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First year of ownership, first Jag, first experience of owning a Marque! My thoughts so far. Never did I think I would ever own such a car, but when I saw her advertised I fell in love, I just knew inside I had to have her. Went to the dealers, saw her in the flesh, heard the engine, checked her over, even before we discussed cash, I wanted out of there, with her whisking me home, already anticipating the bursting pride I knew I would feel to be the owner of such a car…. What did the missus say “its smaller inside than the Omega” typical! She likes her now by the way Anyhow not to put a dampener on the experience, one year on, I still have the honour of saying I own a Jaguar, still get an excitement when I know I’ll be getting behind the wheel shortly, with the keys in my hand, I still look at her and admire her from afar. I still can’t believe I own her To the car its self Positives As mentioned love the shape, love the quality of the build, solid feeling, reassuring thud when the doors close, responsive, handles like a dream, road holding very good, haven’t pushed to hard yet though, goes like the wind, purred with original boxes on, now growls with the sports boxes, gearbox lovely and smooth, brakes fabulous, sport mode or not I love the acceleration from stand still, overtaking a dream and effortless, speed I couldn’t possibly comment firm supportive comfortable leather seats, love the layout of the interior, like the wood trim, love the alloys, folding mirrors, sound system even though it’s the basic, she’s a head turner, still getting admiring glances Negatives House Keys in the ignition dangle on my knee (quite annoying) firm suspension, not her fault, that’s what you get with a Sport model!, she does not like the go faster pedal being slammed to the floor for ‘Kick down’ she does some weird stuff that makes think a fault code is going to pop up, or I’m going to damage her, she prefers the slightly smoother approach, rather than the 'wham - bam' Not the biggest of boots, the ‘letter box’ opening behind the rear seats when they are folded is quite small therefore restricting the size of larger / longer ‘Stuff’ you may want to carry, I think the windows are a little on the small side, that’s perhaps just a personal opinion, not the easiest to clean the rear window at parcel shelf level, space saver wheel, doesn’t have all the toys, again not her fault, To conclude: Had I done a bit more research I probably would be driving the S Type ‘R’ but at this moment that will have to wait for a while (How long who knows) regarding those little niggly things, I can live with them, why? Because they make no difference to the experience of owning a fantastic car, one year on and I still can’t wait to get behind the wheel, Oh, and I still give her a little pat on the dash whenever the journey begins and ends Apologies for my waffling on, but just thought I would share my love affair with a superb car Steve

hi I did mention timing chains and tensioners tensioners on 4.0 v8 were plastic, they went brittle, fell bits and could basically destroy a good engine later ones were metal, as used on all the 4.2's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TuxQxwL2WA some early 4.0 v8's also suffered with the nicasil coating coming off the cylinder bores, which can also destroys the engine ( nicasil is like a hard chrome plating which is electroplated on the aluminium bores, you get longer lasting bores and less piston resistance as the piston rings dont need to be as tight in the bores to seal, so more power and durability, generally used on all aluminium engines and aluminium sleeve type bores, but some early 4.0 the nicasil failed and peeled in the bores.) the 4.0 had a few issue's, but all these were addressed when the 4.2. was released. don't get me wrong the 4.0 is a good engine if sorted, but the 4.2 is better out of the box. cheers Joe

Hi Rodney Is yours a 3.0 Litre, auto

Hi Rodney If your just pottering around town, then perhaps you could give rad seal a go, (as far as I know it does just go in the header tank when she's cold of course) I would suggest follow the instructions on the container, but leave her ticking over for quite a while on your drive to see if its sorted. If your doing motorway driving, you may be able to get her fixed, either that or another rad New or used I personally wouldn't risk motor way driving with a leaky rad. Just be sure to keep an eye on your temp gauge / dash for warnings if it starts to rise get her pulled over sharpish! and turn her off before the engine seizes I had a very lucky escape a month or so with mine Steve

Here's a pic of the left foot rest on mine (excuse the filth! Note to self...must hoover footwell!) Definitely part of the foot well, not an "extra"

ok lesson learnt, debs.. never go back to them bunch of cowboys. well thats if it was my car.

I had a look at the link on Autotrader and the description is 4.0 V8 Sport, I would expect it to have 17" alloys or above but it has the standard 16" (Dynamic ?) alloys found on the 3.0 SE ? You really need to drive the 4.2 before the 4.0 and you will really notice the difference.