Hi and thanks to The CO for setting up this site. I was a member of BMWLand for many years and contributed when I could. I had a 530D tourer, a E53 3.0d followed by a E53 4.6iS. I wanted a change so bought my current car 3 years ago - a 2009 Jaguar XF S 3.0D. The car has been fantastic and I am pleased I had a break from BMW's just to try something else. I will be changing my car soon and I am torn between another 3.0d XF S tourer or an E70 xdrive40d. I am sure something will happen to help me decide what to go for! Thanks. Graeme.
Hi Graeme and welcome. Lovely cars those Jags. I most recently had an E70 40d and can wholeheartedly recommend it. A very, very capable all-rounder. I'll start writing a bit of a guide in the coming days and weeks in the X5 forum.
The Livster - I had an S-Type many years ago and it was a really nice car. It did have it's fair share of problems, but they were all known ones and not too difficult to fix
Cooky Never had any problems with mine, and guy who still has it has only replaced consumables, guess we were lucky
Had an 530d touring, loved it. Now have an XF-S facelift , love it even more! A lot of people don't understand the fuss about Jaguars. I loved them when I was younger and nearly bought an XJ8 about 10 years ago. The BMW brand had that little bit more appeal. About a year ago I had a drive in a friends XF-S and was really surprised how nice it was. Back in April, with an itch that needed a scratch, I started looking seriously at XF's. It didn't take long to find the one that I now own and I can see what the fuss is all about. The MK2 comes in for criticism from die hard owners. My car is in for a service next week and I plan to have a poke around and try the new model. I have no plans to buy one but it will be fun just to see it up close.
I had an S-Type for a while. People with no interest in cars looked. People took photos. I nearly killed a Porsche driver as he was getting into his car - he rotated his head so far round as I drove past that I expected his neck to snap. Genuinely a head turning car. It drove superbly but always gave the feeling that it was about to break something which would mean having to go to Jaguar who would patronise you to death and charge you ten bajillion pounds for some poor quality parts. At four years old the undertray was held on with cable ties (really crummy bracketry) and many bolts and fasteners under the bonnet were already rusting.
I know this is an old thread, but I couldn't help reading it and commenting on it now. I think Jaguar have come a long way since the last time I drove one, which was a 3.4 Mk2 that my folks owned nearly 50 years ago!! I loved driving that, it went really well, but had that old Jaguar fetish for tin worm sadly. I don't know if Jaguar have finally overcome that problem with the XF and the other more recent models, but I know the S and X type still succumbed, which is a shame. Other manufacturers can rustproof their cars, so why not Jaguar? A friend had an XF which I rode in - which was a nice car, with a lot of interesting gadgets, but from what he told me, it was a) not especially reliable, and b) very expensive to fix when it did go wrong. He told me a story that he heard when he took his car in for a service, about a chap who had had a parking bump - it must have been a fair bump, but didn't damage the car, other than setting off some pedestrian air bags under the bonnet - which cost a fortune to replace, well over £1,000, which I thought was pretty shocking. It would also seem that keeping the Jag suspension bushes in decent condition is still a costly business, so not a cheap car to own and run by a long chalk. I have owned several BMW's, a couple of E46's, two E39 tourers, an E61 diesel, and now an E53 X5 diesel, and in the main, found them not too bad in terms of running costs, and replacements, and providing you aren't shopping at the main dealer parts counter, many parts are actually quite reasonable when compared to other makes. I did have a couple of disasters, the first E39 ( 180,000miles) decided to overheat and cook the headgasket, which was an expensive fix, as I couldn't do it myself, and the E61 had a major problem with the autobox, which cost over £2,000 to fix. I am not too sure about ZF autoboxes, they do seem rather more problematical than other makes, whether this down to lack of oil changes or what, I am not sure. BMW say it is filled for life, yet ZF say change the oil and filter every 60,000 - I think I would tend to follow the ZF advice, bearing in mind the cost of repair...…… At the end of the day, I certainly like the look of the new Jags, but at the moment I think I feel safer with BMW's!
Digging up dirt here! Though Jaguar seems to have their act together, the E & F Pace models certainly caught up with the rest of the market allbeit the reliability doesn’t seem to reflect the efforts made by the design teams!