In our previous edition, the Jaguar XF's headlights had given up the ghost, only to be restored with donor parts from a new, still-on-the-lot XF. This morning, while driving to base to take part in my USAF fitness test, I received a peculiar indication in the center (centre?) computer display: "Performance Reduction." I'd witnessed this message before, when driving quickly through a very high mountain pass. The computer limits the engine output by about 20 percent. Stopping and restarting the car seems to take care of the problem. However, why would it reduce performance while going no more than 45mph in stop-n-go traffic? I can only surmise I angered the spirits of Castle Bromwich. Maybe I should hold a seance over the "power bulge" hood to exorcise the rest of the demons lurking in the convoluted wiring of my Jag, which we have named, "Lady Margaret," or Maggie.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
Hey, I have a photo from that very same spot taken just over a year ago! As you know, that’s Shiprock, New Mexico in the background with the lava flows that hardened into rock walls.
Our rental car, a Pontiac G6 (I know, I know), didn’t break down though.
Once again, European quality assurance processes live up to their unenviable reputation. It’s not that the car isn’t nice (it is), it’s the the engineers and management approach things in exactly the wrong fashion: instead of designing for quality first place and paring down features and complexity, problems are fixed at the end-stage of design (or worse, production).
Jag was always bad for this; so was VW. There’s a lot of complexity in their designs that results in a fine vehicle in performance terms, but sacrifices sustainability. I’d take a Lexus (who seems about ~6-18 months behind the segment leaders) functionality if it meant I didn’t have to worry as much.
maybe its some kind of gas saving technique?
Sounds like Jaguar hasn’t fully exorcised the electrical demons of the past.
Or maybe the new headlights didn’t like the car they’re attached to and thus forged an alliance with the engine’s computer through the electrical system.
Or maybe the XF just plain doesn’t like you very much.
Just sayin…
Ahhh, that’s the Jaguar that I remember from the past. A cross country trip in my roommate’s XJ made me learn the value carrying tools and spares first and use what little space left was for clothes.
Still had to find Jag parts in North Dakota, not at all an easy task.
Is the donor jag still available?
These modern day new cars all seems to have 5-6 head lamps, in the event of low beam dead, the rest of driving, fog lamps should carry u back anyways.
I received a peculiar indication in the center (centre?) computer display: “Performance Reduction.”
If you ever get that message on your headboard, you are in real trouble.
All joking aside, these two incidents put me off this car entirely. I had a lifetimes worth of electrical problems with my C-Class. Never again.
I had nothing but trouble with my B5 S4. The drivetrain was rock solid, it was the electrical demons that kep the car side-lined for 24 days in a 6 month period.
Hopefully Tata can beat some reliability into Jaguar in a way that Ford didn’t/couldn’t.
If Jaguar cannot build a more reliable product the marque will die and that would be a great shame.
This shows us that Lord Lucas never died and is coming back to get us