to me

Last saturday, on my birthday coincidentally, I purchased the xj8 that I've been desiring for the last few years. It had to be radiance red, have the wood trays, and the 4-zone AC. I suppose the supercharger and multimedia will just have to be a bonus lol.

Huh, I never noticed it only says SUPER V8 on the badging...no XJ anywhere.













I just finished the long drive back (purchased it in Minnesota, drove to Toronto, Canada, then down thru Indiana for a wedding, and arrived home early this morning) She doesn't fit in the garage quite yet, as I'm demolishing a little bathroom that was built with the house to give her the space she needs. The LWB is crazy long compared to the xk8. I paid $25k, and it has 51,000 miles on it. The ivory interior is going to be sensitive to dirt, though. I can just see it now. lol (I'll live with it)

Initially, I love this car! Heck of a lot faster than my convertible, and rides sooo very nice. Its my first 'air suspension' vehicle, and I am now officially a believer. The dealer that I bought it from sent it down to the jaguar dealership in Minneapolis to inspect the car, and they did a load test on the air suspension at my request...didn't want any hidden surprises on the way home. It passed.

They did, however, miss that the windscreen washer pump isn't pushing any cleaner to the glass or the headlights. I can't hear a pump running, so I'm going to have to troubleshoot that in the near future.

Alas, this car doesn't have the ACM, nor any phone/BT module, so that's on my to-do list so I can get a bluetooth phone connection. I've seen some good threads on the subject, so I'm reading and digesting tons of information on the installation.

I couldn't help myself, and on a 'nap' along the many traveled miles, I stuck a DVD into the boot (Battleship was just released after all) and was pretty impressed with the 'theater' in the rear. The screens will never match up to the ones on our living room walls, but hey...just press that little button on the side of the seat and the passenger seat will move all the way back...bingo! screen just doubled in size!

Audiophile wise, I'm teetering on the sound quality. At times I'm pleased with it, the old gentlemen who owned it before me didn't blow any speakers, so the subs worked just fine. I may 'upgrade' the speakers and try to get a little more beat out of the sub area...but for now, it'll do until I have more disposable cash after making some more necessary additions and changes to the car.

It took many many miles to get acquainted with the adaptive cruise, but once I got used to its radar limits and what it wants/needs to 'press on', I rather enjoyed using it. Only once did I get the red light and 'DRIVER INTERVENTION REQUIRED' message and there was a sudden decel..scared the be-jesus out of me. It was on a curve and I was overtaking a semi to my right...must've gotten too close to that peripheral sensor I suppose.

Aesthetically, its going to get a couple minor improvements ...I've already initiated the changeover to the 2009 (x358) grille parts in the radiance red, and I'm going to swap over those chrome mirror covers to the red ones also. That reminds me ... does anyone want to exchange covers? I'm going to the paint booth with them anyway, so color is not an issue. If you want 'em, its an even exchange, you pay for shipping. Contact me via PM or email and we'll work out the details. Last thing...oh yah, I'm taking off the chrome Custom wheels, way too much bling for my liking - I'll keep them for future snow tire combos, and I'll put the regular silver Customs on it instead. Already sourcing those wheels as I type this.

Time to update the signature line and add a pic! I'm looking forward to participating on this side of the forum, I see there's a ton of knowledgable owners already, so I shouldn't be green for too long.

 

Waheyyy Matt, you lucky dawg!!

What a great lookin ride you got yourself......nice one.

The write up intro to the section c/w pics history and plans etc, just exactly as it should be and I'd expect no less from you

This forum section is up for improvement now you're part of it I'm sure.

Happy motoring.......

 

thanks Jim! I know how you dread a 'new car' thread without any eye candy of the vehicle, and fortunately, I love to take pictures.

I also appreciate the other compliment...its nice of you to say. I wonder when I'll have time to actually be productive at work now. Hmmm, something might have to give, either sleep or those project designs....

 

Hey Matt, I see you've relegated Beth from your sig already?

The SuperV8 looks great, but perhaps a double pic sig showing both would be nice?

Just a thought............

 

You are right, Beth has been too good to me...I want to get them both out for a nice photo-op together, you know, so there's no hard feelings. Otherwise, it looks pieced together, I hope I can find someone to drive one of them for me out to a good spot!

After the cosmetic changes (wheels, mirror covers, and grille) are completed, I'll detail and schedule a shoot. Heck, here in TX, I could wait all the way up to Christmas and have good weather. lol

 

Me, Me.......let it be me.....lol

 

Love the interior and agree about the wheels.Good luck with it.

 

That's a tremendous colour Matt, she looks really good!

 

She really is beautiful! Congratulations and good luck!

 

@Matt

Beautiful car....... it's a great colour combo. I really like the light cream interior with the dark piping..... my Portfolio has very dark brown seats with black piping...... who signed off on that one at Jaguar ?

Good to see you have already worked out that Jaguar didn't make any huge leaps forward in audio integration, so you'll have to add the ACM, although of course as you have rear entertainment there is a $10 route, but you have a wire running down the middle of the car.

Also, it's worth checking inside the center cubby, on the left hand side (nearest the driver)........ is there a 3.5mm input jack..... ? ie

Also, do you have this concealed button in the cubby hole on the left of the steering wheel ??



I have now seen more than 3 cars with exactly the same modifications, so I think perhaps this was an underground dealer "option" on cars that have rear entertainment to enable an aux in without going the ACM route. It allows you to connect an aux in at the center console, then using the magic button you can cycle through the input selections on the rear entertainment and select aux 1... this then plays the sounds coming from the aux in in the cubby.

 

Congrats Matt, shes a beaut!!! The color combo is very, very nice. If it were ours, the chrome would stay.

I knew the suprise was going to out sooner than later, I am glad I did not ask a couple of weeks ago.

Enjoy her!

BTW Happy belated birthday!

 

thanks alot guys!

Rick, you're true gentleman for aiding in my salvage grille hunt...individually, those parts would total $1000 from a dealer new.

@Sarc, i double checked, and though it would be nice to have a hidden aux button and jack, there isn't one on my car. The underground install apparently didn't make its way up to Minneapolis.

Ooooh, I found a BT and PSE module package over in the UK...I'm off to recruit a member over yonder to be my 'middle man' in the purchase. Geez, I'm pretty sure that just because it sourced from the UK market, it should be similar...or am I waaaay off the mark here?

 

You bought nearly the same car I did, but in a different color. If you are parting with the wheels, I would be interested in one the spare as, alas, the only flaw I can find is that I don't have the correct spare on mine.

 

My spare is also the normal 'silver' finish. I think that is typical. I'm not fond of the chrome at all, if I could get a different set of 19-inch wheels, the polaris perhaps, I would be happy to part with the chrome ones. But, a set of 3 is harder to get rid of then 4 I am afraid. Heck, you'll never use the spare anyway, right?

 

Matt,

Congratulations - looks superb. Got to agree with you about the chrome wheels!

As you'll no doubt know, Jaguar BT is never straightforward. Fortunately, although the parts manual shows changes in PSE and Interface Module with VIN, there's no mention of any fundamental difference between markets so you should be OK with a UK package in the US.

Good luck.

Graham

 

A beautiful car and a really lovely colour. FWFW I have Ivory leather, and have bought some leather wipes, (sold specially for car leather), to clean and nourish the leather and give it the once-over about every one or two months.It only takes about 30 minutes.

Only problem I really have is knowing what is leather, and what isn't the match is so good. Anybody know ?

 

Congrats, happy driving
That was a surprise to me because I didn't expect such a move from XK to XJ lol

 

Caddie->Regent...I think its a move towards more 'comfort' on daily commutes more than anything else. I also had trouble fitting my growing nieces into the car, where once the smallest one could pretzel themselves in the back seat. Now, whoever loses the rock/paper/scissors , just complains while curled up behind the passenger seat. I'm hopeful I'll be given a driver some day, whereby I'll be readily prepared to utilize him with this car

Frasier, what 'wipe' do you recommend?

 

Remember I'm in the UK, but its called Simoniz Leather Wipes, (jumbo size, 20 wipes). I use these for a 'quick' job, but have also had good results with Zymol Leather CLeaner for getting the leather cleaned up.

 

Still want to trade the mirror covers?