chrisjp

Cleaning the outside - of course - but I can't say it's ever occurred to me to clean the INSIDE of my exhaust tailpipes!

In the XE and XF there's a lever located under the plastic engine cover that you can pull to mechanically retract the parking pawl in the transmission. Not sure if this applies to XJs but it'll be worth a look. Towing service companies should also know about this - JLR issue recovery instructions to them, but I guess not all bother to read these.

XEs do only come as standard with the can of (largely ineffectual) goo to repair a flat tyre. But you can specify a spacesaver wheel & tyre plus a jack and wheelnut brace when ordering, and it does fit in the well below the boot floor, despite all the electronics. The boot floor is slightly different though. So you can get a spacesaver wheel & tyre in the aftermarket and eBay is a good place to look. Jaguar is now one of the few car manufacturers that actually offer a spare wheel at all - most in the UK now do not, and some don't even provide any space to store one either. It's partly about saving money but also, I think, because car manufacturers don't want to suggest to their customers that they need do anything "dirty or oily". That also explains the lack of oil dipsticks on quite a few modern engines (though not the Jaguar Ingenium engines thank goodness)

I have a petrol XE (MY20) and have had just one service so far (Jaguar specify only every 2 yrs of 21,000 miles). This was around £450 at a Jaguar dealer, so not cheap. Jaguar independent specialists will probably do it for around £200 -£250. I think the 2yr/21k miles interval is too long so I do an intermediate engine oil and filter change myself. This is easy - the oil filter is at the top of the engine, and the oil can be sucked out of the sump via the dipstick tube using a PELA extractor, so no need to get under the car at all! As for diesels, it does seem that quite a few people have had trouble with DPFs not regenerating properly if the car is used for mainly short journeys - which might be the case with your 7000 miles/year. This causes the ECU to actuate a forced regeneration which squirts excess diesel into the engine to get the DPF hot quickly. Trouble is, some of this excess diesel can find its way into the engine oil thus diluting it and causing it to lose some of its lubricating properties. Earlier XEs and XFs with the diesel engine have also had problems with the timing chains & guides - which are located at the back of the engine, so need transmission, torque converter and flywheel removal to get at them. All in all, with your expected low mileage I would recommend you consider a petrol XE. I get up to 40mpg on long runs, 32-35 on shorter runs and, at 7000 miles per year, I don't think you'll save a lot of money with the diesel's admittedly better fuel consumption. My two-pennyworth anyway...