1998 Jaguar Xk8 Convertible Low Miles Great Condition C on 2040-cars

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Our 2018 Jaguar F-Pace has an infuriating shifter

Let me preface this by saying that I quite enjoy our long-term 2018 Jaguar F-Pace. Its quick, handsome and pretty good on a road trip. It handles well for a crossover, too. My biggest gripe with the F-Pace is the interior, and my biggest gripe with the interior is the damned rotary shifter. I've never fought a vehicle so much just to get it to shift into reverse and neutral. I have a tendency to rant, but usually offline, in the company of friends and under the influence of a few drinks. I've spent a lot of time behind the wheel of the F-Pace, and an incident this week in an automatic car wash this week prompted this post. Simply put, it took probably 10 seconds for me to get it to shift into neutral and another 10 seconds to get it back into drive. This is annoying in any situation, but when you're holding up a line of cars trying to wash off a thick layer of salt and ice, it's infuriating. The rotary shifter simply wouldn't rotate into either drive or reverse. This might be user error and it might be exclusive to our particular F-Pace, but I don't recall have the same issue in our XE (I admittedly drove it less) and I definitely have never had such problems with other shifters. Not even the BMW-style fixed rocker type or weird handle ones in the Toyota Prius. I even consulted the owner's manual to make sure I'm doing it properly. The only thing I can think of is that I'm not putting enough pressure on the brake pedal while turning the dial. Yet, even those editors who haven't experienced this problem admit that the design has lost its way. Jaguar introduced the rotary shifter in the original XF back in 2009. At the time, its housing was compact and offset, serving the functional purpose of freeing up space for center console storage (as you can see in the photo above). The same concept was later applied to the Jaguar XJ and copied in the Ram 1500. Now, compare that design to the shifter in the F-Pace (as well as the XE and current XF). It's right in the center with a bezel that takes up as much room as the shift boot on a manual transmission. There's no added storage benefit and the surrounding piano black trim collects dust and fingerprints like a forensics squad. In other words, instead of a space efficiency solution, it's a space-robbing novelty that drives me nuts at the car wash. Related Video: Image Credit: Jeremy Korzeniewski, Jaguar Design/Style Jaguar Long-Term Garage Crossover SUV Luxury Performance jaguar f-pace jaguar f-pace s

Jaguar XE promises to net 'over 75 mpg,' just not for us [w/video]

With around a month away from its world debut on September 8, Jaguar continues to issue a constant drip of updates about its upcoming XE compact luxury sedan that's aiming to take on the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4. Where the company's last bit of info focused on the car's suspension setup, this time Jag's putting the spotlight on the new model's modular platform and making some big promises about it, too. How big? Try over 75 miles per gallon big.
That's the headline figure that Jaguar is claiming for its new sedan, but it's keeping mum on just what powertrain will realize that figure. Furthermore, that result is on the European test cycle, which is more lenient than America's EPA testing regime. In any case, when the XE hits the road, Jag says it will be the most efficient vehicle from the company, ever.
That's thanks in no small part to the aluminum-intensive monocoque chassis underpinning the sedan. It's constructed from a new grade of the lightweight metal called RC 5754 that uses a high portion of recycled material. "The Jaguar XE body uses over 75-percent aluminum content, which far exceeds any other car in its class. This gives us a body structure with unrivaled low weight: it's light but also immensely strong with extremely high levels of torsional stiffness," said Dr. Mark White, Jaguar Chief Technical Specialist; Body Complete.

2016 Jaguar XF to hit 60 mph in 5 seconds, lead with cutting-edge infotainment

Since the second-gen XF's unveiling last week in an epic publicity stunt over London's Canary Wharf, the details on the new four-door have been rather scarce. That changes now, with the Jaguar revealing just about everything we could hope to know... aside from the price and fuel economy. As we covered in our original post, Jaguar has trimmed the weight for both rear- and all-wheel-drive variants by 132 pounds and 265 lbs, respectively. That means that, regardless of engine output, the two-wheel-drive model tips the scales at just 3,770 lbs, while the AWD XF slips in at 3,880. This was mainly done by way of aluminum construction – the 13th element constitutes 75 percent of the XF's structure – although ultra-high-strength steel also plays a role. Jag claims these elements not only reduce weight – which is almost perfectly distributed, with a "near" fifty-fifty ratio – but increases torsional rigidity by 28 percent. The new XF should be just as agile as the brand's namesake, thanks not only to the reduced weight and stiffer structure, but also to a new chain-driven all-wheel-drive system that's both lighter and more efficient than a traditional version. Impressive though that may be, the brand's Intelligent Driveline Dynamics system is the standout here. IDD manages the torque split, diverting power to the rear axle until it predicts, through factors like yaw rate, steering angle and lateral acceleration, when torque should be shifted to the front wheels. Moreover, the AWD system features Adaptive Surface Response, which takes the place of the old XF's winter driving mode. It monitors road conditions, modifying the behavior of the sedan's systems as needed. The second-gen sedan comes to the US in 340-horsepower and 380-hp variants – torque remains fixed at 332 pound-feet – courtesy of Jaguar Land Rover's familiar 3.0-liter, supercharged V6. The new XF's straight-line performance should be just as entertaining as it sounds, too. The rear-drive, 340-hp XF will hit 60 in 5.2 seconds, while the rest of the range can get there in 5.0. That marks a significant reduction compared to the first-gen V6 models, which used their 340 hp to sprint to 60 in a more leisurely 5.7 to 6.1 seconds. Regardless of output, the rear-drive XF will outrun both the BMW 535i and Mercedes-Benz E350 (we're still waiting on performance figures for the 329-hp E400, so Jag's RWD dominance may not last), which take 5.5 seconds and 6.5 seconds, respectively.