FX Caprara

In September of 2005 I purchased a 2004 Jaguar X-Type 3.0 with 18000 miles on it. It's a beautiful car inside and out. Jaguar has a 4 yr 50,000 mile new car warranty so I would still have plenty of warranty to come. I laughed a little when FX Caprara's salesman gave me a one year 12,000 mile used car warranty. Of course I would use a Jag dealer for warranty work. The salesman said that if it needed warranty work they would get it down to the dealer. He had already sold the car so I don't know why he was giving me this info...I was a bit skeptical.

The vehicle has been great for me and would buy another and for it to get between 28-30 mpg hwy is excellent.

So recenlty I had to drive to Syracuse for Zack's dr appt and in Watertown the engine light comes on. A quick look in the owners manual indicated amber light = "limp home mode". I guess a red light would mean abandon ship. While in Syracuse I called the dealer to see if they could run a diagnostic on it and he apologized profusely for being down a tech making him unable to get it in that day. He agreed that I could get it tested locally if the shop had the proper equipment.

So driving home....and I still do not see any depreciation in performance of the vehicle so I thought to stop at Caprara where I bought it to make an appt to have them run the diagnostics. I was thinking if it was something major I would have the work done at Syracuse at the Jag dealer and if minor they could do the work there. Makes sense, right?

So I go into the service dept and talk to one guy. He talks to another who is on the phone who says it's under jag warranty it will have to go there. I asked if they could at least run the diagnostics he said "We could get the code but then we wouldn't know what to do with it".

Really now??? Hmmm The car has ODBII on it as all cars in the US are equipped with per EPA. Let's see now...I guess I would not have been able to have my car inspected at the same dealer I bought it at?? This car would have failed the inspection and I would have left Caprara's clueless as to the cause. I really hope I am wrong here.

In any case I know of a company who work on foreign vehicles. I stopped into G Wizz Auto Group on my way home after stopping at Caprara's and told them what I needed done and if they could run the diagnostic. If the car has ODBII then most likely but the guy asked his head tech to verify and came back with an affirmative and I made an appt.

It took 10 minutes when I went back to my appt to find out that error code that came up (PO456) meant that there was a very small evap system leak. They reset the engine light and to me if it comes back on then there was a leak in the system as opposed to error being caused by a loose gas cap.

It amazes me that a dealer will sell cars he is unable or unwilling to work on. I can understand this being the case with a small mom and pop corner lot but this is one of the supposedly major dealers in the area. I was not asking them to perform warranty work but in the end they couldn't or wouldn't even run a diagnostic thereby turning away work.

So... Will I buy another car at Caprara's??? most likely no. I have bought car's at both Dealmaker and Fucillo's and have not had a problem yet when I needed service.