The Voices

A late plate, S-Type, manual petrol is quite a rare thing. I could only see two for sale on Autotrader nationally, which says it all really ! The silver 2007 on there is advertised as an 'XS' but doesn't have the body kit ?

There would be a saving running on LPG due to the cost per gallon but the actual 'miles per gallon' figure is slightly lower compared to petrol. You could calculate the 'actual' saving for your mileage and then work out how many miles to cover the cost of the conversion ? I am lucky in that almost all of my 40k miles per year is in a company car, fuel cost on my own cars isn't really an issue due to low mileage. My advice would still be to consider a cheap diesel runabout to keep the miles off the STR, as the potential downsides of the LPG conversion would outweigh the benefits.

I am only going off everything I have read over the years regarding a noticeable drop in performance when running 'performance' cars on LPG ? Never heard of anyone fitting it to get improved performance, only lower running costs. I did find this bit of info (but I am not a chemist !) Generally there will be some loss of performance as LPG has a lower specific energy content than petrol, so more fuel is required to produce a given power figure, meaning lower economy. and more fuel in the cylinder, means less oxygen, resulting in lower maximum engine power

Hi Martyn, I agree regarding the fuel consumption, mine averages 17MPG ! Not the most obvious fuel saving option I admit, but for the price of a good LPG conversion, you could purchase a second, more economical runabout to keep the miles off the V8 ?

Martyn My point is that the car was designed to run on fuel with a particular octane rating, adapting it to run on 'something else' seems to defeat the object. The last thing that a performance car needs is sub standard fuel. The cost of a reputable LPG conversion is going to be £1500-£2000, how many miles will you need to cover to repay the outlay ? On top of this, you will not see any return on this expenditure when you come to sell the car, the majority of people who would consider the purchase of a used STR are not going to want one that has been LPG converted (partly based on personal opinion but also based on 20 years in the motor trade !)

LPG is a lower octane rating that standard petrol, would never run any of my supercharged cars on anything but 99 octane fuel. Why on earth would anyone want to convert a performance car to LPG ? A professional installation is expensive and will take quite a while to pay for itself in fuel savings also, it is harder to sell an LPG converted car, many enthusiasts will avoid them like the plague.

Don't want to stick my nose in but the X150 XK was never offered with a leaper, either in the UK or abroad. It has the 'pedestrian deployable bonnet' so isn't meant to have anything fastened to it.

There are plenty on Ebay, I don't know if any of the sellers are local to you ? https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sop=2&_osacat=0&_odkw=jaguar+triton&LH_BIN=1&_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xjaguar+triton+alloy.TRS0&_nkw=jaguar+triton+alloy&_sacat=0

I have never seen one for sale, you could perhaps make up a paper / card template and then get one made by a local car trimming specialist or car mat manufacturer ?

There is a joint venture with a Chinese company (Cherry I think ?) for manufacture of certain models in China that avoids import duties.

I would suggest spending a bit more and buying a facelift car from 2002 onwards, far better car for your money ?

Thought I would make my first post in this section, I have been a regular on the S-TYPE forum but now added a 2004 XJR to the collection. Another Jaguar model that I was selling when they were new and promised myself one at some point. I spent some time travelling around looking for something suitable, I still work at a Jaguar dealership but waiting for something to come in as a part exchange is a waste of time (rarely see X350's or X358's these days) Travelled a lot of miles to look at cars with various independent dealers and have to say that unfortunately, it reinforced many of the negative stereotypes that customers have about the motor trade ! Lots of badly described and poorly presented cars, which were up for sale at 'retail' money, if you own one of these and want to scare yourself silly, get a true 'trade value' based on Glasses Guide or CAP Black Book ! Ended up buying this one privately, it isn't perfect but a hell of a lot better than the ones that I went to look at with 'traders' My pet hate is 'over describing' used cars, especially if someone is travelling a long way to look at it. No one expects perfection on cars that are now at least 10 years old but I would rather someone tells it like it is. Made these guys aware that I was 'in the trade' and that the car was for myself, explained that I would not try to get them to drop the price based on 'book' prices but wanted an honest appraisal of the car to see if I was wasting their time and mine. Unfortunately this didn't happen ! Not naming names, it was an interesting learning curve as a buyer rather than a seller but made me realise that I take it for granted how we expect cars to be prepared and presented.

I had a customer who would not buy new XJ's from me unless I fitted his leaper on the bonnet and he changed his car every 8-10 months ! This meant that I had a part exchange with holes in the bonnet, I seem to remember that I used a bonnet badge from the 1999-2002 S-TYPE to cover the holes, which was a perfect fit ? Only thing is, I think the badges say either 3 litre or 4 litre, this was okay on the 3.0 V6 XJ but would look wrong on a 2.7 of course !

I occasionally throw a bucket of soapy water over the XE or the STR, cleaning is not my thing anymore !

I forgot to add, the link takes you to a 'go fund me' page from the USA but the details of the UK account to donate are also listed !

As some of you may know, Jaguar legend Norman Dewis is not in the best of health. Members of the wider Jaguar community have set up an appeal to help him, please follow the link below. https://www.gofundme.com/norman039s-needs

The Luxury was 'base' spec for the XF so didn't have power fold mirrors as standard. It does have dual climate control however, so you should be able to independently adjust driver and passenger temperatures ?

Sound like the car is in 'VALET' mode ? Does your car have the touchscreen navigation system, if so, I think that the valet mode is activated and deactivated by entering a 'PIN' number ?

The navigation system runs off a separate DVD drive in the boot. I think the last update disc available is 2012 ?

Michelin Pilot Sport 4's were my choice after reading every tyre test that I could find !

I don't know how big a job it would be to source the hard drive system from a breaker ?

Unfortunately, no. The satellite navigation on the 'facelift' XF is hard drive based rather than on a removable disc. The SE version doesn't have a hard drive so hasn't got navigation and cannot store 10 CD's worth of music (unlike the rest of the range)

Hi Steve, why not keep the car as a 'spare' ? Always handy to have an extra one around the place !

If you want it to look like you ram raided Halfords and some of the bits stuck, carry on ! Plastic 'chrome' is down to personal preference I suppose, but to me it ruins the car. To each his own ?

I think the 3.0D 'S' (275ps) Sportbrake had wider alloys on the rear but the 2.2 and 3.0D (240ps) versions, including the R-Sport, were the same width all round.