Hello everyone. Brand new owner, deeply in love. My question is how do you drive your jag? Do you nurse it hoping nothing breaks or do you drive it harder? I ask this as a friend was granted a passenger seat ticket for a stroll up the coast with me. Some winding hilly roads. The jag was flawless. A little twitchy in the back while getting to know her but otherwise handled beautifully. Anyway when we arrived my friend said I don’t think they’re meant to be driven like that. More of a saloon with sound overtaking grunt. Is he right?

just to clarify. Not reckless driving.

 

However you want, it's your car to enjoy 😂 I like to exercise all of my ponies on a regular basis, but that's me.. grew up racing and I love working on cars, so I maintain the car to 'as new' standard and if something breaks I just fix it

 

I drive mine in all different ways, sometimes it may be a relaxed long motorway journey when in no hurry at all and then at the end of the trip I push the average fuel button to see what it is like. On another day it might be a very spirited drive on lesser roads, then there will also be a trip , maybe late at night or very very early in the morning when it will be a very fast trip, many years ago on non regulated roads I did see speeds of 150+ and the car was as steady as a rock and handled perfectly,

 

The suspension parts, bushing, steering components etc on x351 are made to fully cope the potential of the vehicle. JLR made big effort for balancing the huge chassis of x351 so that it will be driveable even in track. Thats the key point separate x351 from its competitors. Note few things: Active suspension are set to work its best with recommended tyre pressures and if you go to track be sure your brakefluid have been changed and you have thread to wear in tyres and brake pads. (always have one "cooldown" lap after fast ones to have your brakes cooled by airflow before stopping)
Ofcourse stress will wear off suspension parts, like bushes and baljoints, faster than crising highway, but that is the case of any vehicle.
Enjoy your vehicle: its made for it.

 

Hey, that’s great info cheers. I’m actually blown away with how this car handles for such a big unit.

 

xj351nz, I drive mine all sorts of ways. A lot of my time is at 70 mph (120ish km/h), but then, I am not afraid to round a corner a bit hard and then stomp on the gas to zoom to way too fast for the road. Leaving work, it is a windy road that is stated for 35 mph, I routinely drive it at 60ish and the car handles it just fine (do not even have dynamic suspension on, so I can only imagine what it would do with that).

So, like others say, this car is designed to drive it however you want. It will adapt to how you drive it (that is how the suspension is set up, it sees how things are going around 400 times a second and adjusts things on each look).

 

Well, isn't one of the "known issues" with the XJ - that suspension bushings or linkages wear out easily and need replacement...?

And that you aren't supposed to just do one when that happens - you are supposed to do all 4...?

And if you are not a DIY - the cost of one is round $2,000 - and $8,000 for all 4...?

 

Yes, front lower "banana" reaction-arm inner bushes can go soft quite fast. They are "holed" rubber bushings for planned softness, where main arm bushes are metal type to cope stress and weight of the car. The original (Lemförder brand) "Banana" arm cost about 140€ ($160USD) piece and change takes about 15min per side.

I never seen any x351 suspension arm cost 2k. They are all made by Lemforder, so available from aftermarket channels. Pologuy: Where you got that price? (just add eBay search field "x351 lemförder arm" to see pricelevel of the suspension arms)
Btw: There are no rule that you should chance an suspension arm per pairs. You mix them in springs/shocks/brakes. They should change in pairs to keep balance even. Suspension bushing are changed by play or wear. Or complete arm, since complete arms are so cheap that its no economyly sense to change just bush for the old arm. Adding an extra hour for the work.

 

That's what I consider "maintenance." All suspension bushes wear over time and require replacement eventually, some cars faster than others but none last forever.

But again it's your car, so if you want to baby it to preserve the wear items, go for it 🤷 enjoy it your way man

 

XJ351nz - drive it how you like. I do agree with all posters that these cars respond very well to spirited driving. More so than my S class. They are great cars and thanks Vasara for the suspension adivce. They remind me of my CL, as in a very quiet stress free ride when you want that, but an extermely rapid continental covering car when you want it to be. Two cars in one...

 

From what I've experienced, they don't take too well to being nursed.
If it's not driven as it was intended to be, it seems to get more cranky, maybe run a little rough, not idle as quiet & smooth.
And it's a car that's designed & made to be driven, not to be collected & pampered.
And with that, they deserve to be well taken care of.

 

Italian tune ups are often good for stallions, and Jags.

 

My Jaguar XJ is a weekend car only (carrying around family). For driving daily to work and back I have a Nissan Qashqai 2.0 Petrol. When I use my XJ, it sees mixed driving but I am not a driver who drives very fast anyways and mine doesn't go beyond 120 km/h.

 

Hi there. I assume from your profile name you're a fellow NZ XJ fan? If so, me too 😁. Based in Wellington. My XJ is a daily driver and drive it like it's meant to be. From cruising through town or around the waterfront, to changing it to dynamic mode on hill climbs, to giving her a good blowout on straights, to setting the cruise control on the motorway with the B&W sound system going for it lol. Just keep the routine maintenance up to the big cat and she'll reward you. 90% of it I do myself. The electrics and plastic cooling system pipes can be troublesome so definitely keep on top of the latter, and keep an eye out for rust in the sunroof frame it's an earlier XJ. Apart from that...enjoy!

 

only way i drive mine is in dynamic mode , well its a 5ltr supercharged car why not

 

I'm really too poor to be able to afford my car hobby so I'm pretty careful. I don't go doing burnouts or driving at the limits on unfamiliar or vaguely familiar roads. But when the light turns green and there's nobody in front of me for the next quarter mile, I do tend to get up to the speed limit much quicker than the cars in the other lanes. And there's an S-curve leaving work that I've crept up on the limit and know exactly the rate at which each car can safely accelerate through it while making practical demonstration of Newton's laws of motion. That's something to look forward to at the end of a long day at the grindstone. I figure as long as I'm not doing anything that the Jaguar engineers didn't design the car to do, then I should be fine. If it breaks while doing something its supposed to be able to do, then at least I can curse the Jaguar engineers for being their fault. Ok, maybe I'm wearing my cars out a little bit sooner than if a grandma had driven them, but I'm not "gambling" away my hard-earned dollars.

 

Always in sport mode with traction and eco stop/start off - Dynamic if I fancy a change of instrument display - I'm lucky that all my trips are for fun and pleasure - a 575 needs to be used as intended, otherwise, what's the point ?

 

This man gets it. Sport/dynamic and paddle shifting daily unless I'm drinking my morning tea or water then I'll do sport/dynamic and drive.
I've found that leaving it in sport makes it hold the gears too long.

 

Yeah, I tried this with traction off and this car is a lot to get back straight in the road.
The previous owner seems to have never stretched the 575 legs as the first few times I drove it.
I returned and the entire bumper was covered in Black exhaust ****.

 

I've only had mine a month, I like to drive in Sport mode with TracDSC because then the acceleration is better. The standard DSC is very aggressive almost like you are driving on ice all the time, it keeps acceleration down. Occasionally I shift it manually as well.

I've been wondering if the 3.0 L will spin wheels with the DSC turned off, soon to find out.