Jaguar XJ and XF build quality

[Gucci]

Today I looked around London's Clerkenwell Design Week which is sponsored by Jaguar. They had an XF, XJ and XK on display. I got another sit in the XF and XJ which I think are both fine looking cars. However, as I tend to do when trying out a car, I gave the interior trim and switchgear a good wiggle and a squeeze. Have to say, I felt a tad disappointed. Not that it creaked badly or felt cheap, but it did feel like it was made with some ordinary materials. I don't expect a plasticky creak when i lean on a centre console of a car costing as much as a Jag. Or am I being overly picky?!

 

[tpwuk]

My Jag never made a single squeek. My Mercedes on the otherhand......

 

[Dieselman]

I looked round a pre-production XJ and thought it was very well made.

 

[Gucci]

mmm, I wonder if I was being a tad firm with it

 

[zenman63]

I have owen a few mercedes and still do, but I love my jag.
Nothing like 400hp V8!
XFR next on my list.
Say 30k in your pocket, C class or XF Jag ?

 

[tpwuk]

I have owen a few mercedes and still do, but I love my jag.
Nothing like 400hp V8!
XFR next on my list.
Say 30k in your pocket, C class or XF Jag ?

I notice you have an S-Type R......on my wish list one of those!

 

[Gucci]

mmmm, £30k for either C class or XF, I guess I'd take the Jag

 

[vincenz]

You can make most interiors make awkward noises, with the right tap, prod, squeeze etc. how far do you want the engineers to take it?

A design that doesn't creak when probed by an obsessive individual, or body panels that safe fuel and perform well in a crash?

Theres areas worth spending money on quality and areas that are not, and your case is of the later.

IMO

 

[DSLiverpool]

Have to say, I felt a tad disappointed. Not that it creaked badly or felt cheap, but it did feel like it was made with some ordinary materials.

See some of my posts about the XFR from when it arrived, never let me down mechanically only sensory.

 

[Howard]

Say 30k in your pocket, C class or XF Jag ?

or save for a couple of months and have a C63 ?

 

[bionoc]

I agree with Mr Gucci.
Last year I flew down to London with the intention of driving back to Scotland in a Jaguar XFR, based on all of the reviews I had read in several magazines, but was very disappointed with the interior.
The car had done 7,000 miles but the seats already looked tired. The silver buttons on the dash reminded me of a public phone box. The gear selector felt like an old Amstrad stereo.
The touchscreen was too slow to react and the graphics on the dash were like the screen from a 1980's Game Boy. I was gutted and not willing to part with the best part of 50K.
I ended up with an E500 coupe. This one didn't get good reviews in the magazines but is the best car I have driven. Not the fastest, not the quietest, not the best handling and not the most comfortable but not far off.

 

[tpwuk]

I ended up with an E500 coupe. This one didn't get good reviews in the magazines but is the best car I have driven. Not the fastest, not the quietest, not the best handling and not the most comfortable but not far off.

So you made quite a few comprimises then??!

 

[bionoc]

So you made quite a few comprimises then??!

I don't think so. I'm lucky enough to be able to drive a few nice cars and I think I chose well.
If you want fast and great handling, get a Nissan GTR. Only problem is that it is really uncomfortable. Porsche? Everybody has one. Same goes for M3. Both great cars though.
C63? That was close but a little bit hard and I preferred the look of the coupe.
If you want comfort then get an S class or A8. Great cars but too big for up here in the sticks.
I ended up choosing the E500 coupe over the S5. The S5 is prettier, in my opinion, but the options are endless so the end cost starts to become ridiculous. You get just about everything standard on the E500.
I'm probably in a very small minority as there are dozens of the cars I mentioned in Autotrader but just a handful of the E500 coupe. I like that though.

 

[C240Sport97]

The S5 is prettier, in my opinion, but the options are endless so the end cost starts to become ridiculous. You get just about everything standard on the E500.

Audi option pricing is day light robbery

 

[E CLASS]

You can make most interiors make awkward noises, with the right tap, prod, squeeze etc. how far do you want the engineers to take it?

A design that doesn't creak when probed by an obsessive individual, or body panels that safe fuel and perform well in a crash?

Theres areas worth spending money on quality and areas that are not, and your case is of the later.

IMO

Switch gear will be a thing of the past on some cars soon.

As touch panels comes there will cease to any traditional buttons for elec windows etc...

Nothing will then make any noise of fall off.

 

[NewMB]

The 3.0D XF S I had as a rental in Germany last year left a big ? over the quality of Jag's.

It was very new and only had a couple of K's mls on the clock. Nice and comfortable car and very fast indeed but the buttons in the car screamed - Cheap! Engine also went into limp mode several times while driving on the autobahn.

Love the look of it though.

 

[snoop51]

Switch gear will be a thing of the past on some cars soon.

As touch panels comes there will cease to any traditional buttons for elec windows etc...

Nothing will then make any noise of fall off.

And when they fail to register your touch??? Call me old fashioned but I quite like a good old fashioned switch at least if an individual switch goes wrong you can replace that individual switch for a few quid. If a touch screen goes wrong I'm thinking it may well be more like a few hundred quid. But perhaps that's just the engineer in me, I like to see / feel / hear things actually working.

 

[Gucci]

It's an expensive trend. Wing mirrors festooned with LEDs, steering wheels laden with buttons, speedometer now a computer graphic - only a matter of time.

 

[zenman63]

Don't forget alloy bodies on the XJ glued and riveted together.
When the body in white comes for inspection it's so good it needs no prep for paint!, all fine until you crash it, then it's unrepairable.
Same can be said about all new cars, there never the same repaired.

I like the presents of Jag, plus the fact its built here and proud to own one.
I still love my 115 Vito as well.

 

[st4]

I agree with Mr Gucci.
Last year I flew down to London with the intention of driving back to Scotland in a Jaguar XFR, based on all of the reviews I had read in several magazines, but was very disappointed with the interior.
The car had done 7,000 miles but the seats already looked tired. The silver buttons on the dash reminded me of a public phone box. The gear selector felt like an old Amstrad stereo.
The touchscreen was too slow to react and the graphics on the dash were like the screen from a 1980's Game Boy. I was gutted and not willing to part with the best part of 50K.
I ended up with an E500 coupe. This one didn't get good reviews in the magazines but is the best car I have driven. Not the fastest, not the quietest, not the best handling and not the most comfortable but not far off.

Drove one at Brooklands as I was too tight to pay for an AMG.

It was wonderful, utterly wonderful. It handled well enough for a mere mortal like me, was not exactly slow, very nice seats and to me, a real high point in the Mercedes range. I've also drove an Audi S6 not that long after, and the E500 bar in the rain, would run rings around it and was just so much more fun, better steering, livelier engine, better driving position, better car.

TBH I've been a passanger in a C63 and this was not a whole lot slower.

Flanaia1 has driven an XFR on track and bits fell of it. You know in a BMW or Mercedes, that would not happen.