For daily driving/commuting on good city and parkway roads, would you guys consider the extra $10K price tag of the 'S' model to be worth it over a 'base' or 'premium' model? Talking '16/'17 model years. Question is focused on ride comfort not performance driving.
I'm going to test drive some as soon as the opportunity presents itself, but would love to hear your opinions and experiences.
Thanks!

 

Okay so I have a 16 S with 20" wheels and PS4's. For me I drive in dynamic probably about 80% of the time, but when the road is really rough I do put it into normal mode, or just change the dynamic mode settings to have the suspension in normal. My guess is that a base with 18" will probably ride the same or better, but a base with bigger wheels will probably be a little rougher and stiffer, having the ability to change it on the fly is a nice feature, but for me the price of admission for an S is worth it, but not just for the ride, the extra power, the standard active exhaust, and a lot of them have the optional switchable. another note, the S model's you'll find will generally be higher specifications then subsequent base models. The LSD and bigger brakes are a huge plus for me. If financially feasible I would try and go with an S, it will hold value a little better, be more fun to drive, more power, a little rarer, and overall just more of a sports car. I know you wanted to know more about comfort but at the end of the day the F-type is a sports car and performance driving is always going to be in mind. So to recap, for a lot of people the base is to harsh, especially with larger wheels, for some they don't mind it. personallly I think having adaptive dampers is worth it and does help.

Good luck with your decision and keep us updated on what you plan to do.

 

Thank you Sir for the reply. The vast majority of the base and premium models I'm finding are coming with 18" wheels, so plenty of rubber underneath. I just don't know what to expect in terms of suspension. I drove a '14 F type and it was rough, too rough to use daily at my age.
My budget for the F type centers on whether or not I would need to sell my classic car (which I love but don't drive too often) to help cover the cost. In order to afford the 'S' model, it would be best for me financially to sell the classic. I could keep the classic if I move to a base model. I'm finding base models at $35K and premiums around $40K and the lowest price 'S' is coming in at $50K.
BUT, the F type would be my new daily driver, so I really need it to be a comfortable commute car as well as a fun ride when the itch hits.

 

Ride quality is subjective. You'll have to drive a few different F-Type versions to see if the differences make the difference "for you".

The reason I say subjective, is that most of the year, I spend time in race cars. When I jump in my F-Type, it feels like a soggy boat compared to something that is dedicated for a race track. However, if I spent most of my time in a luxury SUV, the F-Type would feel like a jaw breaking go-kart. It's all perspective and what someone else thinks, may or may not work "for you".

 

50K Is the lowest price S you can find? where are you? we can get the low 40's in south florida, sheesh if you want my 16 S cpo awd vert, like 100k msrp and you can have it for 40k lol. 33k miles. you should easily find a nice clean S for 45k with high options.

 

Agreed. I've spent the last 9 years driving a Cadillac CTS sedan. I'm not expecting that level of smooth ride in the F type. The '14 I drove was really rough though. Have not had the opportunity to take a long test drive in a '16/'17 but hope to soon.

 

Lenexa KS, SouthWest of Kansas City Kansas.
Those low 40K F type S's aren't showing up on my searches, but my needed options are pretty specific. Only want silver or eiger gray, AWD, upgraded seats, vision pack, and its got to be a coupe. I've been searching cars.com, cargurus.com, truecar.com, autotrader, and ebay every night.
2017 Silver, S model, Coupe, AWD, performance seats, vision pack = $49K and up Plus, all of those I do find are way out of state. I can't find any '16 S models with this criteria, with any warranty left.
My only options in town are a '17 RWD, black, premium with base seats and a '17 S in white that has the base seats. I find the base seats very uncomfortable even during a short test drive.

 

I don't really like my base seats, one option my car is missing. Def get vision pack, try and get the upgraded brakes, I have the 380/376 which is the same as the R. Color I wouldn't be too picky as with modern day wrapping you can get any color you want and protect the paint, the F-type is prone to rock chips in my experience and I'd want some sort of protection.

 

Plenty of reports around here that the base rides a bit harder than the S in "normal" mode and that's with the base on 18" wheels and the S on 19" wheels. You can't put 18" wheels on an S as they won't fit over the front brake calipers.

 

I would say yes. There are heaps of bases for sale with low km and 20 inch wheels about and having driven one first I'd think that they are being sold because of the ride. The S is heaps more comfortable, especially if you have the decent seats as well which soften up after a few thousand miles. Mine has 21's on it and passengers often comment how comfortable the ride is compared to (say) a porker, I'm pretty fussy about those things and I've got no plans to change after 4 1/2 years.

 

Thanks everyone. Seems pretty clear from these posts, and some other threads I've found, that the S is worth the extra cost, especially for a daily driver.
Hope to join the club soon!

 

If you look for an RWD S, the price differential will be far less than 10k.

 

That premium approaches as-paid-when-new, since the car depreciated so should the price difference. I think S was about $15K difference from base with no feature when new.

To me, S over base is worth it. I got S to get LSD, not knowing that base MT comes standard with one. You also get a lot of quality of life features that would not be found on base unless optioned. Depending on year, some base models come without blind spot monitoring. You also can't get active suspension and you may not get active exhaust. Last but not least, I think larger brake calipers in 2016 were only available on S and R and not base.

Anecdote - when I was buying my F-type S, there were some badly optioned F-type base that were collecting dust on the lot. Like base with every option but blind spot monitoring that cost only 2K less than my S. Things like that.

Still, from doing factory tour in UK, even base F-type would correspond to a premium trim in UK. For example, I have seen F-types without memory seats option on the factory floor. So there is that.

 

[QUOTE=SinF;2297901Depending on year, some base models come without blind spot monitoring and so on.[/QUOTE]

My R doesn't have blind spot monitoring, and if the loaner I had was anything to go by I'm glad - I just found it annoying.

 

Visibility with soft top up is really not great.

I find blind spot monitoring essential when driving in the rain with soft top up. On my 16 it has following options - fast approaching car (blinks light in side mirror), something in your blind spot (just light). It is also combined with backup cross-traffic monitoring, where it beeps and blinks light when detecting car approaching when you are in reverse. Later years also have lane monitoring and active cruise control features, but my car doesn't have this.

To my never ending shame, that feature probably paid for itself at least once.

 

Ah, I hadn't considered the soft top - it could well be a benefit there!