For our first entry, we typed in “Jaguar Sonoma.” Not surprisingly, British European Motors popped right up. We’ve spent years becoming Sonoma County’s number-one Jaguar repair shop and were gratified that even a search engine recognizes that.

Then we input “Jaguar Sonoma-Marin” and came up with the name of a San Rafael-based Jaguar dealership.

Then it hit us: Jaguar is happy to let us and others handle the secondary Jaguar market in Sonoma County – the used Jags and the ones that are past warranty – but says that when it comes to new Jaguars, Sonoma is an appendage to Marin.

It’s the tail wagging the dog. Sonoma has a larger population and more spending power than Marin, and is growing economically at a far greater pace. Yet new Sonoma County Jaguar owners have to drive 70, 80 and even more than 100 miles round-trip to Marin to receive warranty check-ups and repairs. In some cases, because they’d rather spend an overnight in San Francisco than Marin, people are driving into the City for service.

We could believe this is a justifiable state of affairs if Sonoma County were too small to support its own Jaguar dealership. But our problem with that idea is simple: Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Acura and Audi all have substantial dealerships in Sonoma County. Their customers never have to plan day-long trips just to reach warranty services.

In the meantime, the new Jaguar market here is like the dog whose tail is calling the shots.

The Santa Rosa metro area will generate the third highest number of new jobs (53,000) in the Bay Area during the 2000s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, behind San Francisco and San Jose. Santa Rosa’s metro area of 460,000 residents compares to San Francisco’s 1.5 million (includes Marin and San Mateo counties) and San Jose’s 1.6 million residents.