RE: Jaguar XF SV8 | The Brave Pill

[Robinus]

There are also no real problems with the timing chains, as mentioned in the flawed article, or tensioners/guides for that matter. In the 4.2 of this vintage, those issues are long in the past & the engine is pretty bulletproof.

Edited by Robinus on Sunday 8th March 23:09

[anonymous-user]

Looks a very nice car and if you do need parts at any time would be a damn sight cheaper than the foreign competition.

[tim milne]

"I got stuck at after the Mr. Kipling gear selector failed to motor upwards when the engine started. Yet these days it is now generally regarded as one of Jaguar's sturdier products, and the fact our Pill's motorized till working should be regarded as positive signs - as is the apparent health of the central touch-sensitive display screen. Our Pill's first owner seems to have ticked pretty much every box on the order sheer"

Do proof-readers not work at weekends on PH?

[The Hypno-Toad]

Got to say that the Brave Pill and Shed Of The Week are by far the most entertaining things on PH at the moment. Although I will probably never buy any of them, keep up the good work!

[BUG4LIFE]

Mr Tidy said:

It looks like I must be in a tiny minority of people who liked the S-Type.

But this looks fantastic, and at that price I'm not sure how brave a pill it is!

I don’t mind the styling on the S-Type R. I wouldn’t say I love it but it also wouldn’t stop me buying one...in fact I could be interested in buying one! The only think that puts me off is the old infotainment system and that it’s apparently very tough to upgrade it.

[theJT]

PSB1967 said:

Great car! Except one thing: The VED for this car is £570 pa, more than 10% of its value. The bravest thing about this for me would be gambling I could off load it to someone else once I got bored of it. A shame really.

It's £11 per week, not even noticeable in the running costs of any car.



Well, that rather depends doesn't it? If I ran this as my "only for weekends and long distances" vehicle, that would be about the same as I'd expect to spend on everything else put together in a year - insurance being a possible exception - but the one car I do use "regularly" I drive about once a month. The rest of the time I'm on one of my bikes. If you only drive it once a month and use maybe 40 quids worth of fuel, paying pretty much the same again in tax just to have the thing sitting in your garage against the day you might need 4 seats or some luggage capacity it starts to get a bit painful.

[anonymous-user]

Robinus said:

There are also no real problems with the timing chains, as mentioned in the flawed article, or tensioners/guides for that matter. In the 4.2 of this vintage, those issues are long in the past & the engine is pretty bulletproof.

Edited by Robinus on Sunday 8th March 23:09

Unfortunately timing chain issues made a return for the 5.0 engine. For someone running an XF on a tight budget the port injected 4.2 is a safer bet than the DI 5.0 in both NASP and supercharged versions.

[jagfan2]

Colin-t4n2y said:

I agree with 'The Leaper' that the normally aspirated 5.0 V8 is a better engine, so much so that I bought a 2010 5.0 V8S in 2013 and only sold it last December, after 90,000 glorious miles. The V8S is a fantastic combination of serene long distance cruiser (attested to by several trips across and around Europe in mine), tyre shredding performance when required, and epic V8 howl at higher revs! It also has a far better ride/handling setup than the unnecessarily bone jarring XF-R, and far more affordable servicing costs. The £570 p.a. road tax is definitely painful! Perhaps the best tribute to the 5.0 V8S is that for most of the 6 1/2 years I owned the car I also had a Ferrari F355 F1 in my garage, and it was often a touch choice of which one to take out for an early Sunday morning blast!!

Nice, I worked for JLR and managed to borrow one a couple of times, and was my all time favourite, did the daily combo of cruiser 80% of the time and bruiser 20% when you needed better than almost any car i have driven, with the added benefit of decent mpg. I know why they never did one but a V8S sportbrake would be a perfect car for me.

Love it when pistonheads picks on a revvy 385bhp/380lbft N/A RWD saloon as not quite right Anyone note thaose are basically the specs of an E39 M5

[cerb4.5lee]

jagfan2 said:

Love it when pistonheads picks on a revvy 385bhp/380lbft N/A RWD saloon as not quite right Anyone note thaose are basically the specs of an E39 M5

In fairness the manual gearbox is the saving grace for the E39 M5 for me.

More driving and less wafting in the M5.

[Limpet]

Always loved these early XFs but never been brave enough to take the plunge myself after the torrid experience my old boss had with a spanking new 08 plate (V6 diesel).

Mechanically fine, but constant problems with electrics and niggles caused by appalling build quality (intermittent clonking traced to an incorrectly installed fuel tank, and a creak down to a steering column that wasn’t greased properly at the factory) as examples. It wasn’t so much built, as chucked together.

I actually love the car itself though. Grace, space and pace in spades.

[J4CKO]

Six grand with 156k up ?

I had experience of trying to offload a lovely, thirsty V8 barge a couple of years back, same age, similar, power, less miles and similar condition.

They need to be cheap to find a buyer as the market is limited, not sure if the V8 is significantly more valuable than the Merc CLS I had for sale but I still see them for a lot more than I sold mine for, but stuff like this can hang around for ages unless its a conspicuous bargain.

£3995 would tempt me, but not £5995.

[willmagrath]

My dad has a 2012 xf s, with 35,000 miles on it, and its a never ending whirlwind of issues. It doesn't help that the dealer network is completely useless and seem to want to charge nothing more than insulting figures for repair work.

I would love to buy an xf myself but I just couldn't live with the issues,

[greenarrow]

willmagrath said:

My dad has a 2012 xf s, with 35,000 miles on it, and its a never ending whirlwind of issues. It doesn't help that the dealer network is completely useless and seem to want to charge nothing more than insulting figures for repair work.

I would love to buy an xf myself but I just couldn't live with the issues,

On the other hand my father in law's 2011 Premium Edition diesel has been the picture of reliability in the 8 years he has owned it. Just one fault in that time, an EML issue which was corrected last year and didn't affect the running of the car in any way..

[anonymous-user]

The JLR disease is inconsistent quality, rather than consistently poor quality, and they seem to have gone backwards in this regard since losing the steadying hand of Uncle Henry.

[John Locke]

greenarrow said:

willmagrath said:

My dad has a 2012 xf s, with 35,000 miles on it, and its a never ending whirlwind of issues. It doesn't help that the dealer network is completely useless and seem to want to charge nothing more than insulting figures for repair work.

I would love to buy an xf myself but I just couldn't live with the issues,

On the other hand my father in law's 2011 Premium Edition diesel has been the picture of reliability in the 8 years he has owned it. Just one fault in that time, an EML issue which was corrected last year and didn't affect the running of the car in any way..

My wife has had 2 XFs, a 4.2 PL to 80,000, and a facelift 8 speed XFR which is now close to that. Not the smallest problem with either. She plans to keep this one as there is nothing else offering the same combination of performance, comfort and easy inexpensive ownership. Main dealer servicing @ minor £225, major £285 is less than she paid for the Megane she owned 10 years ago.

[TdM-GTV]

John Locke said:

greenarrow said:

willmagrath said:

My dad has a 2012 xf s, with 35,000 miles on it, and its a never ending whirlwind of issues. It doesn't help that the dealer network is completely useless and seem to want to charge nothing more than insulting figures for repair work.

I would love to buy an xf myself but I just couldn't live with the issues,

On the other hand my father in law's 2011 Premium Edition diesel has been the picture of reliability in the 8 years he has owned it. Just one fault in that time, an EML issue which was corrected last year and didn't affect the running of the car in any way..

My wife has had 2 XFs, a 4.2 PL to 80,000, and a facelift 8 speed XFR which is now close to that. Not the smallest problem with either. She plans to keep this one as there is nothing else offering the same combination of performance, comfort and easy inexpensive ownership. Main dealer servicing @ minor £225, major £285 is less than she paid for the Megane she owned 10 years ago.

And I think that's the thing... Servicing isn't much more than a Mondeo which rather absorbs the tax cost in my opinion and there is literally nothing on the market now that has the lovely plush interior and comfort whilst still being a thunderous brute when you want it to be. Yes there are 'nice interiors' in other cars but they aren't quite the same level of luxury armchair waftiness...

[fatboy b]

John Locke said:

There's nothing wrong with the 5.0, but the 4.2 is even tougher, and easy /cheap to get a lot more power from.

Yeah you’re wrong there. Chain tensioners and tappets are becoming weak areas. Tappets are rarer and mainly V6 has the issue.

The inlet valves at the back get the oil last. Then if you have a manufacturing defect on the tappets (like I did on my V8 5.0), they wear prematurely all funny. That screws the valve guide. That’s a new head. That’s an expensive repair or new engine. My repair was £11k.

[fatboy b]

Helicopter123 said:

I really admired the XF when it was launched and nearly bought one, and then again when it was facelifted.

On both occasions I just couldn't get passed the interior which I just felt was ste.

Still, at £5k, that's a lot of car for the money.

The facelift interior is better for quality than any Audi or BMW I’ve had. The facelift XF x250 is better than the original though

[fatboy b]

martin12345 said:

These are real sleepers as standard and if you are so inclined it is the perfect base for a project because most of the cars systems are already engineered for the 5.0l SC with 500BHP (gearbox, intake, exhaust, fuel pumps, cooling etc). So a few hundred pounds of pulleys and you could up to around 460BHP (with similar increases in torque). If you want to go silly then fitting a 4.7 AML short engine and upgrade the SC to the next gen TVS and you are could push for 550BHP. Add the XFR suspension without the styling to "ruin it" and you've got a car that is nearly as fast as the modern cars from germany with the looks of a standard 12 year old XF - and yes, I've been seriously thinking of taking this on as a project - just need the time !!!

Or just buy an a ready made R-S.

[E63M]

J4CKO said:

Six grand with 156k up ?

I had experience of trying to offload a lovely, thirsty V8 barge a couple of years back, same age, similar, power, less miles and similar condition.

They need to be cheap to find a buyer as the market is limited, not sure if the V8 is significantly more valuable than the Merc CLS I had for sale but I still see them for a lot more than I sold mine for, but stuff like this can hang around for ages unless its a conspicuous bargain.

£3995 would tempt me, but not £5995.

I sold a barge with similar power to a CLS500, same age and 20k less miles for £8k last year, so sub £4k is too much (or little) to ask imo.