Talk to me about the XFR

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

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Joined
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When our current lease is up, I'm seriously considering going back to private ownership for some decent metal and equity at the end for a change. One car that has really taken my eye and held it is the ~2014 XFR. What's not to like? A supercharged 5.0 V8 with 510ps and 625Nm of torque, hitting 0-60 in 4.8 seconds and covering 50-70 in 1.9s. Supple chassis, eminently comfortable, quiet 6sp ZF for pootling and a snorting maniac when I'm out without the kids.

Looking around online, haunting various Jag forums and reading reviews it seems they're basically bulletproof. Water pumps can start to weep around 50k miles but are cheap enough to change, the electric steering column can creak when moved about and the gearbox can occasionally need new fluids. Other than that...

The insurance is relatively cheap (shockingly so, actually), they're well reviewed compared to the M5 et al., VED isn't an issue, parts seem relatively cheap and we live literally down the road from one of the north west's premier Jaguar indies (ex JLR master techs with access to the OEM service system). Does anyone have any decent real life experience of these? Things to look out for? Tales of ownership? Just thought I'd pass a couple of hours talking about something interesting for a change. :D
 
It's what I'll be looking at after uni. Love the look and character of these, understated but a proper animal when the mood takes.
 
Dis86 said:
Horrid infotainment system.
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Yes that's very true, but I forgot about it because I don't generally use them. I get into the car to drive. I can't remember the last time I played music or listened to the radio etc even with a fast, decent high res 8" unit on my current car. The infotainment could just as easily be missing. I'd not notice. :o

Dave I believe the XFR is more refined and easier to live with as a DD than the M5? Should I pull the trigger on one it'd be a DD for the family not just me. A car that can waft the babies around and still put a smile on my face on the B roads while being capable of swallowing a country whole is the order of the day. M5 is a nice motor but the Jag is pulling at me. I'd still definitely test drive one though!
 
If it's a 2014 you're looking at it will have the 8 speed gearbox, which most regard as an improvement over the 6 as you will get slightly better economy too.
 
Lovely cars. Very, very, disconcertingly fast. Great sound.
Watch out for suspension bushes. They can get sloppy after only 30k miles making the car feel very floaty and disconnected. Several I drove were like this. Check for any coolant weeping from around the water pump. Jaguar still haven't managed to build a good one for the 5.0 and it WILL fail at some point. Engine is solid other than that.

Infotainment is poor from an interface perspective but the stereo is excellent with the Meridian system.
 
It would be the Meridian for a 2014. Jag stopped using B&W in 2013 IIRC.
I've listened to them both in the XJ and rate them equally. The B&W is cleaner but the Meridian is more punchy.
 
Rainmaker said:
Dave I believe the XFR is more refined and easier to live with as a DD than the M5? Should I pull the trigger on one it'd be a DD for the family not just me. A car that can waft the babies around and still put a smile on my face on the B roads while being capable of swallowing a country whole is the order of the day. M5 is a nice motor but the Jag is pulling at me. I'd still definitely test drive one though!
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I didn't get on with the F10 M5 at all as a DD proposition, it just seems incapable of being driven smoothly from the couple of test drives I had. The XFR is a fantastic car which can pootle around and then totally change when you want it to.

Sindri said:
If it's a 2014 you're looking at it will have the 8 speed gearbox, which most regard as an improvement over the 6 as you will get slightly better economy too.
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Both have their merits, anything 62 plate onwards should have the 8 speed. I had a 61 plate with the 6 speed, and now have a 15 plate with the 8 speed, the 8 speed is smoother and more fuel efficient, but the 6 speed is much easier to find the right gear with when using the paddles. They also changed something with the engine map too, so you don't get any pops & crackles with the later cars, which is something I miss.

Rilot said:
Lovely cars. Very, very, disconcertingly fast. Great sound.
Watch out for suspension bushes. They can get sloppy after only 30k miles making the car feel very floaty and disconnected. Several I drove were like this. Check for any coolant weeping from around the water pump. Jaguar still haven't managed to build a good one for the 5.0 and it WILL fail at some point. Engine is solid other than that.

Infotainment is poor from an interface perspective but the stereo is excellent with the Meridian system.
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I've really not heard of many failures, I took my 61 plate XFR to 98k miles without any issues at all in the engine department. No mention of any water pump isssues on the history I got a dealer to print out either.

Rotty said:
would it be the meridian or B+W, the latter is much better (I've had both) but both are pretty good
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Rilot said:
It would be the Meridian for a 2014. Jag stopped using B&W in 2013 IIRC.
I've listened to them both in the XJ and rate them equally. The B&W is cleaner but the Meridian is more punchy.
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The system changed to the Meridian with MY2013, released around the 62 plate change, along with the 8 speed box. Out of the two, I preferred the B&W, but the Meridian is still an excellent system.
 
Thanks for the input guys. It doesn't sound like there's any downsides really, then. Especially not for the price point versus comfort, performance and reliability. Being very/disconcertingly fast isn't much of an issue, in fact it's a positive plus point! It's twice the power I have now, but I'm a RoSPA Gold and luckily I can borrow a few local police driving instructors any time I like for some high speed training in Wales or the Yorkshire moors should the mood strike. :D

AndyMoody said:
Have a look on here and ask questions that you have, owners will answer fairly quickly.

http://www.jaginfo.org/forum.php
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Thanks very much. :)
 
Walking into this thread a bit late, but just to say, I have a 2013 Jaguar XFR, so thought I'd give my views.

I also tested the F10 M5 over 2 days, and just found the XFR to be far more refined, more comfortable, and a far better car for the road. It's the 8 speed version.

I have 2 small kids, and we use the XFR as our general family car. It's great on short drives, long drives and anything in between.
I've also taken it on a track where I did some seriously exuberant driving, and it was excellent there, very quick and poised around the corners, as well as the obvious acceleration you get from a Supercharged 5L!

I'm taking it on a driving trip around the Lake District next week too so looking forward to that!

A very very nice car all round!

Thanks,
Mal
 
I refrained from posting before now but as an f10 M5 owner, i cant genuinely understand yours or Mickey's perspective on this. Either you've driven two very bad M5s or had them set up wrong. They are arguably a different league to the XFR. It's a woeful car with horrible plastics and not much better reliability. The interior of the F10 alone is light years ahead. I'm sadly not even fanboying this as i was millimetres away from buying an e63 and even that puts the Jag to shame.

The M5 is the absolute exemplar of a car that can be driven without so much as a sniff to its capabilities and the Jag to practicality all but two people in here, would agree.

The E63 engine was better but the interior let the car down as it was effectively a decade behind in tech, the Jag suffers a similar fate but seems to fail even harder.
 
We'll just have agree to disagree (although so so so many review sites seem to agree with me.....).

I'm particular interested with your comment on the plastics, seeing as most of the interior is leather including the dash surround leading to the windscreen etc!

Incidentally I came from 2 previous BMWs and it took a lot to swap me from getting an M5, which I saw as the natural super saloon to get.
 
Both good cars. Go drive both, drive the one you like. I don't think either is a wrong choice, depends what you see as important. Not convinced the F10 M5 was close to the best M5, for me that was the E39 and I don't like the interior design of the Jag but having been in both they both have merits and negatives.
 
Django x2 said:
I refrained from posting before now but as an f10 M5 owner, i cant genuinely understand yours or Mickey's perspective on this. Either you've driven two very bad M5s or had them set up wrong. They are arguably a different league to the XFR. It's a woeful car with horrible plastics and not much better reliability. The interior of the F10 alone is light years ahead. I'm sadly not even fanboying this as i was millimetres away from buying an e63 and even that puts the Jag to shame.
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I'm not sure what XFR you've been sitting in, but as said above, there's hardly any plastic to touch and the ones there are pretty much all have a quality feel.

I'm actually considering changing to an F10 M5 at the minute after my XFR got rear-ended and has been tainted for me with various issues trying to get it fixed properly, the main thing making me question the change is the cheap feel of the M5 interior compared to the XFR. The biggest issue with most of the BMWs is the huge black plastic dash, which after having full soft grain leather everywhere in my last few cars just feels like a bit of a step backwards. I've recently been and driven an M5 again, and whilst it doesn't feel as bad as I remember, it's definitely nowhere near as easy to drive smoothly as the XFR. I'm actually considering getting an XFR-S instead, but I'm not sure I want my 4th X250 XF in a row :p
 
I'm not sure a leather dash can be the only reason an XFR appears to be the better car. Not least because if it's the same "leather" dash as in the discovery, it probably doesn't come as a surprise to know it's not real leather. The M5 had a leather dash option, admittedly, but all it was good for was stopping your mobile phone from sliding around :D....
 
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