Consumer news
CASE STUDY F-pace vibration goes from being cause for rejection to ‘characteristic’ of the car
Watchdog solves your problems, plus you have your say
EVEN if everything else in a new car works perfectly, small vibrations can soon become annoying. Just ask Royston Morgan, from Bramcote, Nottingham. He contacted Auto Express after a driveline vibration in both the Jaguar F-paces he owned was deemed by the company to be a characteristic of the car.
Royston bought a new F-pace 2.0D Portfolio back in July 2016, but quickly noticed a distinct vibration through the cabin between 68mph and 72mph. His dealer, Stratstone Nottingham, had the car in for four days, modifying the rear suspension, but Royston told us the problem failed to go away. This, on top of infotainment issues, left him irritated.
“By November, with around 4,000 miles on the clock and no helpful solution in sight, I decided to reject the vehicle,” Royston said. His dealer agreed to this, and gave him a loan car until his new model arrived in March 2017. But after 7,000 miles in his replacement Jag, Royston began to notice the vibrations again.
“The vibration manifested itself at exactly the same speed and RPM as in my rejected car,” he said. Royston took the F-pace back to Stratstone Nottingham and contacted Jaguar customer services. Jaguar then told him the vibration was a characteristic of the car, and not a fault.
So Royston called Auto Express for help. We contacted Jaguar and staff told us the same thing, and emphasised that an engineer had driven Royston’s car to confirm the characteristic. The firm also offered £1,000 towards a replacement XF Sportbrake he had since ordered.
When Royston said that the service manager had told him that no Jaguar field engineer had driven his car, but a similar model with 12,000 miles, Jaguar maintained it was a characteristic of the car, and not a manufacturing fault.
“I can’t believe they think this is a characteristic of the car,” Royston told us. “My first car was rejected on the basis of this, so how can they think it’s now a characteristic?”
“Jaguar maintained it was a characteristic of the car, and not a manufacturing fault” “Royston quickly noticed a distinct vibration through the SUV’S cabin between 68mph and 72mph”