

[PoolGuy]

What's the problem with JLR? Is it component quality? 

Currently it's the dealers that are the problem. That's driving lots of owners to independent garages. The theft and rapidly rising cost of insuring them is just another nail in their coffin.

[Aly-g]

Going back to the 60s vauxhalls were known as rust buckets so I never owned one for that reason, anything Italian was known for bad electrics ( I think that still applies though ) these prejudices can really influence you when buying cars for a long time, you have now taken B'inis off my don't ever buy list !



Allan

[IronmanG]

Our family car. Old shape zafira we have had for 9 years and it's on 50k miles. We have a lifetime warranty. It won't be going anywhere! The only thing gone wrong has been the air con compressor and the boot lock. Nothing that makes it an unreliable car.
Our Renaults had terrible electrics

[IronmanG]

Our family car. Old shape zafira we have had for 9 years and it's on 50k miles. We have a lifetime warranty. It won't be going anywhere! The only thing gone wrong has been the air con compressor and the boot lock. Nothing that makes it an unreliable car.
Our Renaults had terrible electrics

Won't believe this. I spoke to soon. My better half parked up near the station and left the lights on. Awesome. When she came back obvs the central locking doesn't work but better than that the key doesn't undo the lock to open the door. Tried 2 keys. The lock turns but thats it. So 3 choices are. Join AA and get them to do it for a big fee, break a window, call a auto lock guy. Happy days

[mab01uk]

 

Our family car. Old shape zafira we have had for 9 years and it's on 50k miles. We have a lifetime warranty. It won't be going anywhere! The only thing gone wrong has been the air con compressor and the boot lock. Nothing that makes it an unreliable car.
Our Renaults had terrible electrics

Won't believe this. I spoke to soon. My better half parked up near the station and left the lights on. Awesome. When she came back obvs the central locking doesn't work but better than that the key doesn't undo the lock to open the door. Tried 2 keys. The lock turns but thats it. So 3 choices are. Join AA and get them to do it for a big fee, break a window, call a auto lock guy. Happy days

 

 

Which of the choices did you take in the end?

Edited by mab01uk, 06 October 2023 - 07:57 AM.

[PoolGuy]

Had that once with a friends Carlton, he put a jump lead on the starter solenoid and the engine, that enabled him to unlock it with the remote. Not sure if that would work with a more modern Vaux.

[stuart bowes]

I was thinking that as well but how do you get the bonnet open. that's the tricky bit

 

could you go up from underneath and find a + / - to attach to (or is that what you meant)

Edited by stuart bowes, 06 October 2023 - 11:21 AM.

[bluequinn]

parts being made by 3rd parties at the lowest possible price, focus on the bottom line cost all the time, same thing happened to Volvo when it got sold to Ford the build quality took a hit.  And in the case of landrover, defenders  being given fords weak tdi engines

 

that's the problem when one company owns lots of seperate brands though, there's all this internal politics between then, Volvo has to be less exclusive than Landrover which has to be less exclusive than Jaguar, which has to be less exclusive than Aston Martin (or whichever ones they own at the time) 

 

and then you have premium cars sharing parts bins with more exclusive models like when the Jaguar XF came out and it was essentially a dressed up mondeo, loads of faults and people complaining about them expecting more from a top quality motor

JLR haven't had anything to do with these other brands for 15 years. Their problems are of their own making. Dreadful marketing, Poor management, bad design and engineering (have you seen the failure rate for the ingenium engines?), false economy-level penny-pinching on everything from components to materials, insane product planning and decision making (too many LR models, internal competition, majoring on diesel engines, getting rid of the V6 and V8 engines in Jaguars, cancelling the replacement XJ, putting a cheap interior in the XE to name but a few) and indifferent production.

 

Ford sold Volvo to Geely in 2010, Land Rover & Jaguar to Tata in 2008 and Aston Martin to a consortium in 2007.

I think your overall analysis is right about the strategy when PAG existed though, although I think they took Volvo considerably upmarket from where it had been, which is quite something considering they all became rebodied Fords for a while.

 

(incidentally I had a 2008 Aston Martin DB9 for a while and there were Jaguar X Type steering wheel stalks, Volvo nav, Land Rover seat controls, Ford boot release). It was still a magnificent car though.

 

The Jaguar XF wasn't a Mondeo. You're thinking of the X-Type.

The first XF was on a Jaguar S-Type platform, and that was one shared in the other direction with the Lincoln LS and Ford Thunderbird both using it.

The 2nd generation XF was released using a new all aluminium chassis and nobody even noticed it had come out. There was radio silence from the marketing department. Very strange.

[PoolGuy]

 

could you go up from underneath and find a + / - to attach to (or is that what you meant)

That's what he did, as I say I'm not sure of the layout of the current cars, it may not be possible.

[stuart bowes]

yeah to be fair I do tend to think of things being recent when actually they're ages ago and then suddenly I feel old 

 

I do remember though before she retired one of my aunts used to work for Fords customer service and they had a note pop up on their screen for each call whether it was a Volvo owner, Aston, or just a normal Ford (or whatever the options were at the time) she had a different phone voice for each 'level' of quality lol apparently people would really complain if you answered 'hello, Fords.." when they owned an Aston they'd be like "FORD?!?! eugh no i own an ASTON MARTIN thank you very much ' haha ok mate calm down

 

whereas if it says 'ford' you can just pick it up and say 'yeah, what'      well not quite

Edited by stuart bowes, 06 October 2023 - 11:50 AM.

[IronmanG]

Our family car. Old shape zafira we have had for 9 years and it's on 50k miles. We have a lifetime warranty. It won't be going anywhere! The only thing gone wrong has been the air con compressor and the boot lock. Nothing that makes it an unreliable car.
Our Renaults had terrible electrics

Won't believe this. I spoke to soon. My better half parked up near the station and left the lights on. Awesome. When she came back obvs the central locking doesn't work but better than that the key doesn't undo the lock to open the door. Tried 2 keys. The lock turns but thats it. So 3 choices are. Join AA and get them to do it for a big fee, break a window, call a auto lock guy. Happy days

Which of the choices did you take in the end?

Having a look in the morning.
Auto lock guy said he can't do anything I need a mobile mechanic, so as long as can get under it I should be able to get to something hopefully the starter or possible even pop the bonnet

[stuart bowes]

theoretically if you're only trying to pop the locks then you shouldn't need full fat jumps leads with the bulky end clamps surely

 

just a bit of flex with two cores held on to two points by hand just for long enough to operate the locks

 

just thinking in terms of modern cars and what access is like from underneath

[PoolGuy]

 

just thinking in terms of modern cars and what access is like from underneath

That's my only reservation.

[IronmanG]

Ye I'm not feeling especially confident.

[IronmanG]

Sorted. Took about 20 minutes. Jack up. Wired a battery to the starter which gave enough to open the door with the central locking. Popped the bonnet, jumped with my van and a booster as the booster on its own wasn't enough. Solenoid was clicking.
Happy days