Living in the U.S., I feel I’ve been immersed in discussion of car reliability my entire life. It’s a key factor in many car purchases here, and I assumed it was the much the same elsewhere.

So a Jaguar XF forum thread served as a real eye opener. Specifically, this post:

I’m a Brit by birth but have lived in USA for the last 15 years. The reason I stayed here is because the attitude towards business and service is uncompromising. You either deliver or you go under. I couldn’t stand the “Can’t complain, mustn’t grumble” attitude back in England any longer. So it frustrates me doubly because I really want Jaguar to succeed and the product has many of the right qualities to succeed, but they have to focus on fixing reliability before they start offering frivolities like the rotary gear shifters. Poor reliability will kill resale value which will kill the market here.

Do attitudes towards reliability differ so much in the US and UK? Are UK customers truly much more forgiving? Stiff upper lip and all that?