+1, I hate getting my hands black just checking tire pressure. I do have a set of Red Stuff pads ready to go on come Spring though.

 

F-Type suspension/steering (like the R-S GT)
Mechanical LSD
8-speed ZF 'box
575 or 600 PS engine
AWD
Carbon brake option (like the R-S GT)
Manual switch to disable active exhaust

In other words, incorporate the advances of the F-Type.

 

I've only had the car for 2 weeks so i can't comment on any of the reliability issues that might creep up. In general though, i wish car designers would work as mechanics for a while so they would consider ease of maintenance when they're putting things together.

Everyone is always going to say the infotainment, but with the rate of advancement in computers over the last 15 years, we're chasing a loosing battle with that one. Car radioes either need to be replaceable modules that can be swapped out ever 2-3 years or just dumb receivers for a smart phone or tablet. Cell phones are swapped out every 2-3 years, but we expect our cars to still feel top of the line after 10 years. it's just not possible. I just keep my phone mounted on the dash when i'm in the car and that takes care of music and navigation.

The one modification i do plan to do is to swap the sliding calipers out for fixed calipers. I'll have to do some homework on this though, i'd rather use OEM parts instead of an aftermarket setup. Perhaps the wheels/calipers from the XKR-S GT with iron rotors instead of the carbon ones I've seen.

 

I've only had mine a few months, so no real complaints. Lancer033's comments on the infotainment is spot on IMO.
The only thing I miss from my 05 CLK is the electric seat belt extender. I keep waiting for it and then realize I have to reach back over my shoulder and pull it forward.

 

Yeah, it would be good if they would separate the car management functions from the entertainment and use a DIN audio unit that can be upgraded. Of course, that would make it more attractive to thieves than an integrated unit.

 

I was thinking on the lines of Apple's Car Play or Android Auto. If you treat the touch sensors as just an input like a keyboard/mouse and the screen as an external display. Phones can already handle that, it's just a matter of the right software for the interface. That means your phone which is probably less than 2 years old is doing all the work and is easy to update/replace keeping things "current" for years longer.

 

Problem is, unless they keep the car's CarPlay up to date, your new phone may not play nice with it. We have that issue already with Bluetooth on the XK. Standards evolve, and backward compatibility sometimes gets broken, particularly when everyone implemented the same standard in slightly different ways.

 

My XE has pads that don't blacken the wheel like the XK did. There is a negative impact on initial braking though. I read Jaguar got dinged by JD Powers for excessive brake dust for new owners of the XF and they must've changed pads in subsequent model years to address this. Oddly enough my Lotus or Aston hardly left brake dust compared the XK.

 

That's a good point, now that i think about it, i remember seeing a documentary on Formula one cars and one of the problems keeping the cars from the early 90s running was that they had to have computers from the same time to run the support software and interface with the car.

 

That's one of my concerns about the long-term supportability of the current generation of cars - if the electronic tools needed to maintain them only run on (say) WinXP, and that in turn only runs on hardware from the same era, now we have to keep an ageing laptop alive as well as an ageing vehicle...

 

I'd imagine at some point, vendors will introduce legacy computer emulation to work specifically for use cases like outdated car diagnostics. Shouldn't be hard to do if not already available.

 

Well, you can do something along those lines with hypervisors like VMware that emulate a physical machine. But my experience of those is that they don't work so well with devices that are designed to connect to a physical machine, and things like SDD require a physical 'dongle' to connect to the car's OBD port (e.g. the Mongoose cable that's used for most of the 'cracked' SDD systems sold online).

If someone on here has used SDD with a Mongoose on VMware or similar, that would be encouraging.

 

I used to use it on VMware and Oracle Virtualbox but couldn't get the Mongoose drivers to work on the physical PC once I upgraded to Windows 10 so I now just use an old laptop with a number of different OS partitions set up for a few versions of SDD plus VAG software for some other cars.

I think it is more reliable running on a physical PC anyway so I wouldn't bother rebuilding a virtual environment for it but if needs must it is possible.

 

Windscreen / gutter design so that washing your windscreen doesn't run the results straight along your side windows...

 

Lol, How bout simple inner door rain gutters! Cant tell you how many times Ive gotten my butt soaked just opening the door and having the roof water run straight down to my lap!

 

Jaguar IS designing an XK replacement, although in 2016 it was considered off the table when I spoke with Ian Callum. Hope they listen to you guys. We'll see in a couple years!

 

Seems like lexus has already got the jump on the xk

 

Exactly that as well! I have a microfibre cloth in the door pocket used to frantically mop water off the door electrics from experiencing this roof-draining 'feature'.

 

Think most things are said.

Reliable engine and drive train

ZF 8 speed or double clutch system

Fully adjustable all wheel drive system

Real rear locking diff

I would like a car with no infotainment or any other displays but fully analog instruments. I want to keep the car. Infotainment systems and displays tend to get old / outdated very fast. I would like to have an interior that is timeless. Maybe an infotainment system you don't see but is expandable und updatebale; maybe is fully controlled by speech.

 

That is easily fixed with a "double lip" door seal. Hard to explain but there is an additional outer flap that comes up from the bottom to the top of the normal seal and it catches the run off and guides it down the sides of the door seal.

This was done on the Porsche 928 starting in 91(77-90 had normal seal), tried to find some pics showing the cross section, but it is dead simple when you see it and works like a charm. At first glance you never notice the difference...except when you exit the car during/after rain. If I can find a good pic I will post it.

That same year also added a rubber windshield side filler strip that reduces wind noise from the windshield dramatically and also helped with windshield washer fluid run off.

Cheers,

Dave