I purchased a 2002 Jaguar XJ8 2 years ago with 70k miles that has been owned and driven carefully by 1 owner in near-showroom condition. I purchased the 2002 Jaguar XJ8 believing I would be buying a vehicle of quality, a car that would last me at LEAST another 70k miles. Sure, I knew the purchase of a Jaguar came with a hefty upkeep bill, but I would've never even begin to think that the jaguar transmission would be of such poor quality.

Since my purchase 2 years ago, I have put a little under 18k miles of love in it under the warm Florida sun. One day while driving my 2002 Jaguar XJ8 I had a "Gearbox Fault" appear at a green light. Along with the message came a jolt as if I have been hit from behind. When I turned my car off and on again, everything was fine for a day or 2 until the message and jolt repeated again after driving on a bumpy road. Long story short, this happened randomly over the course of 2 weeks about 3 times until I decided to take it to the local Jaguar dealership for a computer diagnosis. That day Jaguar happened to be booked up with appointments so I made an appointment for the following Friday. The transmission situation was getting worse. By the following Friday, my Jaguar XJ8 was BARELY accelerating(at about 1 mph until the 4th gear, accelerating SLIGHTLY faster than when you let go of the brake in Drive). However, after an hour drive, I still made it to Jaguar.

After 30 minutes of biting my nails and wondering whether the problem was due to transmission failure or something electrical (driving experience felt like a sensor was corrupt), I was told that I have slippage at both gears 2 and 3 and this was due to the Jaguar transmission failure. They happily threw me a quote of $5500 for a new jaguar transmission and $1000 for their labor. I kindly declined their generous offer and asked them when does a jaguar transmission usually break down on a 2002 xj8, to which they replied, " usually around 190k-240k miles." I find that hard to believe being that it was serviced regularly and have never been thrifty on premium oil, premium oil filters, premium gas.etc. I would've understood if the transmission died at 130-170k miles, but at 87,500,almost 3 times less than the expected life!? I have looked around the net and have found other Jaguars that have had their transmission fail at around the 45,000 mile mark. For Jaguar, which at first I took for a brand that produced quality, 45,000 and 88,000 is truly embarrassing. I have had friends that had original Honda transmissions last over 250,000 miles, THREE times as much as my prestigious Jaguar XJ8 transmission lasted.

My options? Sell the car for scraps (seeing that as of this moment it does not drive at all, only drives in reverse) or have jaguar fix it for $6500 or pay $2000 for a used transmission with 10-20k more miles on it and sell it for reduced value or drive it until that transmission is faulty too (which could be at any given moment, knowing jaguar).

One thing's for certain, I will NEVER be purchasing a Jaguar again nor will I be recommending it to friends. I have owned a 2002 BMW 525 before this and I can't even begin to tell you how much more of an impression the BMW made on me over the jaguar. Bear in mind my BMW had 130k miles when I sold it and it felt like it could easily drive another 130k. What a mistake I made thinking I was making somewhat of an upgrade..

I will be ridding myself of this junk soon and will be purchasing something of quality, something of higher or equal caliber, like a Honda or Kia or something.