Jaguar F-Type V6S - 1 Year in
Discussion
Been a while since I’ve posted one of my cars in this section, but the F-Type really is a performance bargain and hopefully my comments below will give some perspective buyers a good insight to ownership.
So before I begin, yes it’s a V6S not a V8, I did test drive both and will come on to that later. This particular car was an absolute bargain so jumped at it. The F-type had been my dream car for some time and was saving up for one, but didn’t think they’d be in budget for another year until this car came up on Xmas Eve 19, just days before my 40th birthday. It was meant to be. I flew down and collected it on Jan 18th 2020 from a Volvo dealer which. It came with a comprehensive warranty, thankfully! The car also had 4x new Michelin PS4 tyres and new rear brakes. It’s a “weekend car” and bought with 39k miles and now on 43k miles, obviously Covid limited the mileage last year, as did moving house.
So the car itself, it’s a 2013 (2014MY) V6S in Salsa red. It has all the essential options such as the Performance Seats, 20” wheels, Meridian sound system, active exhaust, folding mirrors, heated front windscreen and reversing camera, To put some context around my car history, my last 14 cars (with the exception of a Honda S2000) have all been BMW's, the difference in build quality is quite staggering . However this is by far the most fun car I’ve ever had. Speaking of quality, these are the issues I noted after driving the car home 400 miles.
• Headlining on soft-top above drivers head rattles\creaks like hell, you can see the previous owner has stuffed a cloth in the there to try to quieten it down, unsuccessfully. Just needed to tighten the bolts holding the headlining on
• There's a creaking coming from the front wheels when turning at slow speed – Sorted, loose inner arch
• Chassis braces corroded – Removed and power coated in satin black. Rest of the underside undersealed.
• Exhaust valves make a horrible squeaking noise when the car starts up for about 20 seconds - I used high temperature grease on the flaps to resolve this when the exhaust was removed to powder coat the chassis braces. That said, valves are now disconnected ??
• Drivers door speaker rattles and vibrates as soon as there's some bas - Known issue, not fixed yet, rarely have the stereo on.
• You just about about have to break your thumb to engage cruise control, the steering wheel control buttons really don't work – Buttons replaced when fitting new steering wheel, see below
• Rear camera picture is shocking, even after cleaning it you can hardly see anything, like it's permanently misted – Not fixed yet, required rear bumper removal
• Heated seats take an age to warm up and never get truly hot – Just the way it is…
• Lastly, the roof didn’t open upon collection and definitely took the shine off the collection - Turned out the battery was low even after the 400 mile drive home. Turns out these cars are very sensitive to this, I now use a trickle charger and all good.
So with most items above taken care of, I went about a few minor cosmetic upgrades and maintenance:
• Full Service including LSD oil change
• Supercharger replaced under warranty due to noise detected during service, thank god for the warranty, or would have been a £3k+ bill. Also took the opportunity to replaced the coolant pipes, known issue with earlier model.
• Wheels powder coated in gloss black
• Birds bike rack fitted
• Brake caliper refurbishment in Salsa red to match and new Jaguar logo
• Replaced worn bronze start button with black button and the dynamic bronze toggle switch replaced with a black one
• New flat bottomed steering wheel, picked up an absolute bargain on eBay. It’s actually heated, but not connected in that way. New control buttons fitted and aluminum paddles
• Gloss black Jaguar and F-Type badges
• Extended Side skirts fitted
• New black wheels bolts
• “Dynamic” Rear diffuser
• Gloss black side vents
• Gloss black roll hoops
• Gloss black bonnet vents
• Chrome air vents from facelift model fitted
• Front splash guards
• Rubber mats
• 15m Eibach wheel spacers
What next? I’d like to wrap the front chrome bumper grill in gloss black to match the rest of the car. I do have a set of Eibach’s lowering springs in the garage, but undecided. Also want to fit rear spring isolators to get rid of the small clunking noise, diagnosed by Jaguar and there is a technical bulletin on this for earlier cars. Otherwise just want to enjoy the car this year.
In terms of ownership and running costs. Depreciation, the biggest “running” cost with any car, is zero, in fact I think I could probably sell for £2k-3K more than I bought for it. The cheapest V6S on them market now is still more than I paid, like for like. Road tax is around £320 a year, insurance around £400 and I’m averaging about 23mpg. Servicing annually is a pain and relatively expensive because of this. I’m used to BMW’s every two years or 18k miles. Other than the supercharger rattle, the car has been great, but there’s always something niggling at the back of my mind making me paranoid something is going to break or fail, never had this in any BMW. I know a lot of parts in the earlier cars have been superseded over the years as Jaguar refine the build. In terms of the driving experience, it’s no Boxster in the handling department, but it certainly makes up for it in the looks and sound department. I did test drive a 981 Boxster S and whilst it’s very competent, just a little lacking in character and soul. That said, the F-Type still handles really well for a relatively big and heavier than it should be car and a decent amount of steering feel since the earlier cars sill have old school hydraulic steering. Absolutely love how loud the F-type is, first weekend car I’ve never wanted to change the exhaust. Every drive is an event, it feels a very special place to be, roof up or down. It certainly attracts lot of looks and the occasional person coming over to speak about it which I’ve never had before with any other car.
So I plan to keep the car another couple of years. can’t stop looking at V8R and SVR’s. I did drive a V8R AWD for 24 hours a couple of years back and it’s absolutely crazy and let’s be honest, our days of owning these types of cars are limited, so could be the last weekend car I ever buy if I make the jump. Girlfriend now has a dog, so a Coupe would be a good choice to maximize the use of the car, albeit at the compromise of top down motoring. Also slightly attracted to the new Supra.
If anyone is in doubt, this video demonstrates the noise and enjoyment pretty well, filmed on a relatively local road to me too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6KFA7p7_aQ
|
Any questions let me know.
Some pics:
So before I begin, yes it’s a V6S not a V8, I did test drive both and will come on to that later. This particular car was an absolute bargain so jumped at it. The F-type had been my dream car for some time and was saving up for one, but didn’t think they’d be in budget for another year until this car came up on Xmas Eve 19, just days before my 40th birthday. It was meant to be. I flew down and collected it on Jan 18th 2020 from a Volvo dealer which. It came with a comprehensive warranty, thankfully! The car also had 4x new Michelin PS4 tyres and new rear brakes. It’s a “weekend car” and bought with 39k miles and now on 43k miles, obviously Covid limited the mileage last year, as did moving house.
So the car itself, it’s a 2013 (2014MY) V6S in Salsa red. It has all the essential options such as the Performance Seats, 20” wheels, Meridian sound system, active exhaust, folding mirrors, heated front windscreen and reversing camera, To put some context around my car history, my last 14 cars (with the exception of a Honda S2000) have all been BMW's, the difference in build quality is quite staggering . However this is by far the most fun car I’ve ever had. Speaking of quality, these are the issues I noted after driving the car home 400 miles.
• Headlining on soft-top above drivers head rattles\creaks like hell, you can see the previous owner has stuffed a cloth in the there to try to quieten it down, unsuccessfully. Just needed to tighten the bolts holding the headlining on
• There's a creaking coming from the front wheels when turning at slow speed – Sorted, loose inner arch
• Chassis braces corroded – Removed and power coated in satin black. Rest of the underside undersealed.
• Exhaust valves make a horrible squeaking noise when the car starts up for about 20 seconds - I used high temperature grease on the flaps to resolve this when the exhaust was removed to powder coat the chassis braces. That said, valves are now disconnected ??
• Drivers door speaker rattles and vibrates as soon as there's some bas - Known issue, not fixed yet, rarely have the stereo on.
• You just about about have to break your thumb to engage cruise control, the steering wheel control buttons really don't work – Buttons replaced when fitting new steering wheel, see below
• Rear camera picture is shocking, even after cleaning it you can hardly see anything, like it's permanently misted – Not fixed yet, required rear bumper removal
• Heated seats take an age to warm up and never get truly hot – Just the way it is…
• Lastly, the roof didn’t open upon collection and definitely took the shine off the collection - Turned out the battery was low even after the 400 mile drive home. Turns out these cars are very sensitive to this, I now use a trickle charger and all good.
So with most items above taken care of, I went about a few minor cosmetic upgrades and maintenance:
• Full Service including LSD oil change
• Supercharger replaced under warranty due to noise detected during service, thank god for the warranty, or would have been a £3k+ bill. Also took the opportunity to replaced the coolant pipes, known issue with earlier model.
• Wheels powder coated in gloss black
• Birds bike rack fitted
• Brake caliper refurbishment in Salsa red to match and new Jaguar logo
• Replaced worn bronze start button with black button and the dynamic bronze toggle switch replaced with a black one
• New flat bottomed steering wheel, picked up an absolute bargain on eBay. It’s actually heated, but not connected in that way. New control buttons fitted and aluminum paddles
• Gloss black Jaguar and F-Type badges
• Extended Side skirts fitted
• New black wheels bolts
• “Dynamic” Rear diffuser
• Gloss black side vents
• Gloss black roll hoops
• Gloss black bonnet vents
• Chrome air vents from facelift model fitted
• Front splash guards
• Rubber mats
• 15m Eibach wheel spacers
What next? I’d like to wrap the front chrome bumper grill in gloss black to match the rest of the car. I do have a set of Eibach’s lowering springs in the garage, but undecided. Also want to fit rear spring isolators to get rid of the small clunking noise, diagnosed by Jaguar and there is a technical bulletin on this for earlier cars. Otherwise just want to enjoy the car this year.
In terms of ownership and running costs. Depreciation, the biggest “running” cost with any car, is zero, in fact I think I could probably sell for £2k-3K more than I bought for it. The cheapest V6S on them market now is still more than I paid, like for like. Road tax is around £320 a year, insurance around £400 and I’m averaging about 23mpg. Servicing annually is a pain and relatively expensive because of this. I’m used to BMW’s every two years or 18k miles. Other than the supercharger rattle, the car has been great, but there’s always something niggling at the back of my mind making me paranoid something is going to break or fail, never had this in any BMW. I know a lot of parts in the earlier cars have been superseded over the years as Jaguar refine the build. In terms of the driving experience, it’s no Boxster in the handling department, but it certainly makes up for it in the looks and sound department. I did test drive a 981 Boxster S and whilst it’s very competent, just a little lacking in character and soul. That said, the F-Type still handles really well for a relatively big and heavier than it should be car and a decent amount of steering feel since the earlier cars sill have old school hydraulic steering. Absolutely love how loud the F-type is, first weekend car I’ve never wanted to change the exhaust. Every drive is an event, it feels a very special place to be, roof up or down. It certainly attracts lot of looks and the occasional person coming over to speak about it which I’ve never had before with any other car.
So I plan to keep the car another couple of years. can’t stop looking at V8R and SVR’s. I did drive a V8R AWD for 24 hours a couple of years back and it’s absolutely crazy and let’s be honest, our days of owning these types of cars are limited, so could be the last weekend car I ever buy if I make the jump. Girlfriend now has a dog, so a Coupe would be a good choice to maximize the use of the car, albeit at the compromise of top down motoring. Also slightly attracted to the new Supra.
If anyone is in doubt, this video demonstrates the noise and enjoyment pretty well, filmed on a relatively local road to me too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6KFA7p7_aQ
|Any questions let me know.
Some pics:
Edited by scz4 on Saturday 6th March 12:38
Thanks for the write up scz, a V6 F Type is next for me hopefully so very helpful.
Lovely example there, Salsa Red for me as well but would prefer the coupe.
I’ve been tracking prices for over a year now & as with most other cars the prices have gone up during COVID....
The corrosion on the chassis I’ve read about before. This should be picked up on an MOT surely? Are all older F Types affected by this?
Supercharger issue sounds scary without a warranty. Was it just a noise or was it on its way out?
Lovely example there, Salsa Red for me as well but would prefer the coupe.
I’ve been tracking prices for over a year now & as with most other cars the prices have gone up during COVID....
The corrosion on the chassis I’ve read about before. This should be picked up on an MOT surely? Are all older F Types affected by this?
Supercharger issue sounds scary without a warranty. Was it just a noise or was it on its way out?
Uncle John said:
Thanks for the write up scz, a V6 F Type is next for me hopefully so very helpful.
Lovely example there, Salsa Red for me as well but would prefer the coupe.
I’ve been tracking prices for over a year now & as with most other cars the prices have gone up during COVID....
The corrosion on the chassis I’ve read about before. This should be picked up on an MOT surely? Are all older F Types affected by this?
Supercharger issue sounds scary without a warranty. Was it just a noise or was it on its way out?
I believe all models, not even just the older models are susceptible to the chassis braces corrosion. It's just surface corrosion, not a structural concern so won't be mentioned during MOT. Chassis itself is fine. Lovely example there, Salsa Red for me as well but would prefer the coupe.
I’ve been tracking prices for over a year now & as with most other cars the prices have gone up during COVID....
The corrosion on the chassis I’ve read about before. This should be picked up on an MOT surely? Are all older F Types affected by this?
Supercharger issue sounds scary without a warranty. Was it just a noise or was it on its way out?
It was just sounding rattily on idle, mostly likely the supercharger coupler bush which can be fixed by just replacing the snout, in fact there is a repair kit available. But they agreed to replace the entire unit.
that looks fab and I remember that top gear segment vividly as it made me want one sooo much! Then I saw one parked at work and it just looked even better in the flesh.
I promised myself I’d get one on my 30th birthday as a treat to myself (march last year), however the year before i test drove one against a 981 S, agree with what your saying. The porsche handling wise destroyed the F type, however the noise and looks of the F type won easily. I think overall I’d still have chosen the 981 as I also think (and looks like im right?) they would be more reliable.
Either way the F type looks a bargain for what you get! I think the v8 while sounding awesome wouldn’t really add much bar being even more likely to lose your license with? The extra weight they supposedly carry also affects the handling further, probably then a GT vs sports car question.
I promised myself I’d get one on my 30th birthday as a treat to myself (march last year), however the year before i test drove one against a 981 S, agree with what your saying. The porsche handling wise destroyed the F type, however the noise and looks of the F type won easily. I think overall I’d still have chosen the 981 as I also think (and looks like im right?) they would be more reliable.
Either way the F type looks a bargain for what you get! I think the v8 while sounding awesome wouldn’t really add much bar being even more likely to lose your license with? The extra weight they supposedly carry also affects the handling further, probably then a GT vs sports car question.
Uncle John said:
I’ve just bought one. Ebony black coupe standard V6 with pan roof, performance seats in Brogue leather, Rev camera & 20 inch Cyclone wheels.
Very happy with it!!
Very nice! Very happy with it!!
If I do swap to a coupe one day, it must have the panoramic roof!! Shame they don't tilt open to let some fresh air and of course exhaust noise in.
scz4 said:
Uncle John said:
I’ve just bought one. Ebony black coupe standard V6 with pan roof, performance seats in Brogue leather, Rev camera & 20 inch Cyclone wheels.
Very happy with it!!
Very nice! Very happy with it!!
If I do swap to a coupe one day, it must have the panoramic roof!! Shame they don't tilt open to let some fresh air and of course exhaust noise in.
You’re right about the roof, not usually too bothered about a pan roof but it makes a difference in a fairly intimate cabin.
Trust your car has been good?
Edited by Uncle John on Wednesday 19th May 14:08
Very nice OP and very timely - i'm considering what to get next after i sell my mk1 MX5 that i bought as a stop gap after the 987.2 went
Its a toss up between the F-Type and the 640d cab - 2 different cars i know, but have been impressed with the build quality of the X6 and the 640's are a bit of a bargain at the moment. Interesting to hear the work you've had to do to keep on top of it.
It does look very nice how you've got it.
One option for the chrome grille rather than wrapping - you could use plastidip instead, that way you only have to mask in place, spray a few light coats to build up, and if you don't like it, peels off easily - could do it quickly and for about a tenner to decide if you want to wrap or not?
Its a toss up between the F-Type and the 640d cab - 2 different cars i know, but have been impressed with the build quality of the X6 and the 640's are a bit of a bargain at the moment. Interesting to hear the work you've had to do to keep on top of it.
It does look very nice how you've got it.
One option for the chrome grille rather than wrapping - you could use plastidip instead, that way you only have to mask in place, spray a few light coats to build up, and if you don't like it, peels off easily - could do it quickly and for about a tenner to decide if you want to wrap or not?
Just seen this - may avoid a black F-type for a while
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPDb_aFpWDB/?utm_mediu...
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPDb_aFpWDB/?utm_mediu...
mattman said:
Just seen this - may avoid a black F-type for a while
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPDb_aFpWDB/?utm_mediu...
Whoops!https://www.instagram.com/p/CPDb_aFpWDB/?utm_mediu...
Here’s my 2015 R Coupe.
Fantastic car, really enjoying it. The noise is pure filth and the drive ain’t too bad either. Only one complaint is the stereo is terrible at this price point but it’s a minor annoyance on the grand scheme of things.
Few snaps and link to my thread.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=19...
Fantastic car, really enjoying it. The noise is pure filth and the drive ain’t too bad either. Only one complaint is the stereo is terrible at this price point but it’s a minor annoyance on the grand scheme of things.
Few snaps and link to my thread.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=19...
Fatboymark said:
Lovely car, where did yo get the bike rack, and what’s the weight limit?
I imported it from the US, works very well. Officially you can get two full size bikes on it, but personally I think one is enough and even then I put the wheels in the boot to ensure the brake lights and indicators are still visible. http://birdautomotive2.com/bike-rack-jaguar-f-type...
Uncle John said:
Thanks scz!
You’re right about the roof, not usually too bothered about a pan roof but it makes a difference in a fairly intimate cabin.
Trust your car has been good?
Car has been great this year, just enjoying using it regularly. I'd still like to get the rear spring isolators fitted at some point, but otherwise nothing needing any attention now, not bad given it's 8 years old later this year. It is due a service next month, so may take the opportunity to replace the spark plugs. Last year I did the brake fluid and diff oil. You’re right about the roof, not usually too bothered about a pan roof but it makes a difference in a fairly intimate cabin.
Trust your car has been good?
mattman said:
One option for the chrome grille rather than wrapping - you could use plastidip instead, that way you only have to mask in place, spray a few light coats to build up, and if you don't like it, peels off easily - could do it quickly and for about a tenner to decide if you want to wrap or not?
I tried plastidip once, but didn't go very well lol. Not sure I'd get a true gloss look either. I could try a rattle can. 
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