NHTSA Complaint #11546046 — 2008 JAGUAR XJ

My wife and I are drivers with 50+ years of driving experience each, with clean driving records. Recently two incidents occurred while driving my 2008 Jaguar XJ that frightened us, where we have been left with no feasible explanation. There were no messages, warning lamps, or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. The first incident occurred in early December, 2022, with mileage of approximately 66,500 miles. On a cold evening, after traveling 2.5 miles, I was entering my garage with the brakes applied when the engine revved up and lurched forward uncontrollably, striking a vehicle in front of me. I applied brake pressure as hard as possible, but the car would not stop. If it wasn’t for this vehicle, I would have gone through the back of the garage. The force of this incident caused damage to the vehicle that was struck, as well as front-end damage to the Jaguar, with the hood ornament flying off the car. It scared me because I know my foot was not on the gas and had no idea why the engine revved up so quickly and flew forward with such force. The second incident occurred on January 7, 2023, on a cold afternoon. My wife was driving the 2008 XJ Jaguar and I was a passenger. We were pulling out of a mall parking lot, approaching a stop light where a vehicle was at a standstill in front of us. When nearly stopped, the engine suddenly revved up and the car jolted forward with such force that even with my wife ‘standing’ on the brake, the car slammed into the vehicle in front of us. If it wasn’t for that vehicle, we would have ended up in the middle of a very busy intersection with oncoming traffic. The driver in the vehicle behind us said he heard the engine roar as the car sprung forward. I do not have a police report as this accident occurred out-of-state. Two repair shops have not been able to duplicate the situation.