Of all the recall notices that cross our desks on a regular basis here at Carscoops, there are two kinds that typically catch our attention: either the recall is for a particularly noteworthy model, or it’s rather large in scope. This one is neither, really, but we’re bringing it to your attention anyway. And we’ll tell you why.
The campaign in question affects a reported 4,926 examples of the 2010-11 Jaguar XJ – the same model, we’re sorry to say, that has been on sale since 2009, and remains so today. Apparently those examples need new software for their airbag control modules or they may not do their job in the event of a crash.
So what’s the big deal, you ask, if an automaker recalls fewer than 5,000 examples of an aging model? Because that’s more than the number of XJs that Jaguar sells in an entire year. Last year, in fact, it sold fewer than 4,000 XJs in the United States. Even fewer the year before. In the relevant years (2010 and 2011), it sold 4,278 and 5,235 of them here, respectively.
Recalling about that many, then, is a pretty big deal – especially when you consider that the base price today starts out at about $75,000 and tops out over $120,000. So based on median prices when new, we’re talking about a good half a billion dollars’ worth of metal here.
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