Joined
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15 Posts
I have had my XF SV8 for nearly three months so I feel that now is the time to make my initial comments and observations.
First of all I should admit I do like Jaguar cars. I have had three XJRs and my wife and son have both had X types all bought new from Paramount our local dealer in Derby. I still have two of the XJRs, one now with over 150,000 miles on the clock and the other about 175,000 miles - so yes I am a high mileage guy. The reason I have continued to buy Jaguar has been the quality of the cars and the high level of service from the local dealer plus I just love the power from those supercharged engines.
So how has the XF-SV8 worked out? Well initial impressions were good (apart from Stratstone - as Paramount are now known only putting 2 gallons of fuel in the tank when we collected it !! A bit penny pinching on an SV8 with pretty well every option fitted - almost a £60K motor.)
All the gizmos have worked well and I like the more modern styling compared with the current XJR. The component build quality is not as good as the XJR - just feel the "thin" switchgear to operate the windows or apply the handbrake - that said it is a cheaper range of car, so that can be expected. The handling and general drive is superb and in many respects better than the more expensive XJR.
Fuel economy is not quite as good as the XJR with the same engine and supercharger. That surprised me but I guess the XJR is aluminium. On average around town I get 23 MPG in the XJR and on a motorway run this goes up to about 26MPG. I don't hang around and drive the car for what it is built! The XF is curently returning around 18MPG around town and 24MPG on the motorway.
The car has been mainly used by my wife, so have only done 2500 miles in the first three months. Perhaps when it gets run in the fuel consumption will improve.
The faults that we have had on the new XF have mainly been those expressed elsewhere on the forum i.e
1. wind noise above 50MPH - appears to come from the door mirrors
2. rear disks are already badly grooved - Stratstone say this is "normal" and have not offered to replace them. I am not happy with this state of affairs.
3. Sat nav software needs to be changed. It tried to send me via London and the M25 when travelling from Burton on Trent to Newbury - 50 miles further than the M40 and A34 !!
4. Fuel flap failed to open. - apparantly a known fault parts ordered but not available until September - apparantly lots of people have had this fault (a jaguar engineer comment)
5. Two updates to the management software (these were safety recall issues but no body had contacted us, they just installed them when the car was in for the item below)
6. Intermittent low voltage warning. Turned out to be a loose wire
However today we had a show stopper. Whilst driving, several times the LCD display went out as we went over a bump in the road. Then when we stopped the car, we lost all electrical power. We could not open the rear doors or any windows, start the engine, or even make a phone call for help. Even worse we could not open the electrically locked glove box to get at the Jaguar instruction book where the phone number for Jaguar Assistance was held !!
So using our portable phone we got in touch with Stratstone who gave us the number of Jaguar Assistance and in 40 minutes they were with us - excellent. They managed to open the boot and quickly found the fault. Yesterday when Stratstone were "fixing" our low voltage fault they disconnected the battery and then forgot to tighten up the bolt holding the negative lead onto the battery and it had just come off. The service from Stratstone has been getting progressivly worse over the past 18 months. This lack of attention to detail just sums everything up.
Summary: The first 3 months ownership of the XF has been good. The SV8 is a great car to drive and I would strongly recommend you get one but just choose your dealer carefully and I suggest that you stay away from one in Derby !!
PS Do not keep the user manual in the glove box !
First of all I should admit I do like Jaguar cars. I have had three XJRs and my wife and son have both had X types all bought new from Paramount our local dealer in Derby. I still have two of the XJRs, one now with over 150,000 miles on the clock and the other about 175,000 miles - so yes I am a high mileage guy. The reason I have continued to buy Jaguar has been the quality of the cars and the high level of service from the local dealer plus I just love the power from those supercharged engines.
So how has the XF-SV8 worked out? Well initial impressions were good (apart from Stratstone - as Paramount are now known only putting 2 gallons of fuel in the tank when we collected it !! A bit penny pinching on an SV8 with pretty well every option fitted - almost a £60K motor.)
All the gizmos have worked well and I like the more modern styling compared with the current XJR. The component build quality is not as good as the XJR - just feel the "thin" switchgear to operate the windows or apply the handbrake - that said it is a cheaper range of car, so that can be expected. The handling and general drive is superb and in many respects better than the more expensive XJR.
Fuel economy is not quite as good as the XJR with the same engine and supercharger. That surprised me but I guess the XJR is aluminium. On average around town I get 23 MPG in the XJR and on a motorway run this goes up to about 26MPG. I don't hang around and drive the car for what it is built! The XF is curently returning around 18MPG around town and 24MPG on the motorway.
The car has been mainly used by my wife, so have only done 2500 miles in the first three months. Perhaps when it gets run in the fuel consumption will improve.
The faults that we have had on the new XF have mainly been those expressed elsewhere on the forum i.e
1. wind noise above 50MPH - appears to come from the door mirrors
2. rear disks are already badly grooved - Stratstone say this is "normal" and have not offered to replace them. I am not happy with this state of affairs.
3. Sat nav software needs to be changed. It tried to send me via London and the M25 when travelling from Burton on Trent to Newbury - 50 miles further than the M40 and A34 !!
4. Fuel flap failed to open. - apparantly a known fault parts ordered but not available until September - apparantly lots of people have had this fault (a jaguar engineer comment)
5. Two updates to the management software (these were safety recall issues but no body had contacted us, they just installed them when the car was in for the item below)
6. Intermittent low voltage warning. Turned out to be a loose wire
However today we had a show stopper. Whilst driving, several times the LCD display went out as we went over a bump in the road. Then when we stopped the car, we lost all electrical power. We could not open the rear doors or any windows, start the engine, or even make a phone call for help. Even worse we could not open the electrically locked glove box to get at the Jaguar instruction book where the phone number for Jaguar Assistance was held !!
So using our portable phone we got in touch with Stratstone who gave us the number of Jaguar Assistance and in 40 minutes they were with us - excellent. They managed to open the boot and quickly found the fault. Yesterday when Stratstone were "fixing" our low voltage fault they disconnected the battery and then forgot to tighten up the bolt holding the negative lead onto the battery and it had just come off. The service from Stratstone has been getting progressivly worse over the past 18 months. This lack of attention to detail just sums everything up.
Summary: The first 3 months ownership of the XF has been good. The SV8 is a great car to drive and I would strongly recommend you get one but just choose your dealer carefully and I suggest that you stay away from one in Derby !!
PS Do not keep the user manual in the glove box !