I thought I would let the group know how my first year of ownership has been, and the things I did to bring the car up to my standards
and so future buyers can look out for some of the things I found on the 2014 model year. I purchased the car knowing the exterior issues just to be upfront.

2014 FIresand V8 S purchased with 39,040 miles (currently 42,000) purchased from non-Jaguar dealer I am the 3rd owner
first owner was in Florida, second Maryland.
Purchased the extended warranty 5 years up to 75k thru CNA. I figured at the mileage I drive the car I will get the full 5 years worth.
Peace of mind should anything major happen.

Cosmetic condition of the car when I purchased it was 7 on a 1 to 10 scale this is subjective but, my hard assessment of both interior and exterior.

Exterior Paint: Passenger door had a deep scratch that required repair, front bumper had minor but typical stone chips, lower air deflector also had typical wear.
Overall paint needed correction as it had typical minor surface scratches from cleaning and driving. The body panel gaps were terrible.

I had door and bumper repainted by a shop that has experience with these cars and is Jaguar certified repair shop.
The Firesand paint is a 3 stage pearl and is tricky to match. Because depending on the light and the angle you look at the car from it changes.
Add to the fact the paint shade can differ on a plastic part (front bumper) from metal. They also noted the poor body gaps and said they had seen this before
factory direct. They matched the paint perfectly and did an amazing Job of aligning the panels. Bonnet actually closes with little to no effort.
I would like to note so members here will know. They measured the paint and clear thickness and also noted that the clear used on these was softer then some cars
and to be careful of heavy machine compounding and how often you do any heavy compounding. Light compounding/polish is fine they told me.

Wheels and tires: The car needed rear tires, had sumitomo so I assumed they were a second set. I replaced all 4 with Firestone INDY 500 and are very happy with the handling,
responsiveness and overall ride. They also seem to be wearing even after 3k miles. Did not have enough driving miles on the sumitomo tires to compare against the Firestones.
Wheels are the forged blade with carbon fiber inserts. They had some minor curb rash, I had them fixed as well.

Interior: The car had sticky interior issue. It came this way I not aware of the issue when I purchased it and learned about it after. Someone tried to fix the steering wheel bezel and buttons and
did more damage then good. I was able to successfully clean and refurbish the interior parts to my satisfaction, this included the display bezel which actually required disassemble and removal
of the plastic welds as it is a 2 piece design as are most of the interior trim pieces. Cleaned using Dunlop fret board cleaner method, worked well and saved lots of money in replacement costs.
replaced start button and steering wheel with a wheel from guardian came complete with bezels and buttons. Note original buttons on 2014 and some 15 MY were problematic and functioned slowly.
cost of the guardian wheel was cheaper then just replacing the trim parts of the wheel and bad buttons, and you get a much improved wheel and quality then the factory wheel.
Purchased cup holder inserts as the metal on the bottom was scratched and could not be cleaned. Amazon has these cheap.
all the leather and other surfaces were in excellent condition and other then general cleaning and conditioning quality is very good. I am now happy with the interior!

Mechanical: I am happy to report I have not had any issues. Brakes were newer and have drilled rotors so they are not stock rotors. These were done by the owner in Maryland based on the carfax report.
Water pump was done at 23k in 2016 hoping that any of the bad cooling plastic parts were changed out at that time.

General maintenance: I have had done since owning. Very first thing was an oil change. Did BG44 fuel system one tankful before oil. I am sure the dealer changed the oil but had it done any way to make sure correct oil was in the car.
Had brake system fluid flush and a diff fluid change. Had alignment done when tires were installed and balanced. Did a second round of BG44 after car came out of winter storage late March 2021 and before second oils change. I have a scheduled appointment for supercharger belt change 6/1 at dealer as it is recommended at 6 year interval they quoted me $300 to do the belt. I plan on doing oil once a year at no more
3500 miles and will cherry pick the other general maintenance items based on my schedule and the cars needs of course. As of now I am sticking with the dealer as they have been very reasonable cost wise for
maintenance. I will note car may have original battery. Can't seem to find a date code on the battery.

elective upgrades: Lloyds car mats with orange stitching to match seats. Factory sport pedals. Becareful when mounting them, do not over tight as you can pull the weld studs off if you do. The rubber base compresses so you may feel like they are not tight but they are. Painted calipers using G2 Caliper paint system paint mixed to match car color. Its a great product and I highly recommend their product. Guardian steering wheel another great value if I may say so.I also did a paint correction of the complete car and it really pops. I have had numerous complements on the paint and people can't believe the car is 7 years old! Even Jag dealer is impressed with how well the car looks. I use polish angel color spray wax and also wolfgang fusion wax. Great products.

Overall assessment: Only having put a little over 3000 miles, on the car. It is 7 years old so I would hope all the major gremlins have shown themselves. I would assume that issues could and will show themselves as i drive the car.
I have realistic expectations at what these might be. I would say the car drives and performs great. I am pleased with the performance and it has met my expectations in every way possible. The car really draws attention at cruise nights and always is complemented on the look and style. I hope this helps any future buyers of the early year cars. I will certainly update if any issues come up.

I would also like to thank everyone here who contributes to and helps all the members with their questions and concerns. I know it is time consuming and I thought you all deserve a big thank you for your time effort and help!!!

 

Consider doing transmission fluid and filter change. 8 years is 2 years too old for that fluid in my book.

 

Thanks for an interesting write up!

The sticky interior issues makes me happy I went for a later car. I'm more than familiar with it from the X250 XF. My pre-facelift XF had proper button material and then my facelift XF had those black rubbery ones. Probably Jaguar's most stupid choice of interior material in the past decade.

How do you find the Lloyds mats compared to the OEM ones?

 

I think the Lloyds quality is better then the oem. Seems like thicker pile and heavier weight. What I liked about them was they would do colored stitching to match the seat stitching I had.

 

I am curious when it comes to the tranny fluid change, has there been transmission failures on these cars that have been documented and at what mileage.
Not against doing it and I am not against doing it.

 

Go to battery-code.info for manufacture date. There should be an embossed 5 or 6 digit code on top of the battery. On my FIAMM battery, first number is the year, second and third numbers are the week.

 

No widespread reported issues with transmissions. Still, transmission oil and filter has to be periodically changed.

Anecdote: I had 90s-era lifetime transmission fill BMW, at around 80,000Km transmission failed. I replaced it with a used transmission from a low miles wreck. Filled with synthetic ATF and then every 2 years would do drain and refill (50% of fluid changed). Second transmission lasted for FIFTEEN MORE YEARS and 250,000 more kilometers and was still going strong when the car was finally retired. I believe the only reason original transmission died is because fluid was never changed due to misinformation from BMW.

 

I think ZF recommends about 60,000 miles between changes.

 

@Therock88 had a 'squeak' when shifts occurred didn't he?

Went away after his fluid & filter change. Look up his tutorial.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...thread-242078/