Goodbye; a sad tale!

[jonathanw]

I have the phone module in my cab and have not had any problems with either roof up or down (at legal speeds). It appears to be luck of the draw.

It does help to have a friendly word to your dealer principle rather than the salesperson. I was diasappointed with the lack of TMC on the satnav and when the upgrade became available some months after I bought the car (new - and the first cab on the 997 register) I thought it a bit "rich" to be asked for several hundred pounds to upgrade. The dealer principle was sympathetic and we agreed that the upgrade would be free but I would have to pay the labour costs - at the time a good compromise. To date an 15k miles later not had any problems.

Good luck with your Jag but it is in eevry way a very different animal. I will stick with Porsches and I am a few years older than you.

PS Looking forward to changing my every day car to an A5 3 TDI which should arrive next week - on paper stunning performance for a diesel and not far short of an S5

 

[garyw]

Today at the Ragley Hall event (Yes we made it there) Rob and myself spent a while chatting to the Porsche technical guys about the phone system.

He mentioned an imminent upgrade will be available at the OPC's to rectify the phone system.
It will be via the PCM CD drive and will be just a software upgrade which they fully expect to cure the issues.
As you may know the very same system worked fine on the 996 and does so on many 997's although on some software glitches have caused issues.
The system when working correctly has been compared to being better than the Parrot setup.

A far as costs (I know []) go , he could not comment.... if your within warranty then he saw no problems, however it may be down to the discretion of the OPC.

garyw

 

[chfs911]

Best thing to do with it!

http://gmotors.eu/blog/?p=150

 

[yan]

Sad to hear that you have given up on things but I can relate to it, i.e. there appears to be a lack of interest or urgency in addressing problems.
I have had a catalogue of snags with the locking system on my 997TT.
- They were originally deemed of a high security nature, i.e. car needs ot brought in immediately but having checked the important bits have now been deemed nothing to worry about (a waste of no less than 3 visits), i.e. do not interfere with the use of the vehicle.
- Various parts have been replaced effectively by trial-and-error rather than hard diagnosis (i.e. there are no tractable errors on the computer) but have not resolved all the problems.
- One specific configuration option (auto-lock) was put down to a computer module problem, however Reading were unable to replicate/resolve the query which they subsequently passed on to Germany. As to when Germany would respond I was effectively told to whistle.
- Germany did come back when I enquired further to explain that there was nothing wrong, i.e. they could not replicate the problem.
- When I pushed the OPC that there was still something wrong therefore specific to my vehicle alone and that they should simply replace all the parts in the equation, rather than waste my time any further, the OPC contacted Germany again who popped back with advice that they had now found a software fault and this will be upgraded shortly!
- In all I would say that the OPC have ultimately done their best in the circumstances.

In general I am amazed at the lack of advice and problem management that the OPCs (therein Reading and Germany) are able to provide for these vehicles. For example Reading/Germany are unable to tell you when they will answer a query by, not even to say, for example, by the end of October. The fact that they can tell you however when a specific ordered vehicle will come off the production line to the nearest week or 2 (I think that's right?) I think highlights how they have focussed so much on delivery of the next vehicle but have failed miserably to implement appropriate customer support/follow-up. In contrast I remember getting better support for a 30 year old Volkswagen (and that was 15+ years ago now!).

I can live with the faults, but I could live with them better if the assistance was better organised.

J.

 

[garyw]

J, I had a door lock mechanism completely replaced on my car, It may well of been a different issue though.
It took them 3 days to resolve it after they first thought it would be software related.

garyw

 

[yan]

Thanks Gary
I remember reading about your problem earlier - my problems have resulted in
i) a replaced driver's door microswitch (+ 2 adjustments of) to resolve window lift/power window operation on key;
ii) new alarm siren - to solve the double-beep, (a) below, due to a supposed "faulty battery".

I still have
a) an occasional double-beep when I turn on the ignition (I suspect only if the key is configured to lock on ignition);
b) the car sometimes locks itself after opening the boot (with key) and beeps;
c) auto-lock (time car locks after if not opened once unlocked) will not configure - all 997s with same software (i.e. I am not unique) have this problem but no one else has asked for it apparently!
All of the above 3 were thought linked to i) and ii) and a) with i) was deemed a security issue - needless to say when the problem re-occured whilst on a european trip I was not best pleased, although OPC have since decided it was a non-issue - such is life.

If anyone else has experienced either i) or ii) specifically I would be interested to know as the OPC are prodding in the dark, so to speak.

Thanks J.

 

[robert997]

Hi J, I certainly have problems b and c on your list - relock time is random on mine, and like you opening the boot sometimes it locks the doors really fast. The beep is of course confirming the car is locked but one of the 'guarded areas' is still open - i.e. the boot !

Neither has particularly bothered me so I have never reported for investigation.

 

[OK1904]

I'm sad to have left all you guys almost as much as the car! Just to clear up a few questions and comments if I may:

As one of you suggested my decision was obviously not based entirely on the phone module not working. Sure, there are plenty of Bluetooth and other devices that would do the job, but this was more about the damage done to the ownership experience. I had battled for 18 months to obtain a solution but the message was always the same, interestingly the same as Gary's from Radley: "an imminent upgrade will be available at the OPC's to rectify the phone system". Sorry Gary for the cynicism but there is a point at which one loses faith!

The other point is about the Jaguar. I am actually replacing my MB E-Class with a new Jaguar XJ and my Porsche replacement may be an Audi R8 in a year or two to allow any problems to shake down. I wanted to make the point, though, that Jaguar have made all the right noises about the ownership experience, even saying they want me to be so happy with the XJ that they want to get me into an XK or the 2009/2010 XJ or even an XF! I have also been invited to visit the XJ production line and the tech centre next week, even though I have already ordered the car.

I don't expect anyone to compare any XK with a 997; I certainly wouldn't!

Best wishes to you all and I will keep reading the forum.

 

[Sandy59]

At least my OPC had the decency to tell me the phone system was very poor and not worth getting, they had previously retro fitted a couple of bluetooth systems themselves to appease customers.
I can't fault their support and attitude so far.