Long-term update: Our Jaguar XK starts whining

If you remember, our recently-purchased Jaguar XK went to the dealership straight after we were handed the keys by the previous owner, because it was throwing up “overheating” warnings. Thankfully it turned out to be just a thermostat. As soon as we picked it up from the service centre though, there was an intermittent whining noise coming from who-knows-where. Over a week, the noise became more and more common, to the point where it was even giving out the occasional whine while revved at standstill. We were expecting the worst. After all, Jaguar’s reputation precedes them.

After finally getting an appointment with the service-centre again, which took about a week due to shorter Ramadan working hours, we dropped the car there. Mind you, we hear this sort of lead time to get an appointment is still much better than Audi, where it could take as long as three non-Ramadan weeks just to get your car in for a minor service!

So there we were, expecting to pay a huge amount to replace a driveshaft or something. But the whine was diagnosed as coming from the a/c. There we were again, wondering if the entire compressor needed to be changed, and whether we should just live with the mild irritation. Perusing the internet, we read others have had worse luck with whines, although admittedly they weren’t Jaguar XK owners.

After the weekend, we got a call from the service advisor, saying some space valve and O-ring have to be replaced, as per some service bulletin. He gave us a not-so-small figure to replace those parts, not least of which because the dashboard needed to be taken out. After contemplating it for about 3 seconds, we told him to go ahead with it, but asked him to do it for Dhs 900. We weren’t about to let some random garage elsewhere rip out our leather-lined, electronics-laden dash as an experiment by inexperienced mechanics. Also, the dealer charges big for just a diagnosis, but it goes towards the final bill if you go ahead with the repair.

We picked up the car a few days later. Our bill had magically come down to Dhs 817. There’s no negatives to speak of — the dashboard has been put back together without any squeaks, all the electronics work, the a/c still blows cold air as good as a Lexus, and there’s no whining any more.

So aside from these minor problems, all’s well in terms of reliability, although our drive-time hasn’t exceeded 500 km so far. We prefer to use the dealer to fix these random quirks because we’re sure they have it on their list of common problems by now, and know exactly what to do instead of randomly guessing like independent garages would.

Is it expensive to maintain? Of course it is. It’s a near-exotic car, not a rebadged Toyota. But it’s no more pricey to maintain than an out-of-warranty BMW 320i. Did you know a standard major service on a Jaguar XK costs less than Dhs 2500, but on a new Jeep Grand Cherokee costs more than Dhs 3100?

And the pay-off came when it was parked out front by the valets at a recent corporate Ramadan iftar in a golf club, right next to a newer Porsche 911.

Original Mileage When Bought: 99,150 km
Latest Mileage To Date: 99,650 km
Latest Average Fuel Economy: 15.8 litres/100 km
Cost of Latest Problems: Dhs 817
Cost of Latest Maintenance: Dhs 0

Total Non-Fuel Running Cost Since Bought: Dhs 3214

Read all Jaguar XK long-term updates