Aside: AutoSpies on Aluminum body problem for Jaguar XJ / Howard Stern's 2 A8Ls..
 

Interesting feedback on new Jaguar XJ
Built to last?


Dear Spies,



Just made a trip to the local body shop to drop off a new Mini

Cooper S that somebody backed into the driver's side door. Some

lunkhead in his Volvo backed right into the car. They aren't that

small that they appear invisible in the rear view mirror.

Anyway, the owner of the collision repair center took us into the back of

his shop to show us the brand new Jaguar sedan with the all new

aluminum body and aluminum frame. It seems the beautiful big

Jag had only 150 miles on the odometer when the owner bumped

the front end of the car ( sad ). The impact was ever slight that

the airbags didn't even deploy but the front end assembly would

have to be replaced. The shop personnel couldn't believe their

eyes when they had removed the ugly parts to discover that the

aluminum frame itself had broken completely through in such

a minor impact!



This repair shop is known for doing very good work and

just about all the high end dealers bring their cars here for repair

work because of the quality of the repairs that they perform. The

guy driving his 500S or Porsche Carerra wants to bring their cars

here as well because their reputation is so good.



The owner of the shop is used to working on a lot of expensive

high end cars equipped with all the technology and improvements

and his staff is rarely caught by surprise but the new Jag definitely

had them bewildered as to how to fix this problem. No bolts or

rivets or anything...



Bottom line is that the Jaguar owner and his insurance company

are in for a shock when the true cost of the repairs is revealed and

that the car's ultra high tech aluminum frame buckled like a folding

lawn chair from the discount rack at K-mart.



I have to admit the appearance of the big new Jag is beautiful

in person but hopefully this experience is not indicative of what most

owners can expect to endure during the lifetime of the car.

----------
2004 Audi A8- Howard Stern's choice?
You can't beat advertising like that!

Shared to us by one of our readers...

Dear 001,

I was listening to Howard Stern this week and he was raving about the new Audi A8.

He said he was trying to buy one but no one had them.

Finally, a dealer in Long Island gave him one in exchange for ads and his people are trying to buy another one (from an LA based dealer), so he has one on both coasts.

Great newsletter,

Baba bluey

When we got this letter we didn't believe it so the Spies made a few calls.. We found out it's true, most dealers are sold out, they are very hard to come by and are selling very well...and get this, they're selling for MSRP!

A8's at MSRP? That's enough to make the rest of Len Hunt's (Audi VP) hair fall off!

The other thing we found out during our research is for the first time, the residuals on the A8 are actually good! They're very close to the residuals for the current 7-series.