2001 Jaguar Vanden Plas problems

Filed Apr 24, 2014 · Electrical · 45,000 miles · GA

Our jaguar key is unique from other keys in that it is cylindrical with small nubs sticking out. We never have more than the single key on a key ring, so there's never excess weight on the key while it's inserted, because we don't have keys in our life. Due to where we live we don't lock our house, so no keys are necessary. The jaguar is my wife's car, she's tall, but I'm very tall at 6'4", so my knee is higher than hers when I'm driving her car. On a regular basis when I'm driving her car, if my knee moves over and touches the ignition key, frequently the car will suddenly shut off. It usually happens when I'm taking a left at a traffic light, so when that happens I lose all power control of the car, the car stops suddenly without me hitting the brakes, so hopefully the guy behind me stops in time even though my brake lights don't light, and it always presents and extremely hazardous and dangerous situation. What would happen if it shut off on me at 70 MPH? I assumed it was the quirky reputation of jaguars, but now after learning about gm's issue with heavy key chains, I see that our issue is somewhat similar not because of heavy key chains, but because of what could be a design flaw of the barrel-shaped jaguar key not being very robust in maintaining contact within the ignition switch housing. I called jaguar USA more than 2 weeks ago, they promised they would get back to me within 48 hours about taking it to a dealer to get it fixed, but they haven't contacted me. I can't be the only one this is happening to with this jag key design. In general I'm very happy with jaguar, we've owned 5 now between me and my wife, but this is potentially very dangerous and seems to me to be a design issue. I've contacted jag, they haven't followed through, so now I'm doing what's more important anyway to make sure this doesn't happen to others, so I'm contacting you.