Sun, Jun 22, 2003 page12

• Jaguars no longer considered lemons

  Since automaker Ford brought it's 'quality is job one' ethic to the classy British automobile company, reliability increased significantly

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  If you are an import-car enthusiast of a certain age, you remember the jokes: if you want to drive a Jaguar, buy two -- one of them will always be in the shop.

  After Ford bought Jaguar in 1989, it made reliability a top priority. Joe Ivers, executive director of quality and customer satisfaction for J.D. Power & Associates, a market research firm, noticed the change.

  

  Since the Ford Motor Company snatched Jaguar from the brink of collapse in 1989, Ford has poured in the resources required to improve quality and expand the model lineup. The 2004 model is the first thoroughly re-engineered XJ since 1987, and Jaguar executives are emphatic that the car now has substance to go with its style.

  PHOTO: NY TIMESN

  "Throughout the '90s Jaguar had what I would characterize as a very athletic, consistent and dramatic improvement in initial quality," Ivers said.

  

  Jaguars have gained in value for customers who emphasize not only a sleak look, but also reliability.

  PHOTO: NY TIMES

  And when the Power survey checked Jaguars as they aged, they became increasingly reliable with each consecutive year. The improvements have been noted by owners and those who make a rather busy living working on the cars.

  "If all we did was try to service new Jaguars, like we did back in the '80s, it would be a pretty dicey proposition," said Earl Gibbs, owner of North Coast Exotics in Cleveland, who has been repairing Jaguars since 1968.

  There are still enough vintage cars, however, to keep him busy.

  When Ron Tencati, a government worker from northern Virginia, considered buying a used XJ6 Vanden Plas two years ago, he was concerned about the quality.

  "I did some research and learned that after Ford bought them their reliability got much better, and I've had no trouble," said Tencati, one of several owners who responded to a query posted at Edmunds.com.

  Willing to recommend

  Many cars have a few problems, but Gibbs says he has no qualms recommending that a friend buy an XJ6 from the mid- to late 1990s.

  "In the past, it would have been reckless to recommend that someone buy an 8-year-old Jaguar," he said.

  Improvements in quality have also been noticed by Ed Harrison at Coventry West, an Atlanta company that sells Jaguar parts.

  The observations are backed up by J.D. Power's Vehicle Dependability Index, a survey of 30,000 original owners of vehicles four to five years old.

  "To us, it has been sort of surprising to see Jaguar in the real high ranks of VDI," Ivers said. "It's not the place where we have seen them in the past."

  In the 2002 dependability study, which looked at 1998 models, Jaguar ranked ninth with 280 problems per 100 vehicles. Lexus was first with 159 problems.

  Third place

  Jaguar did even better the year before. In the 2001 study, Lexus was first with 173 problems per 100 vehicles, Infiniti was second with 219 and Jaguar was third with 250.

  That doesn't mean Jaguar owners had a free ride. Some of the durability issues owners mentioned in surveys on the last-generation XJ8 centered on uneven tire wear, brake noise and problems with the engine-control computer. But these were not seen as serious problems, Ivers said.

  "There still is a good distance to cover before it's in the Lexus range, but the underappreciated fact is that Jaguar long-term durability is in the same range as vehicles produced by Toyota," he said.

  While life with a Jaguar cannot be expected to be trouble-free, some owners figure other factors compensate. Bill Alderman of Dallas has owned three Lexuses, but finds them sterile.

  "They are all fantastic cars, but after about six months it becomes a car," he said. His '96 XJR continues to enchant him.

  "To me it looks like it's going about 60 when it's sitting in the garage," he said.

  Ups and downs

  Some Jaguar owners, however, have turned their backs on the XJ and gone German; sometimes the reasons had nothing to do with quality.

  "The first time I walked into the dealer I walked right past the new XJ, because I thought it was the X-Type, the small one," said Barry Fromberg, chief financial officer for Dean Foods in Dallas.

  Ivers said that Jaguar tended to stumble in the quality rankings in the years when it brought out new vehicles. It tends to recover the next year.

  In 1999, Jaguar ranked first out of 36 automakers in initial quality. In 2000, the year the S-Type was introduced, it dropped to 10th, Ivers said. Then in 2001 it rose to second. In 2002, when the X-Type was new, Jaguar dropped to 19th (out of 35). This year, it was 10th.

  "That raises the question about the XJ," Ivers said. "Will they struggle with that launch?"
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