Just test driven an X308 XJR...not impressed?
Discussion
Hi all.
Bit of history, I have an XJ-S V12 (5.3 HE) which I am (sort of) looking to replace. My friend has an X300 3.2 sport which is lovely, so I thought I would look for an X300/X308 for my self (with X300 as preferance).
I found an X308 XJR local, which looked like a nice car on the advert. Turned up and, apart from a few places where the laquer is peeling, a kerbed wheel and a few other minor things it looks pretty good. It's up for £4k, R plate, 110k miles, one owner FJSH blah blah blah.
So...time for the test drive, I was really looking forward to this, it's the most powerful car I've ever driven. What would 370 supercharged horses feel like? I mean, it must be awesome, right? I potter round for a bit, get on a 60mph road put my foot down and...well. It did go but it didn't feel *THAT* much faster then my XJS really. I was expecting it to tear my face off, the only time it felt a lot quicker then the XJS was pulling out of a junction, I guess the gearbox helps here.
I'm not after something I can go racing 911's in, but one of the things I love about my XJ-S is how easy it is to drive, how effortless the power is. For what it costs to get into and run an XJR it needs to be a lot better then my XJ-S and it just wasn't. Am I expecting the wrong thing, or do you really need to wind them up before they give their best? From what I have experienced today i'd much rather have a 6litre XJ-S or XJ12 then an XJR, which is not what I was expecting. If the engine in an XJR isn't that special I may as well just get a 4 litre X300, which are more then fast enough...(I have driven a couple)
(not having a go at XJR's or their owners AT ALL as I said, my friends X300 is great, and so are the X308's it just wasn't what I expected and would appreciate other peoples thoughts/experiences/advice)
Bit of history, I have an XJ-S V12 (5.3 HE) which I am (sort of) looking to replace. My friend has an X300 3.2 sport which is lovely, so I thought I would look for an X300/X308 for my self (with X300 as preferance).
I found an X308 XJR local, which looked like a nice car on the advert. Turned up and, apart from a few places where the laquer is peeling, a kerbed wheel and a few other minor things it looks pretty good. It's up for £4k, R plate, 110k miles, one owner FJSH blah blah blah.
So...time for the test drive, I was really looking forward to this, it's the most powerful car I've ever driven. What would 370 supercharged horses feel like? I mean, it must be awesome, right? I potter round for a bit, get on a 60mph road put my foot down and...well. It did go but it didn't feel *THAT* much faster then my XJS really. I was expecting it to tear my face off, the only time it felt a lot quicker then the XJS was pulling out of a junction, I guess the gearbox helps here.
I'm not after something I can go racing 911's in, but one of the things I love about my XJ-S is how easy it is to drive, how effortless the power is. For what it costs to get into and run an XJR it needs to be a lot better then my XJ-S and it just wasn't. Am I expecting the wrong thing, or do you really need to wind them up before they give their best? From what I have experienced today i'd much rather have a 6litre XJ-S or XJ12 then an XJR, which is not what I was expecting. If the engine in an XJR isn't that special I may as well just get a 4 litre X300, which are more then fast enough...(I have driven a couple)
(not having a go at XJR's or their owners AT ALL as I said, my friends X300 is great, and so are the X308's it just wasn't what I expected and would appreciate other peoples thoughts/experiences/advice)
Maybe you just got into one that was mince. To say it isnt that special maybe means that you weren't really interested. The engine in my eyes is superb. Reliabilty superb.blah blah. When new the 308 could hit 60 in 5.2. Being a big motor it does give the impression that its more of a fast than superfast car. Did you have the sport button on when you had the foot down? Anyone thats been in mine when the foot goes down cant believe how fast the feckin thing is. It may not give the thrills of a sports car but that isnt what it is. Shame you didnt like it but the 300 is still a great choice.
Yep, light on means sports mode is on.
It should feel very fast indeed. The most noticeable thing about the engine is the torque - constantly from very low down, right through the rev range. If you were full throttle and the passenger could lean forward and touch the dash, then it wasn't pulling as it should.
It should feel very fast indeed. The most noticeable thing about the engine is the torque - constantly from very low down, right through the rev range. If you were full throttle and the passenger could lean forward and touch the dash, then it wasn't pulling as it should.
XJS vs XJR? Shirley you're winding us all up?
No..
..really? OK here's what you do....
Run both cars up on a rolling road to make sure they are both performing as they should. Put 10 gallons of fuel in each one and competent drivers in both.
Set a circular 80-100 mile route of mixed roads - from motorways to twisty b roads, drive them both to the max and see which one arrives back first and uses the least fuel.
Providing the guy driving the breakdown recovery truck dosen't take a short cut back to the starting point guess which one it'll be
No..
..really? OK here's what you do....Run both cars up on a rolling road to make sure they are both performing as they should. Put 10 gallons of fuel in each one and competent drivers in both.
Set a circular 80-100 mile route of mixed roads - from motorways to twisty b roads, drive them both to the max and see which one arrives back first and uses the least fuel.
Providing the guy driving the breakdown recovery truck dosen't take a short cut back to the starting point guess which one it'll be
I expect he's saying the XJS will break down.
The XJS does still hold the record for the 'sea to shinging sea' (or cannonball) run...but that was a loooong time ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Baker_Sea-... 87mph average over 32 hours!
OK, point taken. Everyone is confirming what I was thinking, they are (or should) be v.fast and there was something wrong with how I was driving it, or this particular one was sick.
thanks guys, I'll carry on looking!
The XJS does still hold the record for the 'sea to shinging sea' (or cannonball) run...but that was a loooong time ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Baker_Sea-... 87mph average over 32 hours!
OK, point taken. Everyone is confirming what I was thinking, they are (or should) be v.fast and there was something wrong with how I was driving it, or this particular one was sick.
thanks guys, I'll carry on looking!
Not driven an XJS but I can say that the X308 XJR pulls like a sodding train and, despite it's refinement, you will feel it.
I'm also faily confident it get's to 60 quicker than the 5.5 most state (according to my mates dodgey measurment device anyway). 5.2 sounds about right to me but it is a b
d trying to keep the wheels from spinning.
Also, I wouldnt pay £4000 for anything over 100K in the current market mate. I paid £4500 for an immaculate 68K one. But condition is more important than mileage and age I suppose.
Let's also not forget the X308 is better looking than the "I was supposed to be mid-engined" XJS.
Best of luck with your search.
I'm also faily confident it get's to 60 quicker than the 5.5 most state (according to my mates dodgey measurment device anyway). 5.2 sounds about right to me but it is a b
d trying to keep the wheels from spinning.Also, I wouldnt pay £4000 for anything over 100K in the current market mate. I paid £4500 for an immaculate 68K one. But condition is more important than mileage and age I suppose.
Let's also not forget the X308 is better looking than the "I was supposed to be mid-engined" XJS.
Best of luck with your search.
G_T said:
trying to keep the wheels from spinning.
Not in this one. I floored it from 20ish to 6000+RPM a few times, once downhill and it wasn't very dramatic at all. As for looks..well it's a matter of taste, this one was in a poor colour (inside and out) with not-great paint so I preferred the look of my XJ-S (I was a young boy when they were around, and it is my car so I may be biased).Thanks for the advice on pricing...haven't decided what to do now, might just keep the XJ-S. I'll try and drive another one though.
Well if the TCS is off he's either got the grippiest tyres in the world or its very underpowered. I would think the TCS was probably on if you couldn't get it to spin the wheels though.
You should just go back, turn it off and then leave two huge smears of rubber down the road. Then claim it's overpriced because a man with history of stupid comments on the internet said so.
You should just go back, turn it off and then leave two huge smears of rubber down the road. Then claim it's overpriced because a man with history of stupid comments on the internet said so.
Varsas, this sounds a lot like a problem I had with my XJR, although that would be a mighty coincidence.
Have a look at my last post (scroll to the bottom of the page) here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=382...
It's a massive post where I described in detail the problems I had with the car feeling underpowered, and to save you reading 70-odd posts, in the end it turned out to be a simple fix - the mass airflow sensor needed replacing. After that, it was as everyone was saying, seriously powerful and quick.
You're in a better position than I was, as I had already bought the car and was stuck with it when I discovered this... you at least have an option of looking for another one.
Good luck in your search - they are awesome cars when they're working 100% (I'm not dissing XJRs reliablity here, it was just "one of those things" that I had a problem with mine, but as I said, it was fantastic after I finally found what was wrong with it and fixed it).
Have a look at my last post (scroll to the bottom of the page) here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=382...
It's a massive post where I described in detail the problems I had with the car feeling underpowered, and to save you reading 70-odd posts, in the end it turned out to be a simple fix - the mass airflow sensor needed replacing. After that, it was as everyone was saying, seriously powerful and quick.
You're in a better position than I was, as I had already bought the car and was stuck with it when I discovered this... you at least have an option of looking for another one.
Good luck in your search - they are awesome cars when they're working 100% (I'm not dissing XJRs reliablity here, it was just "one of those things" that I had a problem with mine, but as I said, it was fantastic after I finally found what was wrong with it and fixed it).
Diderot said:
Are you sure the supercharger was working?
Well, you could hear it and surely a problem would bring up a fault code/light?In a word, no I'm not sure. Not my car so I didn't want to go poking about with it; it's the first one i'd ever driven so I just didn't know what to expect. Even if I thought something was wrong I probably wouldn't say, who am I to tell him his car isn't working properly? I'll just sound like a tyre kicker who's trying to get money off.
After reading vladmans topic (very interesting) it does sound very similar.
Traction control didn't kick in at all as far as I could tell (even with full throttle/sport mode/kickdown from 20mph), no light, no cutting of power (unless it's a lot more subtle then the systems in other modern cars I've driven)
I'll leave this car alone and carry on looking, it's so annoying, they sound like awesome cars the way everyone talks i've wanted to drive one for ages...I was so disapointed when I drove this one; I'm sure there was something wrong with it.
Drive a few and you will know.
In the 7 years I worked at a main Jaguar dealer, must have drive a good 100 or so X308 XJR's. There are always slightly faster and slightly slower examples, that just cars. But If I got one that felt particularly flat, 90% of the time it was the full throtle stop/kickdown switch badly adjusted. Wind it into the floor and gain 50-80bhp for free.
The Air mas meter, is a likely causes of loss of performance too, but you can feel something is wrong, not quite a misfire but a sort of jerking or holding back. When you don't get fully throttle, it drive fine, just without the punch.
In the 7 years I worked at a main Jaguar dealer, must have drive a good 100 or so X308 XJR's. There are always slightly faster and slightly slower examples, that just cars. But If I got one that felt particularly flat, 90% of the time it was the full throtle stop/kickdown switch badly adjusted. Wind it into the floor and gain 50-80bhp for free.
The Air mas meter, is a likely causes of loss of performance too, but you can feel something is wrong, not quite a misfire but a sort of jerking or holding back. When you don't get fully throttle, it drive fine, just without the punch.
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