RE: PH Fleet: Jaguar XF Diesel S

RE: PH Fleet: Jaguar XF Diesel S

Author
Discussion

excel monkey

4,544 posts

226 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
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Blown2CV said:
Twincam16 said:
I still can't work out why people are getting so worked up about dashboard electronics.

Does the car start, stop, accelerate, decelerate and steer in the direction you want it to? Then it is reliable. Anything else is incidental.
well with a username like that you are likely to have far less 8 hour motorway roundtrips in a day than me. So I understand your reductionist bullst, it's fine.
hehe

cslwannabe

1,395 posts

168 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
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Our XF is in the garage again - replacement sat nav unit. Being handed back at the end of this month (terminating the lease early) - if you only drive to the golf course and back chances are it will be reliable and you'll tell JD Power et al that it's the best car ever, but if you do any real miles you'll discover how unreliable they are.

Sixpackpert

4,538 posts

213 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
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Very pleased with my 2.2 Sport.

Had it for 4 weeks now and have racked up 2500 very happy miles.

Elroy Blue

8,686 posts

191 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
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We won't be replacing our fleet of cars. They have (sadly) proved to be too unreliable. The BMWs and Audis seem to take the 24/7 use much better

Perik Omo

1,883 posts

147 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
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My 3.0S is over two years old (April 2010) and has done 35k with no problems apart from a leaking TPMS valve on the winter wheels (replaced FOC by Sturgess in Leicester) which were bought second hand. Has been utterly reliable so far and spends it's life shuttling to and from SW France.

Stedman

7,212 posts

191 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
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Elroy Blue said:
We won't be replacing our fleet of cars. They have (sadly) proved to be too unreliable. The BMWs and Audis seem to take the 24/7 use much better
frown

cslwannabe

1,395 posts

168 months

Tuesday 14th August 2012
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Our October 2009 car was virtually fault free for first 20k miles (apart from the known window issue) but thereafter parking brake faults, glovebox refusing to close, unable to lock car, battery flattening itself in 24hrs, battery control module fault, unable to open one of the doors, headlight bulbs 'blowing' every 3 months (replaced about 14 to date), speakers stopped working, satnav options 'greyed' out rendering it unusable, 2nd set of rear brake pads lasted 6 months yet apparently this had nothing to do with parking brake fault light forever coming on (despite the fact the first set of rear pads lasted 22k miles and the parking brake fault light had never occurred up until this point) plus a few others I've doubtless missed.

I notice the Which? data on brand new XFs is pretty good but for older examples they were miles behind everything else in that segment for reliability, which is pretty much our experience. Back to BMW for us (number 3) and I will never own another Jaguar product...

paranoid airbag

2,679 posts

158 months

Tuesday 18th September 2012
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ArosaMike said:
You'll probably find the main reason for manufacturers installing electronic handbrakes is more to do with interior design than any kind of driver aid. Try and find a space for one in a new 7 series or any other premium car!

As for the rest....on the whole, I'd agree. I wouldn't say any one system from any one manufacturer is better or worse though. They're all nightmareishly complicated...especially the ones with these ludicrous control wheels or trackpads. There are some things I agree with though.

1) Bluetooth music and phone. Possibly the best invention ever precisely because it REDUCES the amount of faf. Once set up, you get in, it starts playing your music and you can make and recieve calls without having to faff.

2) Some kind of winter mode - With all the 'dynamic' throttle pedals these days (read: throttle pedals which fully open the throttle in the first 3mm of pedal travel), something to slow this down a bit in your RWD saloon at least means you stand perhaps a 10% change of making it off the drive in snow as opposed to a 0% chance.

Everything else can go thanks. I don't want to have to configure 'M' mode on a BMW to choose a suspension setting that doesn't make my teeth fall out.
My supermini has room for a normal handbrake - what the hell is so important in a premium car that they're compromising its core function as a car in order to fit it? The touchscreen fetish struck me more as form over function - copying iPod aesthetics, which work well in an iPod where YOU DON'T NEED TO BE WATCHING SOMETHING ELSE AT THE TIME.

Agree with bluetooth, and winter mode IN POWERFUL CARS - in just about any normal-ish car a simple linear throttle is the best solution. But then Mr & Mrs Jones with their new Golf GTD can't tell their neighbours they've got 'one of them fast cars that need different throttle settings' - at least one of which is just, as you say, cramming 90% of the output into 10% of the travel.

Max Torque is right about the auto lights/wipers bks as well. Really wouldn't mind seeing them banned outright on grounds of only unfit drivers could possibly benefit. If you can't or won't flick a switch in response to rain, what are the odds of you changing the rest of your driving to suit?