RE: Jaguar XF 5.0 V8: PH Carpool
Discussion
SteveGrosvenor said:
Would love a Spires system, but worried that it would be too intrusive on those longer family journeys. Did you ever find that?
I didn't fit a Spires in the end, but from what I read at the time the back boxes weren't too intrusive at moderate revs to those that had them. With the family onboard I suppose one drives more gently anyway (D mode, non dynamic). There's an XF forum where a few folk have them.I sold my XFR to buy a Defender - so my kids have got used to intrusive noises
kinghottinger said:
I didn't fit a Spires in the end, but from what I read at the time the back boxes weren't too intrusive at moderate revs to those that had them. With the family onboard I suppose one drives more gently anyway (D mode, non dynamic). There's an XF forum where a few folk have them.
I sold my XFR to buy a Defender - so my kids have got used to intrusive noises
Thanks for that. Food for thought, definitely.I sold my XFR to buy a Defender - so my kids have got used to intrusive noises
P.S. For those who might be interested in the detailing side of things, this is Richards company: www.reflections-detailing.co.uk - I really can't recommend his work highly enough.
Lovely car, thanks for the article.
I'm seriously considering one of these in some way shape or form after moving on from an old Audi S8. It's such an accomplished car though it's been hard to find something that ticks nearly the same boxes, but these Jaguars seem like a nice transition.
I've been slowly moving up through engine sizes and I can't think of anything beyond 5 litres that I could reasonably justify to the family or afford. Fuel economy - or lack of - wouldn't be a problem as I walk to work.
Better starting searching and saving - I didn't know they were that scarce.
I'm seriously considering one of these in some way shape or form after moving on from an old Audi S8. It's such an accomplished car though it's been hard to find something that ticks nearly the same boxes, but these Jaguars seem like a nice transition.
I've been slowly moving up through engine sizes and I can't think of anything beyond 5 litres that I could reasonably justify to the family or afford. Fuel economy - or lack of - wouldn't be a problem as I walk to work.
Better starting searching and saving - I didn't know they were that scarce.
kinghottinger said:
SteveGrosvenor said:
Would love a Spires system, but worried that it would be too intrusive on those longer family journeys. Did you ever find that?
I didn't fit a Spires in the end, but from what I read at the time the back boxes weren't too intrusive at moderate revs to those that had them. With the family onboard I suppose one drives more gently anyway (D mode, non dynamic). There's an XF forum where a few folk have them.I sold my XFR to buy a Defender - so my kids have got used to intrusive noises
On the interior front, it looks very similarly equipped to mine. It's a really nice place to be
It gets a lot of slagging from the German fanboys for being dated, cheap feeling and poor quality. I get taxied around a lot with work and get a lot of Mercedes C & E classes; particularly in Norway - it's all either Mercs or Prius/Teslas. I've yet to sit in a German mid-sized saloon and feel like I have a poor interior in the XF. On the contrary I'm always delighted to get back in my own car.
Might even see if the boot is big enough for my wife to fit in some Belgian chocolates amongst my Belgian beer
Clearly a reference to the famous Castlemaine XXXX advert surely.
I always liked the XF. A much better rendering of classic and future Jag than the X and S Types.
Would agree that 3 miles each way in a V8 is not likely to help MPG or the car much. Though it must be difficult to resist.
Clearly a reference to the famous Castlemaine XXXX advert surely.
I always liked the XF. A much better rendering of classic and future Jag than the X and S Types.
Would agree that 3 miles each way in a V8 is not likely to help MPG or the car much. Though it must be difficult to resist.
crostonian said:
Had forgotten they'd made a non supercharged 5.0 V8 XF, that fuel consumption is pretty horrendous though, my old Maserati Quattroporte never dipped below 17mpg and averaged around 20mpg.
"Every journey has an element of drama". Mainly at the petrol pump checkout I guess... Why is this car so awful on fuel? My E39 M5 has averaged 20.4 for 40,000 miles, equally powerful yet a minimum 25% more efficient. The short commute is not wholly to blame as my office is only 5 miles from home as well...jamespink said:
"Every journey has an element of drama". Mainly at the petrol pump checkout I guess... Why is this car so awful on fuel? My E39 M5 has averaged 20.4 for 40,000 miles, equally powerful yet a minimum 25% more efficient. The short commute is not wholly to blame as my office is only 5 miles from home as well...
Depends how you drive it My XFR will muster 29mpg (calculated) on a long motorway run on cruise @ 70. Short trips barely out of single figures.
Average daily commute (50 mile round trip) 20mpg. Best case daily commute (no traffic, minimal stop / start) 26.
I have a diesel XF as well and both it and the XFR seem to be *terrible* on fuel until warmed up. Which takes a while.
I used to have an E39 M5 as well and largely see the same mpg out of the XFR for similar journeys (though never really tested the m5 on a long motorway jaunt).
I *think* (without checking so could be wrong) the XF might be a bit heavier than the e39. Whether that makes any odds given the power of the engine I have no idea.
Edited by eztiger on Tuesday 7th April 13:07
Don't really want to get bogged down on the mpg side of things, as that is not the reason I purchased the car - but on a run to Silverstone on Sunday it averaged 26 mpg. The low mpg average is purely down to the short journeys during the working week. I wholly accept that. I can live with it, and it does not detract from my enjoyment of the car. Each to their own really. I mentioned it in the article to give a rounded picture of my experience with the car.
Edited by SteveGrosvenor on Tuesday 7th April 13:44
jamieduff1981 said:
The Spires Stage 1 & 2 system ends up very similar to the R-S - with the sporty back boxes and the centre boxes deleted. The R-S is barely audible inside the car. The V8 XF would benefit from a valved system like that on the XKR to make it a little sportier when the mood suits. The Spires is maybe a smidgeon at most louder than the factory R-S, but the latter is still a very quiet motorway cruiser inside so you really shouldn't worry about it becoming too noisy.
I can vouch for this having sat in this very car with the owner, much quieter than I thought it would be during normal driving - which I liked.jamespink said:
crostonian said:
Had forgotten they'd made a non supercharged 5.0 V8 XF, that fuel consumption is pretty horrendous though, my old Maserati Quattroporte never dipped below 17mpg and averaged around 20mpg.
"Every journey has an element of drama". Mainly at the petrol pump checkout I guess... Why is this car so awful on fuel? My E39 M5 has averaged 20.4 for 40,000 miles, equally powerful yet a minimum 25% more efficient. The short commute is not wholly to blame as my office is only 5 miles from home as well...How many miles per gallon does an A380 get whilst taxying to a runway at Heathrow versus a 747 flying along at cruising speed?
triathlonstu said:
Sat in a V8 doing 0mph for 30 minutes. Must be a complete hoot.
to be honest its the morning one that's a pain because I pass two schools on the way home I have to go to a couple of other places and its great and runs on the weekend makes it worth while, plus the v8 itch is one you have to scratch at some point 
Great car Steve, it seems like you're enjoying your Jag.
I upgraded my XF Diesel S to an XFR last month (59 plate with only 19k miles on the clock!). It really is Jekyll & Hyde - nice, smooth, quiet, capable of doing the school run when you need to do the normal stuff... but when you have no kids or bread knife in the car and an open road, you can hit the pedal to unleash 500+bhp of V8 fury!
Until this week, the weather has been cold and rainy, so I hadn't had the guts to push the pedal all the way down. That changed this weekend though with the sunny weather. I was brave enough to go all the way. Wow - The power and noise are absolutely worth the underwear bill and horrific fuel consumption I am already experiencing :-)
As other people are testifying, fuel efficiency is truly awful, but I figured I only live once :-)
I upgraded my XF Diesel S to an XFR last month (59 plate with only 19k miles on the clock!). It really is Jekyll & Hyde - nice, smooth, quiet, capable of doing the school run when you need to do the normal stuff... but when you have no kids or bread knife in the car and an open road, you can hit the pedal to unleash 500+bhp of V8 fury!
Until this week, the weather has been cold and rainy, so I hadn't had the guts to push the pedal all the way down. That changed this weekend though with the sunny weather. I was brave enough to go all the way. Wow - The power and noise are absolutely worth the underwear bill and horrific fuel consumption I am already experiencing :-)
As other people are testifying, fuel efficiency is truly awful, but I figured I only live once :-)
mr TICKHILL said:
to be honest its the morning one that's a pain because I pass two schools on the way home I have to go to a couple of other places and its great and runs on the weekend makes it worth while, plus the v8 itch is one you have to scratch at some point
It's one that I'd scratch if I had the funds to do so. A B7 RS4 would be right up my street!I've used mine the past 3 days and although I'm still overtaking pretty much everyone who tries sitting a few cars' lengths off my front bumper, I've been manually changing up at around 1,600rpm and just using the torque to accelerate the same as or slightly quicker than all the normal cars, and cruising in 8th at 60mph (B-road, not motorway drone) at around 1,200rpm. It's showing 26mpg which I don't think anyone could have a serious moan at.
It was serviced last weekend and I think they may have updated the gearbox software because I've noticed that when I lift for a corner and flick the left paddle to downshift from normal "D" mode, rather than dropping from 8th to 7th, it's skipping down to 5th (or lower, depending on speed). I quite like that because previously approaching a tight corner from cruising speed was a tedious affair of changing down through an excess of gears to the sort of ratios you might actually want for some V8 noise on exit. The S/C V8 has such a flat torque curve and the gearbox is so quick in auto anyway that there's absolutely no need to do this to accelerate out quickly, but if you're immature like me you do it anyway sometimes.
It was serviced last weekend and I think they may have updated the gearbox software because I've noticed that when I lift for a corner and flick the left paddle to downshift from normal "D" mode, rather than dropping from 8th to 7th, it's skipping down to 5th (or lower, depending on speed). I quite like that because previously approaching a tight corner from cruising speed was a tedious affair of changing down through an excess of gears to the sort of ratios you might actually want for some V8 noise on exit. The S/C V8 has such a flat torque curve and the gearbox is so quick in auto anyway that there's absolutely no need to do this to accelerate out quickly, but if you're immature like me you do it anyway sometimes.
I own this car's (aside from LHD, 19s and Sirius radio) identical twin, totally agree that the NA 5.0 is the sweet spot for these cars as it's just a wonderful thing to drive.
Mpg seems at odds with what I'm getting, I tend to get in the 24s on the highway, cruising at 75-80, on a naughty 90-105 mph run I average closer to the low-mid 22s, and that's on US gallons so figure roughly 15% higher figures for UK.
7mpg? Where? Santa Pod? Driving like a crackhead in Manhattan stop and go traffic I can't get mine under 12mpg.
Mpg seems at odds with what I'm getting, I tend to get in the 24s on the highway, cruising at 75-80, on a naughty 90-105 mph run I average closer to the low-mid 22s, and that's on US gallons so figure roughly 15% higher figures for UK.
7mpg? Where? Santa Pod? Driving like a crackhead in Manhattan stop and go traffic I can't get mine under 12mpg.
Here in the US, V8 cars are much more plentiful. Making the decision to drive one even though in most cases you cannot enjoy the full monty makes no difference to me. I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Since retirement, and the end of company cars, my dear wife has put me on a car budget, since she knows firsthand of my excess. Older rear drive cars are not a hot item, so a nice Mark VIII or non fleet Panther work well for my needs. I have even owned a couple of Eldorado's with the Northstar without catastrophe. That this man has the means to enjoy this fine Jaguar product makes me reluctant to question his motives regardless of usage.
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