Waited 5 months to receive my 2012 XFR midnight black Jaguar, and it looks amazing. Have been driving for a week, and would appreciate the input of seasoned Jaguar drivers. This is the first car I've had with a V8, and rear wheel drive. My last car was a Lexus ES350. The big difference I've noticed is that the XFR is a rougher ride. The cabin is loader, but I guess this is expected from a bigger engine, but the overall feel is not as smooth. I feel more vibrations, particularly when excelerating, plus the defects in poor roads go through the suspension. I'm not complaining, just wanted to make sure that this is normal, and expected from such a beast of a car. Any comments?

 

It is a performance car, so it rides harder than your previous car, of that I am sure. You should notice an increase in ride stiffness if you run in dynamic mode. Certainly the engine noise is one of the reasons people love V8's although this is a pretty quiet engine by many performance V8 standards. In dynamic mode you will hear the exhaust pop when you back off the throttle, more frequently.

I find the XFR to be a very smooth ride and very refined compared to other performance oriented cars I have owned, and certainly better riding than most SUV's. So your experience doesn't sound too normal to me. It might be worth taking this up with the supplying dealer, or asking for a drive in another XFR to compare (I assume you test drove an 11?) just to make sure all is OK. I have heard of new cars not having the suspension "chocks" removed after shipping!

 

It's not expected to ride as smoothly as a Lexus, but its handling and acceleration are far better. There are tradeoffs between ride comfort and performance. The XFR has the best balance of comfort and performance currently on the market in my opinion. Try driving the XFR on a winding road and you will see a huge difference over the Lexus. As for engine noise, I found the stock XFR exhaust too quiet! Some road noise is attributable to the performance tires, which usually are not as quiet as touring tires tuned for greater ride comfort and low noise. If you find the XFR too harsh for you, a better car for you would have been an XF. But it would not have the same performance as the XFR.

 

Thanks for the replies. From what you both describe, it would be my unfamiliarity with such a performance vehicle. I did test drive the 2011 XF, but decided to spoil myself with the XFR. I will however discuss further with my dealer to insure all is correct. In any event, I love the exceleration, and handling. I not only choose the XFR for the looks, but there are fewer on the road. Something refreshing with all the BMW's, Audi's, and Mercedes around these days. Not to say they aren't fine vehicles, but a JAG is still a nice rarity.

 

North American Lexus ES 350 is a very softly sprung car.The Lexus IS 350 rides much harder than the Jaguar.

Still, Jaguar did deliberately move away from their traditional ride and closer to the inferior Germanic ride, for marketing reasons. Drive a new XJ and you will see that the XF has a needlessly hard ride, but it is for marketing reasons related to the way German cars are perceived. German cars ride very poorly. It is a shame that Jaguar felt they should follow suit. The could have made the XF handle as well and still kept the plush Jaguar ride, they did in the XJ.

 

I have no idea what Jagular is talking about....the XFR rides superior to the M5 and E63. They did not seek to emulate the Germans, but rather build a better handling JAGUAR! The XJ rides a little better only because it has a longer wheelbase and the stiffer aluminum structure provided Jaguar the opportunity to soften the suspension a bit. Ask any exec, salesman or tech and they will tell you privately that the XFR is the best overall car that Jaguar builds. And wait until the next generation XFR comes out, it is rumored to also be aluminum.

 

I ditto that comment. Both my salesman and the drivers at the R Performance Academy said the XFR was actually superior in handling to the other Jaguar models...

 

XJ also has air suspension at the rear. The XF handles very well, which is what I said. I also said that it could handle just as well with a softer ride. Mike Cross admitted that they firmed up the ride on the XF for marketing reasons. "Customer preferences" is what I recall he said. Jaguar has always produced cars that handle well, they also rode better in the past.

As for riding better than the German cars, I said that also. The German cars do not handle as well as the Jaguar does. German cars do not handle as well as they are reputed to do because most drivers who think they know about handling in fact do not and equate a firm ride with good handling. The two are not connected very closely except that you can have a hard ride and poor handling, just drive a Mercedes, BMW or Audi. Heck, even VW ride hard and suffer from roll oversteer and they are fwd!!!

 

Another aspect of a harder ride is that it may actually cause the car to handle worse in real world roads that are bumpy. A hard riding car can lose traction by skipping over bumps whereas a softer suspension can keep the tires in contact better, as it is more compliant. That said, as noted above, handling is an art and balance is key, so it's also possible to have a soft car that handles poorly as well as one that rides hard and handles poorly. Hard riding suspensions are what keep me from getting AMG cars, as they generally are tuned to ride hard in order to achieve their good handling. I don't think BMWs ride too firmly, but certainly agree that my XFR rides far better than the last M5 I drove (the e60 version).

 

Thanks, all this helps my understanding of how the differences react. A simple observation on my part was that since the tires on the XFR are wider, more of the vehicle is in contact with the road therefore imperfections are more noticeable.

 

I am prepared to stand corrected on this, but I believe that the XFR setup is vastly different to the XF. The R has active dampers so in theory would ride better over bumps, but the 20" wheels and low profile tyres will negate any benefit I would think.

 

When it comes to ride the big difference is in tyre profile, CATS go a long way toward ensuring a comfortable ride when dawdling. The XFR routinely rides on 20" while my diesel has 18". The difference in cushioning effect of the sidewalls is huge, OTOH the XFR will leave my diesel for dead on winding roads.

 

The XFR 2012 manual I received does not cover how to break in the engine. I know from previous cars that you should not keep the same speed for long period of time. Is there any other do's or don'ts I should be aware of?

 

My standard car also mentioned that the rear axle (differential) should be run in for I think 1,800 miles before you really work it hard. As for the engine avoid high rpm or high load for the first 1,000 miles.