I must confess that I am a serious car junkie. I love finding out as much as I can about what we drive. That said, one of the reasons I picked up my S-type was the Lincoln LS introduction I was invited to back in 1999. It was an impressive car. I know some people may debate that. What I thought was neat was how twodivisions of a company were able to collaborate on a design, share the development, and come up with two distinct vehicles. One of the aspects of the Jaguar part that intrigues me is the very different trim levels that were available outside the US. I would love to hear from people around the world who have or have seenS-types with cloth seats, stick shifts, etc. In America the car was only available with automatics, and only petrol engines. One V6 3.0 and two V8's (from 03 and up) the regular 4.0 / 4.2 and the supercharged version. Also, the American version only came with leather and wood interior trim. There was a sport interior option one year that featured aluminum trim, and one year that offered a satin wood trim, but overall, all we see is leather and burl wood trim. I hope that this is a topic that other enthusiast find interesting as well.

 

Manual trans S-Types come up fairly often on Ebay even here in the USA. I've seen, oh, half a dozen in as many months, so they're out there. I, too, would like to hear from anyone owning one.

Cheers
DD

 

My 2004 S-Type is a manual one. My model is called "Sport", but this only applies to transmission, exterior trim and wheels. Interior is still leather/wood.

In my personal opinion, this car has been designed as automatic and the manual option is really an afterthought. You can tell by awkward positioning of the stick and useless electric parking brake.

So I would personally prefer to have it in automatic - but I just could not resist all back look of S-Type Sport (no chrome at all)

 

Doug.. Thanks for the reply. At lunch yesterday I did a search, and there it was. A 2003 with a stick. I thought that the Lincoln was the only one with a stick, and that was discontinued in '03 I believe.
Lev..Are you from the US? Have you posted pictures of your car? I'd love to see it.

 

Don't have any pictures at the moment, but can get them done this week (planing to get her washed anyway :-) )

I am not from US

 

Just uploaded some photos to album:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/albumph...e=1&sortType=6

Album does not seem to work correctly for me at the moment, so here are direct links:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/upfiles...n380430585.jpg
https://www.jaguarforums.com/upfiles...e987439430.jpg
https://www.jaguarforums.com/upfiles...l208770388.jpg

 

I like it !

Cheers
DD

 

Have a look at the UK Forum for the other specifications.
for example this thread:
http://www.jaguarforum.co.uk/viewtop...2174510ad3c802

My first modern S-Type was a company car - a very early 1999 model.
This was a UK 'poverty spec' 3-litre, manual, cloth seats with optional factory fit cruise control and sunroof. As an early manual it needed the engine software updated to remap from 'automatic only' to 'manual'. In the original automatic mapping it tended to stall on take-off and hung onto the revs far too long to make elegant smooth manual changes.
I met the then Technical Director of Jaguar Cars in the smoker's corner of a Confederation of British Industry meeting shortly after getting it and before the engine map update. As soon as I mentioned that I had a manual he groaned and said "I bet the stalling at take-off annoys you" and told me to take it in for the update. As a fellow smoker he also bemoaned the marketers for forgetting about manual buyers. The ashtray is inaccessible when in 5th gear! So yes - they were 'designed' as V-8 automatic boulevard cruisers for the West Coast US market being the default and V-6 automatics as an 'loss leader' option expected to be taken up by very few buyers and manuals only for the smaller European markets. He implied that the marketers were taken by surprise by the number of European buyers seeing the S-Type as the 'Driver's Car' in the Jaguar range and opting for 3-litre manuals. Approaching 25% in the UK in that first year I think he said and nearly half in the Italian market. He said they had had so many enquiries for manuals in the US that they were considerering homologating the manual for the Federal market - seems from previous comments that they did so. But the marketers did initially target the S-Type at a younger owner profile, so they should have expected that. The Getrag 5 speed box fitted is delightful to use.
Talked to the engine development team leader at an IMechE meeting. He also bemoaned the marketers. The engine team were given a target of 240bhp by the marketers - they met it at 'first pass' and were told to stop development. He reckoned there was LOTS more to come from that engine had they been allowed to play - BUT that would have eaten into the V8 market share and hence profit margin!
I don't think you ever got the 2.5 litre V6 in the US in the S-Type, but may have done in the X-Type. But see what Noble did with that smaller version of the V6:
http://www.noblecars.com/about.html
lightly blown and 310 bhp, 320 lb.ft.

My wife's current 2003 (2002 MY) is also a 3-litre manual poverty spec version in exactly the same Carmen (?) Red as my first one, and with absolutely NO options.
I think this spec is by far the best anyway. No nasty slippery, cold cow-skin trim, lowest overall weight, best weight balance. The only thing I REALLY detest is all the unecessary weight the marketers lumbered this heavyweight with. I would love to loose the weight of aircon, electric windows, electric seats, pointless speakers/CD etc. I want to DRIVE a Jaguar not float along Sunset Boulevard!

And of course ALL my Jaguars have the steering wheel on the correct side!


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Neat information rtcosic. I followed your links and enjoy the information. I think it is neat how there are different specs for different markets. I really enjoy my car. I personally wouldn't loose the luxury stuff in my car. I don't necessarily want a fat cruiser either. I do appreciate the classic luxury of the S-type. But then I'm one of those weird people that like "retro" cars like the new Mustang, Mini Cooper, Fiat 500, etc. I actually think the S-type will go down in history as one of those under appreciated cars. I remember the intro of it's cousin, the LS. I was very impressed with what the car could do, when pushed. I have to use mine as a daily driver but still hope to have the funds to tweak it a little. I did some minor tweaking of the Accord Coupe I had before the Jag. I too discovered that the 4cyl stick Accord was actually a more balanced car that the heavier V6 Accord. Sometimes less is more. Another little note that I found interesting. The XF is not a totally new car but a majorredo of theS-type. More credit to how good it really is.

 

Indeed, great information rtcosic - thanks so much for posting it here. Would love to see more background information like this from those of you on the other side of the pond who have face-to-faceaccess to Jaguar's technical staff....

I'm with Jeff above -my wife and Ilike the wonderfulamenities that are part of the S-Type package here in theU.S. Our S-Type isfar froma FormulaOne car and we know it. Got it as an efficient and comfortable highway cruiser and that is primarily what we use it for. Having abeautiful car like this that is easily able to do better than 30 mpg on the highway isexactly what I wanted. I admit that I would like to test-drive a 2005 S-Type R to see exactly what that car can do that minecan't, but I don't want one for our purposes.Higher insurance rates, far poorer gas mileage, eating through tires and brakes, and higher maintenance costs would all combine to defeat the purpose ofbringing an S-Type into our household....

Now at more than six weeks after buyingour S-Type, every time I slide into the drivers seat I still say to myself (or to my wife if she is sitting in the passenger seat), "what a great car for the money - I don't know if anything else could have even come close toproviding exactly what we were looking for." Now, if the car will just hold up over theyears and miles with routine maintenance turning out tobe the bulk of what I need to do to it, I'll stay in love with this car for a long, long time....

A note for some of you later-model second owners - I called JaguarUSA last week and asked if they still had some of the 2005S-Type sales brochures that werehanded out in the showrooms whenour 2005 S-Typehit the market. They checked their inventory and sure enough, some original 2005brochures were located. I had them mail one to me and it arrived this past Thursday. I havegleaned additional information about ALL of the U.S. S-Types on the market at that time from this 30-page brochure and I am very glad that I have it now....

 

Sweet.. Did they charge for the brochure?

 

Jon-

Do you mind telling us the dept or person you spoke to?

I've got a 2005 S-Type 3.0 and love it.

Eric

 

I simply called the JaguarUSA toll-free number in New Jersey, told the customer service rep (I don't recall her name) who answered my call that I had recently purchased a 2005 S-Type, and asked for a 2005 S-Type brochure if they were still available. She found one and cheerily offered to mail it to me at no charge....