Martin118

Hi Neil, Sorry to hear about your troubles. Never experienced brake judder with my XF-S, though the bumpy ride is a rather well-known XF 'feature'. As you'll see from my posts elsewhere on this forum, I solved this ride problem by getting Spires to fit their 'Comfort' suspension to my car. No adverse effect on the excellent handling, but the ride is now as I think it should have been in the first place. As other members have noted, tyres can be critical. What wheel size are you running? - I believe that anything larger than 18 inch is likely to transmit excessive shock and vibration into the car. Best wishes, Martin

I wouldn't be without winter tyres on my XF. The first winter after I bought the car, it embarrassingly 'ceased to proceed' on a minor gradient in a lightly snow-covered car park. The traction control kicked in and refused to let me drive the car. When I complained about this lack of driveability in winter, my dealer, Marshalls of Cambridge said that the official advice is to press the 'chequered flag' button to let the car skid a bit - seems pretty counter-intuitive to me! Anyway, that's all in the past since each winter I've had Kwik Fit put on my Nokian winter tyres. The difference is staggering - always able to drive confidently on ice or snow: any loss of traction tends to be minor and easily controlled. I've heard it said that 2WD with winter tyres is a safer situation than summer tyres on a 4WD. When I compare the treads on the standard Dunlop summer tyres and the Nokians, there's a world of difference. The Nokians have lots of irregular slits built into the tread -'sipes' I think they're called - to grip on ice and snow, whereas the Dunlops are essentially smooth apart from the rain grooves. OK, the Dunlops claim to be safe to 170 mph or something, but that's kind of academic, particularly in winter! And, as kcey confirmed, the rubber compound on the Nokians is softer to improve low-temperature grip. As a bonus, that improves the ride. There are probably just 2 or 3 days in my average winter motoring when I really need the benefits of the winter tyres, but on those days I regard them as essential for my safety and that of other road users. So for me, they're a must. All good wishes, Martin

Hi Billyboy. Welcome to the 'Emperor's New Clothes' club. Few people, especially reviewers, seem to have been prepared to admit that Jaguar have messed up on the suspension design of the XF. It's deceptive because it's nice and quiet, giving a low level of transmitted noise. However, in my view, there's insufficient compliance in the springs, leading to poor attenuation of low frequency shock and vibration transmitted from the road. I believe that, in order to try and compensate for this deficiency, Jaguar have used very compliant bushes in the system. That's fine at lower speeds, but I get the impression that it leads to a higher frequency resonance in the secondary ride so that the car never seems to settle down in normal cruising - it always feels restless. After 3 years of trying to convince myself and my wife that actually there couldn't possibly be a problem with a Jaguar suspension, I finally 'came out' and recognised the fact that it's really pretty bad - the Emperor isn't actually wearing any clothes! I started with 20-inch wheels (standard on the Portfolio), which are just dreadful uncomfortable bling, as you might imagine - I fancied I could feel every stone in the Tarmac! I'm now on 18-inch wheels, which are much more comfortable, especially shod in the softer rubber of winter tyres. A further solution for me has been to get Spires to fit their Comfort suspension, which is derived from the S-type springs and shocks. This is pretty good. I feel that it's the suspension that the XF should have had in the first place. As far as I can tell, the handling hasn't suffered - in fact I find the car more secure in corners because its line is no longer upset by bumps in the road. So - rest assured that you're not alone in recognising this XF suspension design problem, so disappointing in a Jaguar. I can recommend the Spires comfort suspension as a retrofit, which goes a long way towards proper comfort. The full solution would I think mean deeper profile tyres - unfortunately I think 18 inch are the smallest I can fit on my XF-S and are still pretty low profile, so transmit more vibration to the suspension than is ideal. Incidentally, I informed my insurers (Direct Line) about this mod, but they weren't very interested and didn't change the premium. I have no connection with Spires, other than being a satisfied customer. I'm relieved that there are more and more of us recognising this suspension problem with an otherwise excellent car and I wish you success in getting it fixed! All good wishes, Martin

Hi. Just joined. Had my 59 plate XF-S from new. Great looks. Excellent performance. Excellent features. Rubbish suspension - far too stiff for British roads - and dreadfully restless secondary ride character. However, Spires have largely solved that problem for me. Pity Jaguar couldn't get it right themselves! I look forward to joining in the discussions. All good wishes, Martin