anybody here got an F type?

[bordseye]

I am pondering replacing my elise r with something a bit more comfortable for my old bones and the shortlist is 911, 430 or F type. So I'd be interested in ownership experiences of the F type. Is it really a drivers car to put on the same list as the porker and ferrari? In other words is it a replace for the E type which when launched was a ferrari equivalent.

And how well built? How expensive to maintain. All the ususal questions.

I would be thinking of the V6S - ultimate power / speed isnt what I want so much as fun driving.

[bordseye]

Old enough to find the sills in the Elise a bit awkward.

But I like simple lightweight cars with a performance that is within my limited skills. So I dont want what Ettore Bugatti referred to as high speed lorries. Like the XK8. And I am wondering where the F type fits in the spectrum. Both the 911 and 430 are more complex and higher performance than I ideally would want or indeed that both makes originally set out to be. An older air cooled 911 or maybe a 360 would be nearer the mark but my days of classic cars with all the maintenance issues are over. Thats the beauty of the Elise - light, simple, fast enough in R form, drives like a go cart yet with toyota mechanics its reliable and easy to service.

With the demise of the small british makers there is a gap in the market

[bordseye]

I think I'll organise a test drive

[bordseye]

johnxjsc1985 said:

this may help.
http://www.pistonheads.com/tv/film/jaguar-f-type-c...

Interesting watch. Seems more than a bit tail happy. I suppose it could be the driver but I must have watched 20 fast Nurburging laps and never see anything like as many tail twitches.

What was that car that came past him at 8 mins dead - passed like he was stood still. Looked like a Zonda or something similar.

The inside of the car puts me off a bit. Apart from the steering wheel badge it could easily be a BM or an Audi or indeed any other mass manufacture. Not very special at all.

[bordseye]

Thats a really interesting post. I blow hot and cold over the Ferrari - sure it liiks good, and once in a lifetime to own that badge! But I guess its not really useable day to day and with UK traffic it cant be driven as it should be on special days out. But I have tested the Porkers both Boxter and 911 and neither of them really seems like a special "toy" car. Far too common.

Maybe a wait for the Evora convertible?

[bordseye]

But I grew up at the same time you did, and in those days when an E type was a 2k car, an aston was a 4k one as was a ferrari. The difference is that in those days a E type was fully a match for both aston and ferrari whereas the F type doesnt seem to be quite there

[bordseye]

Tel said:

I did a pretty in-depth review on the F-Type owners club (http://www.ftypeownersclub.co.uk) if you really want some bedtime reading!

There's many a plus point, and a few niggles. Unfortunately I experienced poor metal and paintwork finish, and not much direct support from their HQ. That said, the car is being replaced as I mentioned above, but shouldn't occur anyway.

Can find the forum but not the report. Limk?

[bordseye]

In the old days ( well I am getting on a bit) an Aston was the same sort of cost as a Ferrari and the E type was half the cost or a bit less. What now seems to be the case is that the Jag is still half the cost of a Ferrai but the Aston is no longer a premium supercar like the Ferrari but rather more downmarket. In short its not so much the Jag being expensive as the Aston being cheap - in traditional terms that is.

[bordseye]

cardigankid said:

For me, if I am looking for a deluxe high performance sports convertible, I look at the Morgan, but dismiss it fairly quickly, then I would consider the Boxster and the F Type. Caterham is nice but for me too exposed and too much like a motor bike.

Which is just about where I am, with a 100k max budget. The "Trad" Morgans can be discounted unless you like the feel of the chassis flexing underneath you and the car bouncing from pothole to pothole. The Aero based Morgans should be different having modern glued ally chassis, but unlike Lotus, Morgan dont have the technical skills in house to exploit the chassis and so the test reports havent been uniformly good. In any case, the price is high.

So you start looking at Porkers as I did. Very competent , well engineered but like dicks - half the world seems to have one. And inside they are much like every other German car. I have tried to want one. I really have. But I just cant persuade myself that I do. And where is the point in chosing a big boys toy on the basis of logic and common sense rather than heart?

The next stop was Ferrari. Lovely to look at, the badge to have and the nearest I have found to a grown up version of the Elise R that I currently have and enjoy driving. I would like one but then a little voice says " paying 100k for a 10 year old car? You must be mad". Plus there are questions about useability ( dare you park one in a side street, dare you do 10k miles a year?) and maintenance costs. Not ruled out but it left me looking at what else there might be and hence the question about the F Type.

Ruled out Lambo - the angular styling is far too much " look at me" poser style, however good the dynamics and engineering might be. Ruled out Aston - too old and staid, plus doubts about reliability.

And thats where I am. Nearly new F type or 10 year old 430?

[bordseye]

Whilst I can afford the 100k, it was altogether too hard earned for me to simply write it off. So depreciation matters and thats where Ferrari seem to have Porker and Jaguar well beaten. As a toy car which might do maybe 5k miles a year, the total cost of running a 430 is likely to be less than that of a Porker. Who ever saw a Ferrari in decent nick priced at 15k - but its quite easy to find an old 911 at that figure. Likely the same for a Jag.

My guess at the very rough 5 year arithmetic ( excluding petrol, tyres tax etc) goes something like :

430 - buy 100k sell 75k service 20k ownership 45k

F type - buy at 100k sell 30k service 5k loss 75k

911 - buy 100k sell 30k service 10k loss 80k

I have no doubt that there will be huge disagreement with these numbers but does anyone argue that the basic conclusion - that the Ferrari will depreciate less but cost more to maintain - is wrong?

[bordseye]

Little Lofty said:

Well I'm selling my V6S, it's the best car I've owned, better than my 981 Cayman and even my R8 which I loved. It's not had a single problem, no rattles and nothing fell off I've got it booked in for its first service next Friday at a very reasonable £199.00. So, super car looks, great performance and noise, and the running costs of a hot hatch, what's not to like.

Whats not to like? Well I finally got round to road testing an F type 3.6S soft top and I found lots not to like. I'm not saying its slow - it isnt. And its really rather nice looking. And its comfortable. But it isnt a sports car as I would understand the term not least because it had more buttons and systems than you could shake a stick at. Far too many to list here or even for the salesman to explain to me.

But worst of all it had an exhaust which had been tuned to make a nice noise. Not to extract the most performance, but to make a noise. In a way that says all you need to know about the design philosophy behind the car.

And then there is the thought - what if I keep the car until its 10 years old. What price me or even my local garage coping with electrical problems / electronics issues even assuming that Jaguar offer spares that far into a model life.The car has keyless ignition and electrically activated door handles that pop in and out. It has an ECU that talks to your phone. The seats have a memory for who is driving. The steering wheel lifts itself out of the way when you get in or out. It has several driving modes. It has traction control, abs, and things like accelerometers. And reversing cameras. And a system to cope with flatulence - or at least thats what I think the salesman said - that exhaust is loud.

And 8 gears! Please explain to me why a supercharged petrol engine barely exceeding 100 bhp/ litre can be made so inflexible as to need 8 gears. And even then a jrky change compared to a Porker.

What I am trying to say is that its far too complicated - something that might be tolerable with Korean or Japanese build quality but made in Britain? The homeland of Joseph Lucas Prince of Darkness?.

Edited by bordseye on Monday 11th May 21:30

[bordseye]

GarethR said:

That is drop dead gorgeous!

I wonder if they will be saying that about the F-Type in 60 years!

No. Because with all the fancy electronics on an F type, there wont be one of them running on the roads in 60 years time. They will long ago have been scrapped for want of parts.

Much of the classic car industry is kept going by back yard manufacture of spares, possible because the original item was low tech.

[bordseye]

Chris_H said:

The wipers on my V6 S Coupe occasionly do a single sweep not long after starting, even though there's been no rain for days and humidity is low. Also, the rear spoiler doesn't always activate at 60mph. The start of electrical gremlins?

The ghost of Joseph Lucas still walks this earth - in darkness of course!