Hi Andy I missed the Xfr acquisition thread but need to ask - have you just been on the jag test day they rolled out in October ? I drove the Xkr. Xkrs and Xj sport and was driven in all three as well.
The xkrs was special but they are made to order and no deals they said , not sure I believe that
I predict a xkrs by July ;-)
No...I missed out on that but have been assured I;m invited to the next Jaguar track day event this year
My recent introduction to Jag has been interesting...you may remember I tried an XFR a couple of years ago and was very impressed with it back then but then I know you weren't impressed with it when you had one. I sort of share your view on a couple of points but maybe to so extreme, in particular...
Gearbox - I do see what you mean about it always wanting to change down when you use a little throttle but to be honest, I don't find it a problem in normal mode. In sport mode it is quite bad to start with as it really holds onto the gears for too long. However, the 'box is clearly dynamic and I felt (should I say 'feel'...the XKR seems the same in characteristics!) it adapted after a few minutes of driving. It is a PITA for the first few miles of journey whilst it learns though
Build - I also see what you mean about the interior having a lack of a feeling of 'robustness'. I will use this word as I reckon the actual materials used were up to scratch and there was actually nothing fundamentally wrong with the way it was built (indeed, for lack of rattles and creaks, it was one of the best cars Ive had) but there was always this slight, but unfound, feeling of a lack of substance. It's odd...I have nothing to back it up other than the apparent good build quality :wall bash: By the way, this feeling is not replicated in the XKR which is feels properly solid and beautifully crafted out of very nice materials.
Anyway, I did rate the XFR much highly than you did but after 'winning' and XKR for the weekend after attending an event at my local Jag dealer, I found that car in another league to anything I've had and....well.....the XFR just didn't cut it after that! My 5-6 week ownership spell of the XFR was little to do with the XFR and more to do with how impressive the XKR was!
Anyway, with regards XKR-S deals (damn you....you had to go one better
) you will definitely get a deal on one. When I was negotiating on my XKR, I momentarily looked at the XKR-S that they had in the showroom and I'm confident I'd have got a similar deal on that as I did on mine. In the end, even with the ridiculously expensive Dynamic pack and sports exhaust options as fitted to mine (which effectively means it has the the XKR-S chassis and exhaust) my car was still £10k less than an XKR-S and was well outside my budget already (didn't stop me buying it though!)....the extra £10k for the S was just so far out of my reach BUT....as I said above, I'm confident I'd have got the same deal on that if I could have afforded it.
I have PM'd you with the specific deal that I got as you should use that as a base case - let me know if you want a contact there as they are extremely good to deal with...the best I have experienced in ay of my car purchases to date (if not exactly local for you...but then does that matter for the initial purchase?)
