Hi mate, could you drop me an email. I said I would be in contact after the RR but you don't have an email address in your profile or trust. Cheers.
Sorry, only just saw this! Just dropped you a trust message
How are you getting on with the car?
Well you did ask, so here's all my thoughts about it (sorry for the essay!) tl;dr version is I like it
It drives just as smoothly and quietly as you would expect, to the extent where I often wonder if the engine is on at all when I’m sitting in traffic. Performance-wise, it’s better than I expected – on the test drive it felt a little sluggish but now I’ve got used to the autobox it really puts a smile on my face. That said, the power band is a bit strange: somewhat surprisingly, when in sport mode it’s quite quick off the line and equally, when accelerating from 70MPH to “more than 70MPH” it really picks up, which is especially useful on the motorway.
However, between say 40MPH and 60MPH it isn’t quite as good – not slow by any means, but not noticeably quicker than my mazda, which can make overtaking several vehicles at once a bit of a challenge.
As I said before, I tend to drive it fairly slowly as it’s not the kind of car you take for a hoon. That said, I’ve had several opportunities to turn off the traction control and push it, and it’s surprisingly rewarding. You’d still know it’s a big car, but it turns in and holds the road a lot better than I expected. With the electronic aids turned on, it has a tendency to understeer rather than oversteer, but with the DSC off, it’s fairly easy to induce and control oversteer.
The size of the car however means I’ve not summoned up the courage to have any proper tail-out moments, in general I’ve just let the back step out a small amount and then controlled it with opposite lock. If I manage to find a wet carpark next time it rains I will report back with my findings.
Comfort-wise it’s almost faultless, it soaks up the bumps really well and remains perfectly stable on roads where other cars would be jumping around all over the place. That said, it doesn't seem to handle speedbumps very well, it feels as it hasn't been expecting it and the whole car really lurches over them. A friend said that this may be simply because the general smoothness of the car makes me think I’m travelling slower than I actually am, which could well be true, so I’m still not entirely sure about that one
I’ve actually been using the Jag quite a lot for work and commuting to uni, as my Mazda is currently at my parents’ house around 70 miles from my flat, and I haven’t been bothered to come back and get it. I was slightly apprehensive at doing this, as I have to park in a lot of very tight spaces, and the Jag is rather huge. Surprisingly however, the parking sensors combined with decent visibility means it isn’t as difficult to park as I thought – certainly a lot easier than my Volvo! Somewhat annoyingly though, the alloys are incredibly easy to curb – the rim protector on the tyres seems to do nothing at all, and if you so much as touch a curb you’re greeted with a lovely scratch. Current plan is to drive it for a few more months, then once I’m confident I won’t curb them any more, get the whole set refurbed.
Fuel economy wise, I’m averaging 23MPG, and that’s mostly short trips and town driving, so not too bad really. The engine does seem to take a long while to reach peak efficiency which seriously affects the economy. I’ve done a few long trips with it and it happily averages 30MPG, but if you purely do short journeys this is definitely not the car for you!
Finally, I should probably mention people’s reactions to it, which are rather mixed. Sadly, it does seem to attract a bit of jealousy – I get let out of junctions far less often in this than in my other cars, and the occasional weirdo does try to go out of their way to wind me up –just this morning a van in front of me slowed to 15MPH and tried to block me when I attempted to pass him. I’m also rather paranoid that people will open their doors into it / key it as it’s happened to several people at my uni who drive similar cars. I try to park away from everyone else whenever possible, but I know that it will probably happen eventually and when it does I’ll be absolutely gutted.
Otherwise, people seem to really like it – my friends all want lifts in it, and it gets a lot of positive comments in pub carparks, petrol stations and suchlike. Perhaps the most amusing one was a guy I let through who slowed down, stared at me in shock and mouthed “what the ****??”
So, to sum it all up, I’m really happy with it and frankly still can’t quite believe it’s mine. I’m always incredibly critical about cars so I’m bound to find a few little things I dislike, but overall this is definitely my best purchase, and one I can see myself keeping for a long time.
Once again, thanks for all the comments
