Discussion
Hi All
I'm considering options for replacing my Mondeo 2.0 Ecoboost (I find the Eco part to be more of an ironic naming!) later on in the year and a big engined Jag is high on the list, namely the XF SV8 or XFR. I've found a bit of info on the R but the SV8 is not so easy to find info on.
I like the looks of the R and the seats are much better, but on the flip side the SV8 is much more discreet and I would feel happier leaving it parked up away from home. Performance on paper seems not dissimilar?
There's a big difference in purchase price, say £10k-ish for similar mileage approved used cars. However I would expect this to be offset by residual values and for the R to be easier to move on after a couple of years.
What would be the difference in running costs? I presume the difference in fuel consumption would be negligible. What about servicing and other routine maintenance such as brakes? Does the SV8 share more parts with the other XFs, with the R being more bespoke?
In an ideal world, I'd take the R, but it'll be a bit more of a stretch financially so running costs will play a part.
Thanks in advance for any help!
George
I'm considering options for replacing my Mondeo 2.0 Ecoboost (I find the Eco part to be more of an ironic naming!) later on in the year and a big engined Jag is high on the list, namely the XF SV8 or XFR. I've found a bit of info on the R but the SV8 is not so easy to find info on.
I like the looks of the R and the seats are much better, but on the flip side the SV8 is much more discreet and I would feel happier leaving it parked up away from home. Performance on paper seems not dissimilar?
There's a big difference in purchase price, say £10k-ish for similar mileage approved used cars. However I would expect this to be offset by residual values and for the R to be easier to move on after a couple of years.
What would be the difference in running costs? I presume the difference in fuel consumption would be negligible. What about servicing and other routine maintenance such as brakes? Does the SV8 share more parts with the other XFs, with the R being more bespoke?
In an ideal world, I'd take the R, but it'll be a bit more of a stretch financially so running costs will play a part.
Thanks in advance for any help!
George
The Leaper said:
Don't overlook the XF 5.0 V8, non supercharged. This is the standard car for the USA market, and not marketed at all in the UK but was available to order. 384 bhp, so close to the SV8 and an unstressed engine too. No slouch either. What I really like is the combination of very good performance and yet it's a car that wafts about easliy too. I've had one since June 2014 and so far it's been really excellent. Mine's a Portfolio Plus so has loads of additional stuff too.
The only potential issue is finding one with the colour combination and spec. that you want. Mine is emerald fire and a barley interior, which is very close my ideal combination: ideally I'd like ivory inside. The sun roof was the clincher maybe!
R.
Interesting proposition. I'd like to try it back to back with a SC engine. On paper 0-60 is close, but I wonder how 0-100 would look. Plus there's quite a difference in torque figures. How's the fuel economy? I know I shouldn't get too caught up on that with such a car, however I do feel if I were bank-rolling 15mpg I'd rather it was in the faster car. The only potential issue is finding one with the colour combination and spec. that you want. Mine is emerald fire and a barley interior, which is very close my ideal combination: ideally I'd like ivory inside. The sun roof was the clincher maybe!
R.
Looking at what's for sale right now, £20k-ish will get me into a low mile 5.0 Portfolio, an R in the 80-100k miles range, or a low miles SV8 with plenty of change.
Thanks to everyone for their responses. Some interesting points and good to hear opinions from both sides.
Ultimately I'd like to go for the R, but it will require saving for a bit longer to make up enough of a deposit to keep the loan payments somewhere I'm happy with. I think possibly it will be worth the wait. I suppose I need to go out and try both and make up my mind.
Your comments certainly haven't put me off the SV8, I'm sure it'll have more performance than I'd ever need and feel like a rocket coming from a 2.0 turbo. Plus as much as I love the racy looks of the R I like the subtlety of the SV8. I can't help feeling the R may present the better ownership proposition financially, initial purchase price aside. To my mind it is likely to have better residuals and be more desirable when it comes time to move it on?
Interesting to hear comments on the fuel economy of the 5.0 NA. The Mondeo gets me low 20s on my commute (only 4 miles so on a cold engine) and low-mid 30s on a long run with cruise set to 70. Not a million miles from the V8, although of course twice the cylinders is always going to result in much worse economy.
Ultimately I'd like to go for the R, but it will require saving for a bit longer to make up enough of a deposit to keep the loan payments somewhere I'm happy with. I think possibly it will be worth the wait. I suppose I need to go out and try both and make up my mind.
Your comments certainly haven't put me off the SV8, I'm sure it'll have more performance than I'd ever need and feel like a rocket coming from a 2.0 turbo. Plus as much as I love the racy looks of the R I like the subtlety of the SV8. I can't help feeling the R may present the better ownership proposition financially, initial purchase price aside. To my mind it is likely to have better residuals and be more desirable when it comes time to move it on?
Interesting to hear comments on the fuel economy of the 5.0 NA. The Mondeo gets me low 20s on my commute (only 4 miles so on a cold engine) and low-mid 30s on a long run with cruise set to 70. Not a million miles from the V8, although of course twice the cylinders is always going to result in much worse economy.
MrTurner said:
With this it seems like you kind of want the R, but aren't really happy to shell out the extra. Sounds like where I was last year! They'll all depreciate down, especially when the new XF comes out. Leave yourself a good exit route and change to an R when the prices are better. I lost a lot on trading my SV8, but am happy with the experience it gave me.
You're right, in a money-no-object world, I'd take the R. But it does cost a lot more for similar performance on paper, and I do live in a dodgy area (well, close to Bradford/Leeds) where a more subtle performance car isn't entirely a bad thing.Out of interest, was there anything in particular that made you feel like your SV8 was on its last legs? Looking at what's for sale right now and cosmetically a lot of them have faults, namely de-laminating windscreens, missing centre caps on alloys etc. Mostly niggly things although I wouldn't want to shell out on a new windscreen immediately after purchase. But, opinions I've read rate the drivetrain as pretty dependable.
eztiger said:
Can't help much with the comparison, but I picked up an XFR a few weeks back and it's an awesome bit of kit.
Averaging 19/20mpg on a tank with mixed driving. I have a pre-facelift so the fewer gears in the box won't be helping. One thing to be aware of is the tank is tiny. 250 miles to a fill if I'm lucky but usually somewhere between 200 and 250.
Am I right in saying there is a non-XFR 5.0 SC XF model? I think that's the 'sensible' buy as a remap will take you up to the same level of power the XFR can attain but without the XFR costs. You'll lose the suspension / bodykit / other XFR specific bits but whether that's important - and worth the additional cost - will be up to you.
I've seen this 5.0 SC in the US, but never seen anything in the UK. They do a 5.0 NA, and there was obviously the previous SV8 discussed above, which is the SC 4.2. I'm entirely 50/50 on whether I want the R's looks. My inner child certainly does, but I think there are a lot of occasions where discreet is better.Averaging 19/20mpg on a tank with mixed driving. I have a pre-facelift so the fewer gears in the box won't be helping. One thing to be aware of is the tank is tiny. 250 miles to a fill if I'm lucky but usually somewhere between 200 and 250.
Am I right in saying there is a non-XFR 5.0 SC XF model? I think that's the 'sensible' buy as a remap will take you up to the same level of power the XFR can attain but without the XFR costs. You'll lose the suspension / bodykit / other XFR specific bits but whether that's important - and worth the additional cost - will be up to you.
Thanks again to everyone for the replies. Again, some interesting points.
Hatfields Jaguar Hull have an SV8 listed for £12k with 109k on the clock. Bit high mileage but if it's got some sort of main dealer backing might be worth closer inspection. No pictures online though. Mileage doesn't put me off, in fact there is a direct correlation in my car history between less miles = more problems or more miles = less problems! Condition however is everything. Most SV8s seem to be for sale by Joe Bloggs Trade Cars which wouldn't fill me with confidence.
Funnily enough, evo posted a buying guide on XFRs this week. Interesting read, and some of the parts costs weren't as scary as I had expected. Ultimately I think the R is the route I would like to go down, it is the better car. For the SV8 to work for me it would have to be less costly enough to make the sacrifice worthwhile.
All said and done, I'm in no rush to change and am happy waiting for the right car to come along. Ideally an R that isn't shagged for £20k from a dealer that isn't called 'something Trade Cars' or based in Keighley. They seem to be approaching these values so I will be keeping my eyes peeled, not forgetting SV8s if the perfect one crops up for sensible money.
f430hunter said:
theres a one owner very low mileage sv8 on ebay at 18950 fully loaded could be worth contacting seller to see if theres a deal to be had?
That's a bit more than I'd like to spend on an SV8 I think. While I won't rule the right one out, it's too close to R money for my liking. Hatfields Jaguar Hull have an SV8 listed for £12k with 109k on the clock. Bit high mileage but if it's got some sort of main dealer backing might be worth closer inspection. No pictures online though. Mileage doesn't put me off, in fact there is a direct correlation in my car history between less miles = more problems or more miles = less problems! Condition however is everything. Most SV8s seem to be for sale by Joe Bloggs Trade Cars which wouldn't fill me with confidence.
Funnily enough, evo posted a buying guide on XFRs this week. Interesting read, and some of the parts costs weren't as scary as I had expected. Ultimately I think the R is the route I would like to go down, it is the better car. For the SV8 to work for me it would have to be less costly enough to make the sacrifice worthwhile.
All said and done, I'm in no rush to change and am happy waiting for the right car to come along. Ideally an R that isn't shagged for £20k from a dealer that isn't called 'something Trade Cars' or based in Keighley. They seem to be approaching these values so I will be keeping my eyes peeled, not forgetting SV8s if the perfect one crops up for sensible money.
eztiger said:
If you're feeling frisky there’s a high mileage XFR on autotrader for 14k. Been there a while so I bet you can get it down a bit as well.
No idea how sane a proposition it would be presuming it's in ok condition. But if it turns out well it's a huge amount of car for the money.
Can run it past jaguar as well I think to get it put back on warranty if it passes their tests.
Not sure I've the balls for it. Can't help feeling that despite that mileage, if all was well with it, it should be up for a little bit more.. Missing front tow hook and alloy centre caps are an initial alarm for me, albeit cheaply fixed.No idea how sane a proposition it would be presuming it's in ok condition. But if it turns out well it's a huge amount of car for the money.
Can run it past jaguar as well I think to get it put back on warranty if it passes their tests.
eztiger said:
Ah - good spot. Agreed.
Might mean it's had a tow at some point in the worst case..
I suppose it's not the end of the world, but why wouldn't the dealer have replaced them? If it was closer to me I'd have a look at it, you never know, it might have full history and run sweet. If the brakes and tyres are decent and it came with a full ticket, could be worth the gamble. Seems unlikely it would throw £5k worth of problems.Might mean it's had a tow at some point in the worst case..
The exact car used by JC on Top Gear is for sale too, but has had a Cat D at some point. Still up for £21k!
MrTurner said:
How are you funding? If you go pcp route you can negotiate almost everything, even the APR rate. I saved 3% by changing cars!
I prefer to fund with a bank loan. For monthly cash flow purposes I don't want to borrow more than about £11-12k, the rest will be p/ex and cash. The cheaper the car, the quicker I can afford it essentially. But I won't rush in for the sake of a couple of extra months saving to get the right car.MrTurner said:
Whatever you do, I'd recommend a decent warranty. The mechanicals in mine have been solid but the amount of electronics and cost of big items if they do go wrong make a warranty worth it.
Good to know, thanks. What sort of stuff is common to go on the electrics? The Rs within the sort of budget I'm aiming for currently are outside the main dealer network, and I'm lead to believe most non-manufacturer backed warranties aren't worth the paper they're written on. However I'm looking to purchase later in the year (unless the right car comes up at the right price sooner) so values will possibly be down a little by then. Perhaps early to be researching/watching the market but in the past I have rushed into a car within the space of a few days- this time I want to know what I'm doing and get exactly the car I want.MrTurner said:
How often do you change cars? Realistically I avoided PCP for so long because I'd never own the car. But I rarely keep them long enough to pay the loan off anyway so haggled a low APR but can afford to drive a much better car. The warranty extension was £130pm so I added that to my HP payment. An independent warranty was about half of that.
I change cars far too often. 19 months so far is the longest I've managed. That said, with the XFR I'm not so sure I would get the itch to switch quite so soon as there's very little out there that's better than it at anything!With regard to finance, I like the bank loans as I find them easier to deal with. I can make overpayments every month (eg. current car is on a 5 year loan but should be paid off before the 2 year mark all being well) or if I want to switch the car early there are no early settlement penalties. I suppose in reality a 5 year loan is similar to a 3 year PCP if you keep the car for 3 years. You still have a figure at the end to pay off. If I were to save money with the PCP I would certainly consider it, however when I've looked before the monthly payments between PCP and 5 year loan always seem very close.
That's quite a list of niggles you had with the SV8. Wouldn't be too happy if it were coming out of my wallet, as I'm sure you wouldn't have! De-laminating windscreens seem incredibly common, some of the Rs listed for sale seem to suffer it too to varying degrees. Really makes the car scruffy.
Someone has just posted their new XFR in the 'Readers Cars' section of the forum. Really not helping me curb my excitement to go out and buy one now!
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