Thoughts on 7 Series / A8 / XJ / S Class? - 2013/14 ish

[ilikejam]

Lining up the next purchase and been looking at the aforementioned barges on Autotrader and now starting to do some research on a potential purchase towards the end of the year. Have been taking 2 year leases for the past 6 years but the value in doing so seems to be evaporating somewhat.

Looking at up to £16k and you seem to get a lot of car for it in one of these.

730d/740d seem to be plenty sub 100k miles and look the best value proposition all round to me
XJ looks great inside and out but don't have any real experience of Jaguar - reliability and build quality seem to be usual comments around Jags in general?
A8 also looks good but seem to be markedly higher mileages for the same year/budget
S Class seems to win every comparison test of the bunch but to me they just look dull inside and out. Not sat in one to be fair

Anyone with direct experience of one or more of them? Anything else I should be considering?


FWIW I am also considering a MX5 and a £400 mkI Focus so no need to recommend those please....

[Herbs]

Went through this a little while back and test drove all the usual suspects. The 7 series, for me was the best out of the ones mentioned although I ended up going for another Q7 as it brought more to the table that I wanted.

[ilikejam]

Herbs said:

Went through this a little while back and test drove all the usual suspects. The 7 series, for me was the best out of the ones mentioned although I ended up going for another Q7 as it brought more to the table that I wanted.

Thanks for sharing.

The Q7 was on my initial list, but the ones in my budget just look dated now compared to similar age saloons. The A7 is half on the list as it still looks really good from the outside (and the hatch is beneficial to me) but the interior lets it down - not helped by the fact I returned a lease B9 A4 Tech Pack last year and we've got a Q5 Tech Pack coming in September. We've currently got a Pug 5008 and Volvo V90 which have 2of the best interiors going as well.

The A8 interior holds up well against the current gen. As I'm discovering on my search the interior seems to matter more to me than the exterior these days - which is definitely not how I thought 10 years ago!

[Mo28]

The general consensus about Jaguars being unreliable and lacking quality is of newer generation cars. You can get the XJ as early as 2010/2011 and start from around £9k

[ilikejam]

Mo28 said:

The general consensus about Jaguars being unreliable and lacking quality is of newer generation cars. You can get the XJ as early as 2010/2011 and start from around £9k

Yeah I remember a thread a couple of weeks or so back where someone was considering changing from the old XF into the new gen and everyone advised them to keep it or get a facelift of previous gen. I'm not fixed on specific models years but was just trying to compare like for like from the different marques and there seemed to be plenty 2012-13 XJs knocking about for sale

[TheAlastair34]

XJ had an update 2013 i think or late 2012?

Got a 8 speed over the 6 speed so better MPG & also dropped the bowers and wilkins and replaced with meridian for the audio maybe other things but worth knowing

[Dinoboy]

Had my 2013 730d for a couple of years now and it's been faultless. It has that certain something that makes me feel good every time I jump in it which previous 5's never had. One interesting point is that despite it now being nearly 6 years old and done 60k there isn't a single creak or rattle to the interior, it feels like new. Previous 3's and 5' seemed to get a bit rattly after 40k or 50k.
Another bonus, usually as soon as you buy a car you start noticing them everywhere and think wow I didn't realise there was so many of these on the road. A 7 is a pretty rare sight on the road!

[Jazzer77]

Wouldn't be PH without someone advising a slight budget increase .

Volvo S90's around £18.5k for 19k miles. Give it a month or two and there should be one with more miles around budget.

Cracking car with the latest tech.





Out of your list I'd go for the 7 series. S-Class just looks huge, A8 nice interior but boring exterior.

[ilikejam]

Jazzer77 said:

Wouldn't be PH without someone advising a slight budget increase .

Volvo S90's around £18.5k for 19k miles. Give it a month or two and there should be one with more miles around budget.

Cracking car with the latest tech.





Out of your list I'd go for the 7 series. S-Class just looks huge, A8 nice interior but boring exterior.

I've got a V90 on lease! This would be a car to replace it assuming the current crappy lease values continue. I wouldn't turn my nose up at an S90 but I'm a bit funny about having the same car twice - always like to have something different! Plus a 6 pot would be nice again.

[ilikejam]

Dinoboy said:

Had my 2013 730d for a couple of years now and it's been faultless. It has that certain something that makes me feel good every time I jump in it which previous 5's never had. One interesting point is that despite it now being nearly 6 years old and done 60k there isn't a single creak or rattle to the interior, it feels like new. Previous 3's and 5' seemed to get a bit rattly after 40k or 50k.
Another bonus, usually as soon as you buy a car you start noticing them everywhere and think wow I didn't realise there was so many of these on the road. A 7 is a pretty rare sight on the road!

This was pretty much my thinking (without ever having driven one). I'm hoping that scoping them out early means at least one might pop up nearby and I can go check it out. There is a 120k mile 06 LWB for sale at a small dealer a few minutes from me - might go and have a poke around and see if it still feels solid too!

[Dinoboy]

ilikejam said:

This was pretty much my thinking (without ever having driven one). I'm hoping that scoping them out early means at least one might pop up nearby and I can go check it out. There is a 120k mile 06 LWB for sale at a small dealer a few minutes from me - might go and have a poke around and see if it still feels solid too!

I see your in Aberdeen, if your passing by Glasgow way anytime let me know and I'll take you out for a spin.

[Shiv_P]

I would go A8 or S Class. The 7 series interior is very boring and doesn't justify the price tag. Quality of course is great and comparable to the A8 but when the 7 series has an F10 5 series copy and paste interior why not just get a nice 5 series instead. The one thing that puts me off 7 series be it previous or current gen

[ZX10R NIN]

If it helps I found the XJ the best drive & it's a very nice place to be, reliability wise they're on par with the German offerings, out of your list it would be the XJ first followed by the S Class A8 & 7 series last for me as a side note the 8 speed is worth looking out for when it comes to the XJ.