I bought the car with about 113,000 miles on it and drove it mostly as a daily car. Overall in great condition. I had encountered another issue mentioned by someone else of the car going into 'limp mode' several times fairly soon after purchase, but the more I drove it the less that happened. Previous owner had most of the paperwork for maintenance and repairs so I was fortunate there and all the significant 'known' issues (timing chain tensioners & transmission) had been done prior to my ownership. But I found an excellent mechanic, who fixed a number of issues at a moderate (not necessarily inexpensive) price with excellent workmanship. . .however. . .when it came to the thermostat, he gave a really understated kind of recommendation, that to the effect was "Hey, by the way it's a good idea to change your thermostat every couple of years." He left it to that until it actually stuck, overheated the car and blew a head gasket, with the concomitant $4,400 recommended repair. So, I'm not sure who I'm most annoyed with, the British manufacturer who created such an unbelievably stupid situation or my British born mechanic. Of course the grandest stupidity belongs to the British engine design morons that created the whole timing chain tensioner issue that impacted all the V8 Jags beginning in 1997/98 thru 2002 MY. Those folks should have been banished from designing anything ever again! Plastic chain tensioner parts...idiots, buffoons, morons...I cannot conjure enough pejoratives about the mental acuity of those 'so called' engineers. It makes the engineers who created the Trabbant look like smartest people who ever lived anywhere, anytime!
I bought the car with about 113,000 miles on it and drove it mostly as a daily car. Overall in great condition. I had encountered another issue mentioned by someone else of the car going into 'limp mode' several times fairly soon after purchase, but the more I drove it the less that happened. Previous owner had most of the paperwork for maintenance and repairs so I was fortunate there and all the significant 'known' issues (timing chain tensioners & transmission) had been done prior to my ownership. But I found an excellent mechanic, who fixed a number of issues at a moderate (not necessarily inexpensive) price with excellent workmanship. . .however. . .when it came to the thermostat, he gave a really understated kind of recommendation, that to the effect was "Hey, by the way it's a good idea to change your thermostat every couple of years." He left it to that until it actually stuck, overheated the car and blew a head gasket, with the concomitant $4,400 recommended repair. So, I'm not sure who I'm most annoyed with, the British manufacturer who created such an unbelievably stupid situation or my British born mechanic. Of course the grandest stupidity belongs to the British engine design morons that created the whole timing chain tensioner issue that impacted all the V8 Jags beginning in 1997/98 thru 2002 MY. Those folks should have been banished from designing anything ever again! Plastic chain tensioner parts...idiots, buffoons, morons...I cannot conjure enough pejoratives about the mental acuity of those 'so called' engineers. It makes the engineers who created the Trabbant look like smartest people who ever lived anywhere, anytime!
- socal4me, San Diego, CA, US