About to purchase an XKR (09/10) - some final questions

[Storm 911]

Hi all,

Apologies in advance for a long post, but I'm on the verge of purchasing an XKR (budget of about £30-£35k), and I've got a few final questions I'd like to clarify, if you'd indulge me I'd appreciate it!

Warranty
-I'm assuming that you can have work done at any Jag dealer whilst under Approved Used warranty, This is fundamental for me as I'm willing to travel for the right car.
-Did anyone take the option to extend the warranty by a further 12 months? If so can you provide indicitive costs and a view on whether it was worth it? I'm also considering pushing the dealer to throw in an addtional year cover rather than trying to push them down on price.

Media
-Bluetooth - Is this just for phone calls or can it be used to stream music also? How many devices can be connected? Can you start calls via the in car system, or do you have do dial from your phone?
-iPhone 5 - Are 09/10 cars compatible with the iPhone via (lightning connector)? How do you control music on an iDevice? My concern is that it might be a bit clunky via the touch screen. Can you see album art etc?

Options
-The XKR is well specced, but I'm interested in thoughts on the few addtitional optional extras, Adaptive Cruise Control and Adapative Lighting are appealing on paper. I've used the Merc cruise system and it was very nice indeed. Does the Adaptive Lighting option offer any great/noticeable advantage?
-It's very unclear from the Jag site which options are standard and which aren't. Can anyone confirm if DAB, Keyless Entry & Go, and B&W Sound are all standard items on the XKR?

Purchase
-For my budget I'm looking at an 09/10 plate car. Are there any fundamental differences between the two (I'm assuming not)? 09s are typically about £2.5-3k cheaper - would you pay more for a 10 which has just come out of warranty, or go for the saving and get an 09 plate? For me it's more about the colour/spec, rather than the year, but I just wanted to check.
-When negotiating with dealers, how flexible are they on price? XKRs seem to come and go quickly, but I'm very interested in any stories where you've negotiated discount from the main dealers, and any tips you'd be willing to share.
-Finance - Do Jag dealers offer any reasonable finance deals, or am I best sourcing funds elsewhere? I'm considering putting approx 50% as deposit and then funding the rest through a loan which will be covered by my car allowance.

I appreciate that's a lot of questions! I typically go to the nth degree when looking at buying a car, but any info/advice you can share will be most welcome!

Thanks,

[The Leaper]

Re the warranty question you have raised, I have an S-Type with the V8 4.2 engine. I've had it from almost new, over 10 years now. I extended the warranty every year for as long as I could but it was not possible once I reached the end of the year after 100,000 miles. It cost round about £1000-£1150 per year. There's no doubt this was financially a good bet. Never had any problems as to whether the work was covered by the warranty or not.

One thing: get a Jaguar warranty, not one from some other organisation.

R

[8bit]

Warranty - not sure. I had assumed it needed to be a Jag dealer but recently spoke to the warranty company about the MOT cover feature on the warranty. At least for that, you don't need to use a franchised dealer at all, just that a lot of garages will not be happy about billing the warranty company direct. Since the warranty covers the cost of using official Jag dealers and parts I'd say you might as well get your money's worth out of it.

I'm about to come to the end of my 12 month approved warranty, apparently they send you out a renewal pack about 6 weeks prior with a quote. I haven't received mine yet but I'm given to understand that the cost of a year's cover is around £1k. Mine paid for itself 3 times over in the first few months so I was glad of it.

My car is a little older than you're looking at, I've got an 08 plate 4.2 XKR. As far as I know there were no major changes in the stereo system so Bluetooth is just for phone calls, no streaming there. The iPod/iPhone integration was an official accessory on the 4.2s, I had mine fitted with this before I collected it. No album art on the screen unfortunately, not even tracks and titles, about all you can do is skip tracks and playlists and adjust volume using the controls on the steering wheel but you're doing it "blind" so to speak.

I don't have adaptive lights on mine but I can't say I find myself wanting for it (my wife's Merc ML320 has it). I guess if you drive a lot on country roads in the dark you may take a different view of this. Not sure about DAB, think it was optional. Keyless entry is standard, keyless go was an option. B&W sound system was an option, it's 5.1 with Dolby ProLogic-II, the standard system is a 4-speaker Alpine setup. Get the B&W.

09 and 10 cars should be the same, they would be the first of the 5.0 cars before the facelift in mid 2011. Personally I'd buy on spec/colour, condition and history. I wanted a 57 or 08 plate car as the earlier ones had the old Ford Cortina-style telescopic aerial, that meant for my budget having to accept cars with a bit more miles at the time. I was quite picky about exterior and interior colour and condition but I managed to get a nice 08 plate with 72k on the clock that looks and drives like it's done a third of that at most.

Be fussy and take your time - these are rare enough to stand out from the sea of German machinery on the roads now but not so rare as to be hard to find - I spent about six months looking for mine, the 5.0 cars are more plentiful so you'll get what you're after before long.

Don't forget to post pics once you find yours!

[yellowtang]

Thanks,
[/quote]

Warranty - work can be carried out by any Jag dealership. The warranty is excellent (expensive though).
Bluetooth is just for calls, not music. You can control the phone through the touchscreen. Yes you can start calls etc.
Music - with the iPod/iPhone plugged in you can use the touchscreen.
DAB not standard for those years.
Keyless entry & Go is standard.
B&W sound is standard.
Adaptive lighting is standard.
Adaptive cruise is not standard.

[Davevx220]

As above

I've just brought an XKR with speed/ black pack .....Super car

As far as the warranty goes look out for Jaguar special events. Usually 5 day events on used cars.

Recent one was a 2 year warranty plus 2 free services if taking out finance.


You need a jaguar iPhone cable plus lightening adaptor.

Edited by Davevx220 on Tuesday 3rd June 16:22

Edited by Davevx220 on Tuesday 3rd June 16:23

[Davevx220]

As above

I've just brought an XKR with speed/ black pack .....Super car

As far as the warranty goes look out for Jaguar special events. Usually 5 day events on used cars.

Recent one was a 2 year warranty plus 2 free services if taking out finance.


You need a jaguar iPhone cable plus lightening adaptor.

Edited by Davevx220 on Tuesday 3rd June 16:22

Edited by Davevx220 on Tuesday 3rd June 16:24

[Davevx220]

[Jagmanv12]

yellowtang said:

Thanks,

Warranty - work can be carried out by any Jag dealership. The warranty is excellent (expensive though).
Bluetooth is just for calls, not music. You can control the phone through the touchscreen. Yes you can start calls etc.
Music - with the iPod/iPhone plugged in you can use the touchscreen.
DAB not standard for those years.
Keyless entry & Go is standard.
B&W sound is standard.
Adaptive lighting is standard.
Adaptive cruise is not standard.

Adaptive lighting was not standard. It was an option. My 2010 hasn't got it.

[Storm 911]

Thanks for the replies everyone, very useful!

Are people saying the warranty is such a good deal because it's very comprehensive, or because lots of fault are appearing on your car? I'm concerned it's the latter! I had the impression the XKs were pretty rock solid without anything nasty going wrong regularly.

Dave - that's a lovely looking motor. I saw a white one at my local dealer and wasn't impressed, but with the black pack it's a whole different story - it looks like a beast! Very nice.

I'm heading out to see another one tomorrow, it's just landed in the dealer and was being service, prepped and photographed today. It ticks a lot of my boxes. It's a year older than I'd like (09 instead of 10) and has a few more miles on (44k), but it seems to be priced well. 44k obviously isn't excessive on a car that age, and I expect to be doing less than 10k pa personally, so I shouldn't get it up to silly figures any time soon. My only concern was some previous cars I've seen (non-Jag) with high miles all sounded like the were quite leggy (noisey/tappity). I can but look though.

[yellowtang]

In respect of the warranty - it is utterly comprehensive. You could not ask for more. Air con re-gas - just had mine done under warranty. This surprised me TBH.

That said, I've had alarm sensor problems, oil leak, and alternator issues all sorted under warranty. It is a very complex car so do not buy one outside of Jaguar warranty. Mine is 09 plate and its only covered 26k miles so I must admit that I've been a little disappointed to have had these issues over the past two years.

Can only speak from my experience but frankly it doesn't seem to match the general consensus so please don't be put off. They are fantastic cars and you will not find a super car to beat it for the money.

Re: adaptive lighting - apologies, it seems I was mistaken.

[8bit]

Warranty is good but I had a negative experience with them recently. They refused to cover the cost to replace a rear upper wishbone (one of the bushes was worn and Jaguar don't sell bushes on their own) because this was "wear and tear". Fair enough but they did cover changing the aux and supercharger belts, rollers and tensioners when they were squeaking. I'd have thought those counted as consumables as they're service items every 100k.

I wasn't complaining that time, according to the local dealer the cost of changing the belts all in was about £2.5k, just seems strange they'd do that but not the wishbones.