I know, this thread is useless without pics. Give me a bit, I'm picking up my new to me 2018 XF Sportbrake First Edition this coming Friday. Will have pics shortly thereafter. I have a few questions. Please bear with me, I do tend to ramble a bit these days, reason to follow below.

Little history - I am historically a truck guy, diesel pickups. My wife was the Harley Davidson and wagon woman. When we were first married, she liked the practicality of wagons - all wheel drive for MT winters, decent fuel mileage, better handling than a truck/suv, and yet still had plenty of room for dogs and skis (and once I came along fishing rods, long guns, etc...) Prior to her, I never owned a car, always trucks or Jeeps. I quickly came around to her point of view and we always had some VW Passat wagon in our stable afterwards in addition to a truck. She was practical and responsible with money, the VWs were cheap and reliable, with the occasional mildly pricey repair. Over the years we test drove an assortment of cars and wagons, from Mercedes, to BMWs, Audis, and even the Jaguar Sportbrake once. About 2 months ago, I told her to find the car she wanted, it was time for something nicer than the VW. We have my diesel one ton dually for towing the 40ft fifth wheel. I've always suggested my spouse get what she wanted. I'll offer up thoughts and opinions, but they can get whatever they want so long as it's mildly within budget.

We began our search in earnest, and long story short, she remembered test driving the Jaguar and decided she wanted a Sportbrake over the Mercedes. We both loved the 'atmosphere', appearance, and handling. Mid search for one with the options we wanted, my beloved wife of 14 years very unexpectedly passed away peacefully at home at the age of 51. I am heartbroken. She was the emotional half, I'm the IT career, logical analytical half. To occupy my mind, I occasionally continued with our search to fill some time. A few weeks after her passing, I found a 2018 First Edition with all the options we wanted offered from a Jaguar dealer as a CPO car. I have both emotional and logical reasons for following through with the purchase. Some say I should do what would make me happy, others say I should do nothing and hold off. After many conversations and much deliberation I have decided to go with with life is short, you never know when it will end and within means and reason, while still preparing for a long life, enjoy it. If I decide I shouldn't have bought the car, I can always sell it. I found this particular Sportbrake to be an absolute blast on windy twisty backroads. I think I'm going to enjoy the hell out of it and hopefully she will be right there with me in spirit enjoying it as well.

The practical attributes - It is a 2018 First Edition in Farallon black. I test drove it twice and then spent over an hour in it going through all the features, familiarizing myself with them and ensuring they all worked, every seat heater/cooler/adjustment worked, etc... It appears to be in pristine condition paint/body wise. I don't have the build sheet in front of me but the main attributes it has that we were looking for are...
Black interior
Digital Instrument cluster
Heads up Display (HUD)
Heated/Cooled front seats
Heated rear seats
Drivers assist package (lane departure, adaptive cruise etc...)
Comfort/convenience package (believe that's what finally got me the cooled seats, and think that's also where soft close doors come from)
First Edition (hand wave sensor deal for roof screen, activity band))

The car went into service in 2019, has 34k miles currently, and has 5 months of factory warranty remaining, plus an additional year of CPO warranty. I am deep into research for third party warranties at the moment, looking for as comprehensive of one as I can find. I have been speaking with several local dealers, service advisors, and at one dealer was even able to speak with the woman who handled the 3rd party warranty claims processing. Historically, I have rarely sold a vehicle. They're usually kept and well maintained until they die or are wrecked.

Anyone have any opinions on the longevity of these Jaguar XFs? I understand very few (250ish?) of the Sportbrakes were sold in the US, I'm equating their reliability roughly with the XF sedans. Am I wrong here? Do folks keep and run these over 100k miles? I just recently found this forum and am reading through the posts, using the search engine, trying to learn as much as I can.

Anyone have any thoughts/opinions on 3rd party warranties for Jaguars? I understand to check and make sure servicing dealer will work with one and not all will work with the same ones.

Anyone have any things to specifically look out for with these? Like I mentioned above, I'm familiar with diesel trucks, sportier/more luxury vehicles, not so much.

The Jaguar subscription for what appears remote lock/unlock/tracking and something with the navigation system - worth it or no? Tested android auto integration and it seemed to work well.

My current plans once I pick the car up are window tinting and ceramic coating. Them I'm going to enjoy driving.

Thanks for reading and appreciate any feedback on the questions above or on anything I didn't think to ask.

 

Welcome to Jaguar Forums. Congrats on your recent car purchase. If your car is a 6 cylinder, it's tried and true. It's the engine been used by both Land Rover on their fleet of Ranger Rovers and Jaguars XF, F-Pace, F-Type and XJs.
Get familiar with the engine by asking the members of F-Type and XJ forums. Very good engine but you have to watch out on the plastic coolant pipes which a lot of members here converted to aluminum coolant pipes. Upon reading some of the discussions, normally occurs after 60K miles for the plastic pipes to burst. Very easy to replace that plastic coolant pipes if you are a DYIer but time consumng. I've seen videos on YT how it was done on a Range Rover
My 2018 XF has a 4 cylinder Ingenium engine. Yours have more features than mine. Good luck, on your purchase. Yes, as I've said it before, the 6 and 8 cylinder engines are tired and true "if maintained properly". I've seen Range Rovers with more than 200K + miles on the odo being sold at CarFax.com

I believe, this is your car>?
https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/b...-fa590b6f67a6/

 

Thanks for the welcome and reply. Yes is has the supercharged V6. And yes, that is the exact model of the car that I am purchasing. Seems only difference is mine has HUD and cooled seats. I appreciate the direction and will check the other sections of the forums out as well. I am fairly handy with DIY and do believe in regular scheduled maintenance. I like to take care of my 'stuff' and as mentioned, tend to keep vehicles for the long term.

 

I love the Jag V6! Six of our eight Jags have had the V6. (One has the four pot and the other a V8. Like Goldie Locks or the bears said, the V6 is just right.) Ditto on the plastic coolant pipe issue. Also, the belt tensioner for the supercharger. Plan ahead and you should be okay. My wife had wanted a Sportbrake but we couldn't find a loaded one. Adaptive cruise, HUD and cooled seats are great! Sportbrakes are hard to find and even more difficult to get a good trade-in price. Since you hang on to your vehicles, so what? :-)

 

I am very happy to hear that I have the Goldilocks of their engines! This was one of only two I saw online with the cooled seats. I will add the belt tensioner to my list of items to be aware of and research. I did pick up the Sportbrake last Friday and absolutely love it. It does have the adaptive cruise control, but I tend not to (as in never) use cruise control. It took a lot for me to shift over to automatic transmissions 2 trucks ago. I like to drive and want to 'do something' while driving. Anyways, it goes in for additional detailing, ceramic coating, and window tinting on Wednesday. Should have some nice pics of it by the weekend.

After much research and a sudden change in tune by the finance guy (away from the there are no year end quotas/discounts), I did end up with a 110k mile (odometer reading) 10yr (from in service date, so through 5/23/2029) CNA Certified+Preferred Warranty for what I felt was a pretty reasonable price.

First long trip with it will be down to Savannah GA and over to Charleston SC between Christmas and New Years. I am sooo looking forward to that drive of about 800 miles each way.

Figuring out the Jaguar Remote / InControl stuff was fairly straightforward and everything seems to still be complimentary for the first 5 years in service, all subs look good through 5/24. I really like the start and set temp from your phone. That will be great from the top of the ski mountain before the last run for the day or from the river before the last cast of the day.

The Here mapping took me a bit more effort to sort out. Seems even though it'll accept it, you cannot have much in the way of special characters in your password or at least not the ones I tend to use. Then it appears to be an overnight (maybe?) process that links the VIN to your Here account. This morning it all came together and I was able to download and update the built in maps for the navigation system. Again, all seems active still through 5/24. Alas, one last issue - there is no voice telling me a turn is coming up nor "hey you missed your turn". Yes, I've made sure the navigation voice is not muted and I've turned up the volume knob when it 'should' be speaking to make sure it's not turned down. From what I've read, this may be related to different language/keyboard settings within the InControl system when updates were applied. When I picked it up, there was a mix of UK English and US English settings configured. Anyways, Service Manager set me up with an appointment for early January (my choice to wait that long, not going to be around between holidays) to diagnose and go through and reflash the system to get the voices back.

Radar detector (V1 Gen2) seems to work pretty well to the left of the mirror in the black dotted area, and the EZ Pass works fine to the right of the mirror again in the black dotted area. That gets me around the faraday cage issue of the heated windshield. Just need to rig up the power tap for the radar detector to the power wires in the rear view mirror. Also need to check amperage draw and fuse ratings and see if I can power the dash cam from there too.

WeatherTech mats for the cabin and cargo area arrived. Will put them in after the detailing.

Have I mentioned how much fun I am having driving this car? It is awesome!!! My wife would have absolutely loved it and I'd have probably been bailing her out of jail for excessive speeding by now.

 

You're correct about non-US English language causing directions to be muted. But mine have always been Aussie or UK English and they work.

On long drives and particularly hot, sunny days the cooled seats are fantastic.

The ZF auto transmission is among the best made in the world. It is faster than a manual, learns how to shift according to your driving style, and is bulletproof.

Unlike you, I use the adaptive cruise control practically all the time. 98% of my driving is long distance in all kinds of northeast weather all the way to Texas and beyond. It's great in heavy traffic when drivers vary their speed on interstate highways. Radar & computer reaction time is better than mine. I even use it around town where it will actually stop a vehicle. And, it works wonders in reduced visibility (fog, snow & heavy rain) in that it augments what I can see. It might even help if a deer runs in front at night (I hope). The added safety is too valuable to avoid, especially during 1,800 mile jaunts. I like the Jag infotainment systems better than what Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Toyota (et al) and VW offer. Jag navmaps zoom in and out appropriately and the touch screen works best IMO. Plus, one can saved up to about 1,000 favorite destinations whereas Toyota only allows 100 and BMW only 8 incar with a few more in the cloud.

I wish that Jag remained with the amber and green HUD display. It is easy on the eyes at night and during the day it doesn't wash out against a concrete pavement like all the others do. Both our XF and F-PACE S had a HUD with amber & green display. Alas, our newest 2023 F-PACE SVR is equipped with a HUD that has a white display. It is good; just not my preference. Jaguar obviously made the change in response to all the others who don't like the amber & green HUD display.

In any case, enjoy your Sportbrake. I know that my wife and I would.

 

Ok, you raise extremely valid points about the adaptive cruise control. I'm going to have to play with it and test it out. That does seem pretty cool and increases the safety factor. I'll give it a whirl on my trip down to SC next week. There is always stop and go traffic passing through DC and VA areas. Was the more stressful part of the trip when pulling the fifth wheel.

We've always had older vehicles behind on the tech. But I traveled a lot for work (before Covid) and had the 'pick whatever you want from the lot' status with most of the car rental companies. I discovered cooled seats in a brand new suburban one steamy summer day down in Louisiana. I vowed I would never rent a vehicle down south without them and would aspire to own a vehicle some day with them. That day has finally come.

I had read about folks liking the amber and green colors of the HUD in these, and I have to agree. It is very visible in just about all conditions and easy on the eyes. I do wish the directions from Waze or Google Maps showed up there too (seem to remember that on some of the cars I rented in the past), but I'm testing out the built in NAV. I really like the real time gas price updates, those are cool. I did the map updates, so they're current. I'll really give it a solid test once I get the voice notifications working. Happy to hear you confirm the mismatched settings are a likely cause. Gives me faith it should just be a straight forward reflash of the system.

I got lucky in finding this particular Sportbrake. I was working on one up in NH that lacked the cooled seats and adaptive cruise. Then one Sunday evening I found a listing for one closer to my current location over in PA and not having a busy Monday morning, got up early and drove over to check it out as the dealer opened. The listing had just gone up and didn't even have pictures yet. Fell in love with the car on the test drive, spent an hour afterwards testing everything out and the next morning called and put a deposit down on it. She may be gone, but perhaps the wife was helping steer me to the right one. When I called the NH dealer up, dreading the call because they had been so nice and helpful, the sales guy said he had bad news. Turns out the one up there sold over the weekend and he said to snag the one I found down here. Told him I had put a deposit down on it already. The call we were both dreading, actually worked out well for both of us and we were both relieved.

 

Go into your "Settings" to change the language. That should solve your problem. There is also a "Mute" button that pops up for the nav when on a phone call...I think. (My memory isn't very good.) It might be that the "mute" button for the nav was hit during a call. If I think of it tomorrow I will try it out on one of my Jags and let you know.

 

So I did that with both the steering wheel controls and the Nav unit. All are now set to US English and US English keyboard. That combined with the maps update via USB stick (this car doesn't have the SD card) brought back the 'reduce music volume' where the navigation voice should be speaking, however, there is no voice speaking. I ensured the Nav mute was off, even toggled it a few times. And finally, during the reduction of the music volume where I would expect the nav voice to be telling me what to do, I cranked up the volume knob to ensure the Nav voice volume wasn't just turned down (I've run into that with other stereos and Google voice navigation). Alas, there just doesn't seem to be an actual voice speaking. It also seems to me that the music lowering period is too short for the amount the voice would be saying. And I tried all of this without the radio on as well. My perception is the voice file just isn't on there/installed for the head unit to play or cannot be played. I appreciate your help and any additional testing/ideas you are able to offer up.

From another post I read somewhere I got the idea the settings all had to match up with the files being flashed. The service manager wasn't so sure about that, but he seemed confident they'd be able to reflash and capture some log files for analysis and sort it out for me. Now capturing log files during an event is normal for me in my day to day work (Network Security Engineer, network packet captures just about always tell the full story of what is happening) but I hadn't realized it for the tech in cars. Makes sense though, sort of like data logging for performance issues.

Now what I have NOT yet tried is setting everything to English UK (that's how most things were set when I picked the car up) and testing after the map updates. I'll give that a shot later today.

Thanks again for all your thoughts, I really appreciate them and your assistance.

Joe

 

I've found it real tricky to change nav volume. It can only be done while the nav voice is being spoken. However, went there isn't any nav voice to begin with, I've had to rely on the reduction in music/radio volume to determine when to amp up the nav volume. Even then I only have moments to make an adjustment which results in my having to go through several iterations. Hopefully, that's your issue. We had one Jag - I think it was our 2016 XF 35t Prestige - that would only provide nav directions in American English. Aussie and UK English or any language other than American English resulted in muted nav directions. The nav system always provided a warning to that effect.