Gutted, need some advice.

Crafty

22 hours labour for £3k is about £136 an hour. Thats luxury car brand main dealer prices, so pretty expensive imho. I would be expecting an independent to be significantly cheaper than a main dealer, otherwise whats the point in using them ? You may also be able to find OEM quality parts for less too - look to independent part suppliers & specialists - Jaguar Parts, Jaguar Spares - JustJagsUK.com for example. Stick to quality manufacturers though, we don't really want crappy chinese parts on the car.

I did a little reading and the 4.0 engines appear to suffer failed tensioners that then cause the chain to go slack, the result of that is a correlation error between crank and cam. It seems the 5 litre engine can have the same issue, but it isn't as common.
What I do see though is owners reporting an engine fault on the dash (sometimes intermittently) rather than a failure to start.
Where I'm going with this is it could be a sensor fault - if any of the timing sensors are giving an implausible signal you could get a correlation fault - just like a stretched chain/failed tensioner. By now your garage should be able to prove that. It would seem strange that the car was running perfectly and now refuses to start due to a stretched chain/failed tensioner. If you had seen a engine fault code previously I'd be more inclined to agree..

With regards to a potential claim it doesn't matter what mileage you've done in it, you'd have to prove that the fault was present when the vehicle was sold and that the issue is beyond normal expected wear and tear.

Given that the car ran fine when purchased the counter argument is that the fault was not present at the time of sale. They could also argue that at 90-odd thousand miles a stretched chain/failed tensioner would be typical wear and tear.

un1eash

Going by previous comments, I'd day £15k.

ukdan

15k and my old car so 16.5k in total. Bought it from a garage I  Southampton. Got some legal advise and the garage have no liability anyway so have no choice but to pay for it myself. Had a quote from th main dealers and that was within £100 of the independent garage quote. Parts alone is 2.8k!

un1eash

Unfortunately this is the case with cars that were £60k  when new, its what put my of buying a 640d.

mjn

Yup, a £60k  car is still a £60k car come repair time, no matter whether you paid £60k or £6k.

albaby

Its most unlikely that the chains have stretched, much more likely that the tensioners have failed, much cheaper to fix......golden rule dont buy luxury cars with high mileage, every repair is going to be expensive...take the car tio a Jag specialist and not a Jag main dealer, should be one or more in your area

IronGiant

He took it to his "local independent specialist"

albaby

You certainly cant tell the chains are stetched until you look, I would run a mile from this garage, and I doubt if it is likely to stop the engine, you would hear a worn chain, under a steady throttle at say 50mph you will hear a constance slight rattle, I had this on a BMW M3, and it did not stop the car from starting, you need another garage...try Barney Jones

albaby

Sorry its Barny Jones

IronGiant

From Swindon?