OF LEMONS AND LEMONADE; Jaguar can't sweet-talk our sourpuss.(News)(Advertisement)(Column)

Byline: Natalie Neff

As you skim over these words keep the number 66,770 in mind. That's the sticker price on our long-term Jaguar XJ8, slathered in all the luxury bits any lover of fine cars demands.

By now you know we use these quarterly updates to showcase how our test cars behave on the road and how they help us escape into the joy of driving. This update, however, is different because our experience was different. This story focuses on our dealer experience, a big part of the ownership experience, and we can only hope ours is different from yours.

Last quarter we chronicled the troubles we had with a recurring parking brake fault light, which required a second service. One new battery and parking brake motor later the same problem returned to haunt us for the third quarter-not once but three times. That's right: Through nine months in our garage the parking brake fault light flashed and stayed on five separate times.

This time, however, our fancy-pants car garnered dungaree service. Specifically, this quarter (though we put 7590 miles on the car) we endured the worst dealership experience and service that we've encountered in 12 years of long-term vehicle evaluations.

We know dealers are independent businesses separate from the factory. But is it not reasonable to believe that a local Michigan Jaguar dealer-one that services Ford's executive fleet business-would be more attentive, more customer oriented? Yes, you'd think that, and we found you'd be wrong. Also, we know that as a company Jaguar has vaulted toward the top in a number of internal and independent quality audits. Simply, the cars are better today than when Lucas, the "Prince of Darkness,'' reigned supreme.

Still, we had problems. To wit: This quarter's first visit required we give up our XJ8 for seven days to wait for a new parking brake module, as well as to have a damaged tire that we had changed replaced. During that week we made calls daily to check on the car's status. Those calls went unanswered; promises of completion dates passed unfulfilled and claims of work completed proved untrue.