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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

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gwatson
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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by gwatson » Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:52 pm

Evening all,

Thought some of you may be interested in my F-type experience, especially as some of you could be considering one as a replacement for your E85 or E89. Just for info, I've had a E85 30i (ESS Supercharged), E85 Z4M and E89 30i M Sport, the latter which I sold for the F-type.

So before I begin, yes it’s a V6S not a V8, I did test drive both and will come on to that later, but this particular car was an absolute bargain so jumped at it. F-type had been my dream car for some time and was saving up for one, but didn’t think they’d be in budget for another year until this car came up on Xmas Eve 19, just days before my 40th birthday. It was meant to be. I flew down and collected it on Jan 18th 2020 from a Volvo dealer which. It came with a comprehensive warranty, thankfully! The car also had 4x new Michelin PS4 tyres and new rear brakes. It’s a “weekend car” and bought with 39k miles and now on 43k miles, obviously Covid limited the mileage last year, as did moving house.

So the car itself, it’s a 2013 (2014MY) V6S in Salsa red. It has all the essential options such as the Performance Seats, 20” wheels, Meridian sound system, active exhaust, folding mirrors, heated front windscreen and reversing camera, To put some context around my car history, my last 14 cars (with the exception of a Honda S2000) have all been BMW's, the difference in build quality is quite staggering . However this is by far the most fun car I’ve ever had. Speaking of quality, these are the issues I noted after driving the car home 400 miles.

• Headlining on soft-top above drivers head rattles\creaks like hell, you can see the previous owner has stuffed a cloth in the there to try to quieten it down, unsuccessfully. Just needed to tighten the bolts holding the headlining on
• There's a creaking coming from the front wheels when turning at slow speed – Sorted, loose inner arch
• Chassis braces corroded, very common issue – Removed and power coated in satin black. Rest of the underside undersealed.
• Exhaust valves make a horrible squeaking noise when the car starts up for about 20 seconds - I used high temperature grease on the flaps to resolve this when the exhaust was removed to powder coat the chassis braces. That said, valves are now disconnected 😊
• Drivers door speaker rattles and vibrates as soon as there's some bas - Known issue, not fixed yet, rarely have the stereo on.
• You just about about have to break your thumb to engage cruise control, the steering wheel control buttons really don't work – Buttons replaced when fitting new steering wheel, see below
• Rear camera picture is shocking, even after cleaning it you can hardly see anything, like it's permanently misted – Not fixed yet, required rear bumper removal
• Heated seats take an age to warm up and never get truly hot – Just the way it is…
• Lastly, the roof didn’t open upon collection and definitely took the shine off the collection - Turned out the battery was low even after the 400 mile drive home. Turns out these cars are very sensitive to this, I now use a trickle charger and all good.



So with most items above taken care of, I went about a few minor cosmetic upgrades and maintenance:
• Full Service including LSD oil change
• Supercharger replaced under warranty due to noise detected during service, thank god for the warranty. Also took the opportunity to replaced the coolant pipes, known issue with earlier model
• Wheels powder coated in gloss black
• Brake caliper refurbishment in Salsa red to match and new Jaguar logo
• Birds bike rack fitted
• Replaced worn bronze start button with black button and the dynamic bronze toggle switch replaced with a black one
• New flat bottomed steering wheel, picked up an absolute bargain on eBay. It’s actually heated, but not connected in that way. New control buttons fitted and aluminum paddles
• Gloss black Jaguar and F-Type badges
• Extended Side skirts fitted
• New black wheels bolts
• “Dynamic” Rear diffuser
• Gloss black side vents
• Gloss black roll hoops
• Gloss black bonnet vents
• Chrome air vents from facelift model fitted
• Front splash guards
• Rubber mats
• 15m Eibach wheel spacers

What next? I’d like to wrap the front chrome grill in gloss black to match the rest of the car. I do have a set of Eibach’s lowering springs in the garage, but undecided. Also want to fit rear spring isolators to get rid of the small clunking noise, diagnosed by Jaguar and there is a technical bulletin on this for earlier cars. Otherwise just want to enjoy the car this year.

So in terms of ownership and running costs. Depreciation, the biggest “running” cost with any car, is zero, in fact I think I could probably sell for £2k-3K more than I bought for it. The cheapest V6S on them market now is still more than I paid, like for like. Road tax is around £320 a year, insurance around £400 and I’m averaging about 23mpg. Servicing annually is a pain and relatively expensive because of this. I’m used to BMW’s every two years or 18k miles. Other than the supercharger rattle, the car has been great, but there’s always something niggling at the back of my mind making me paranoid something is going to break or fail, never had this in any BMW. I know a lot of parts in the earlier cars have been superseded over the years as Jaguar refine the build. In terms of the driving experience, it’s no Boxster in the handling department, but it certainly makes up for it in the looks and sound department. I did test drive a 981 Boxster S and whilst it’s very competent, just a little lacking in character and soul. That said, the F-Type still handles really well for a relatively big and heavier than it should be car and a decent amount of steering feel since the earlier cars sill have old school hydraulic steering. Absolutely love how loud the F-type is, first weekend car I’ve never wanted to change the exhaust. Every drive is an event, it feels a very special place to be, roof up or down. It certainly attracts lot of looks and the occasional person coming over to speak about it which I’ve never had before with any other car.

So I plan to keep the car another couple of years. can’t stop looking at V8R and SVR’s. I did drive a V8R AWD for 24 hours a couple of years back and it’s absolutely crazy and let’s be honest, our days of owning these types of cars are limited, so could be the last weekend car I ever buy if I make the jump. Girlfriend now has a dog, so a Coupe would be a good choice to maximize the use of the car, albeit at the compromise of top down motoring. Also slightly attracted to the new Supra.

If anyone is in doubt, this is demonstrates the noise and fun pretty well, filmed on a relatively local road to me :) - [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6KFA7p7_aQ[/media]

Any questions let me know.

Some pics:

Image

Image

Image

Image
Last edited by gwatson on Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:27 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Mr Tidy
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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by Mr Tidy » Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:01 pm

That's an interesting write-up after a year of ownership.

Overall it sounds like you are pleased with it, and I love that colur. :thumbsup:

Hopefully you'll be able to use it more this year!

Maybe a manual V6S Coupe might have some appeal for one day, but for now I'm still in love with the MC that I bought in December 2019.
Last edited by Mr Tidy on Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Coupes because stunning!
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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by Nanu » Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:25 pm

Love the colour and looks good with the top down. Build quality sounds suspect though?

I did look and test drove the car when it first came out but as soon as I saw the size of the boot, or lack of size to be precise it was a no go for me.

No golf clubs no car as far as I am concerned but could hardly get a holdall in there.
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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by jimbo1958 » Tue Mar 30, 2021 3:43 pm

Nanu wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:25 pm Love the colour and looks good with the top down. Build quality sounds suspect though?

I did look and test drove the car when it first came out but as soon as I saw the size of the boot, or lack of size to be precise it was a no go for me.

No golf clubs no car as far as I am concerned but could hardly get a holdall in there.
Must of been a big holdall coz all this came out of my boot and that includes a 5 man tent. :thumbsup:
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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by gwatson » Tue Mar 30, 2021 3:57 pm

Yeah I don't understand the comments about the F-type boot either, unless of course you have a spare wheel in there. Especially coming from a an E89, what a pain that boot was if you ever wanted the roof down. Awful design. I can get my two 29" mountain bike wheels in with all my gear. Golf clubs easily fit in across the way, trolley on passenger seat, wouldn't let that result in you missing out on such a fun car :driving: :driving:
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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by Nanu » Tue Mar 30, 2021 7:49 pm

Don't knock the E89 boot. Fair enough roof down restricts the room, mainly the width but roof up and I can get my golf clubs, except driver and full size trolley bag and electric trolley, battery and shoes in the boot.

Note all the stuff you took out of your boot is soft squashy stuff, try a full size golf bag. Happy you are happy but not practical for me.
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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by zriha » Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:02 am

Nice review mate, it's a beauty! :) Also, nice to see a fellow MTB rider with a two-seater, great bike rack! :)
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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by tomscott » Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:36 am

Looks lovely and nice write up.

Main reasons these didn't tick the boxes for me is for a weekend car or a road trip car the boot is so small and is very limiting especially for a photographer... I couldn't get over the weight too I found it very noticeable and some of the trim inside is really plasticy even compared to the Z especially the storage behind the gear leaver it flat like it could break if pushed too hard.

Other wise I think its such a great looking and sounding car, just missed the mark a little. If it were 1500kg it would have been an animal and the coupes boot makes up for it I think.

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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by gwatson » Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:37 am

Yeah it's no lightweight for sure and is heavy for a 2 seater no denying it, it's a lot bigger than a Z4 though ( see picture below), so not surprising, but with that comes a lot of road presence, It does hide it's weight very well on the road and you have to think of it as a car which sits between a sportscar and GT. Weight is more in line with a M3, which nobody really complains about.

If you like the rawness of a the Z4M then this is the same, but everything dialed up a notch in terms of noise, performance, entertainment, sense of occasion, looks (subjective I know) and most definitely smiles per miles. Z4M will feel refined in comparison lol. It's the same basic ingredients, big engine out front, sitting over the rear wheels, rwd, , LSD, hydraulic steering.... Won't go into it again, but I never gelled with my Z4M despite lots of modifications\enhancements, problem was I came from a S2000, so the Z4M felt like a boat in comparison, it's no lightweight either. If I was to go back into a Z4, it would definitely be a E89.

Quality, yeah, on the earlier cars there are some questionable plastics for sure, but that's missing the point of the car :driving: :driving:

But if the boot doesn't work, I get that. My number one priority is to be able to carry a bike and wouldn't consider a weekend car I can't do that with.

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Last edited by gwatson on Wed Mar 31, 2021 10:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
Current:
E89 SDrive 30i M Sport - Manual
Jaguar F-Type V6S Convertible
E70 X5 30d

Previous:
Z4M Roadster Interlagos Blue
ESS Stage 2 Supercharged E85 3.0

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My F-Type V6S - 1 Year In

Post by Flyingfifer » Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:55 am

Loved this, I am seriously considering a V6S Coupe for the next car once Im done with the E86.

This is my favourite video for these
2006 3.0Si Coupé in Monaco Blau with all the optional trimmings

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