Jaguar XF SV8 - Supercharged V8 - Brave Pill

[thepeoplespal]

tobinen said:

Good to read it's still going strong

Thanks Tobinen, I've a good garage man in CFS Motors which helps.

Gratuitous shot of the Sepang 20" split rims that have really grown on me, after hankering after Volans originally.

[thepeoplespal]

Sad day today, after 3 1/2 years and 31k pleasurable miles the managed retreat on my Brave Pill Supercharged V8 XF has finally come to an end after not being able to fix a flaring of the car's revs at idle, without a lot of diagnostic time and throwing parts at it, with no guarantee that it would be fixed.

With some likely upcoming issues of new tyres (cracking of the inside of both back tyres), a likely catalyst replacement, a failure to proceed at Christmas with the gearbox locking in park in the middle of the street, another new battery needed, a big increase in insurance and likely bushings replacement to get it through the MOT with no guarantee that other things wouldn't crop up, I didn't feel it was worth spending any more money on, neither could I in clear conscience punt it on to some other poor sod, even if it otherwise pretty . So my "The Man" has agreed to purchase my SV8 for parts for more
managed retreat on other peoples Jaguar's and more importantly no charge to me for the parts so far and diagnostics and test driving and a couple of more weeks in the XF courtesy car.



This journey into bangerdom has not been cheap, having stuck in a few of my costs here are some of the highlights:

1. Depreciation a grand total of 7.7p per mile
2. Previous depreciation to the date I acquired it, was 34.8p per mile.
3. Tyres cost 1.8p per mile - incredibly frugal given the performance
4. Fuel cost 40p per mile - sometimes during £2 a litre for Super unleaded it was painful but worth if for the sound, £1 a litre was brilliant.
5. It took around 76p per mile to run this ultimate Q car on a relative shoestring during my ownership
6. That's around £6,453 per annum

The XF SV8 was a brave pill that I was prepared to have end in tears as Jaguars haven't the best reputation, but this has lasted a lot longer than I expected, getting towards 4 years in leggy but very premium car was a joy, even if it lit up like a christmas tree and scared the bejesus out of me on the odd time the battery got a bit low.

So what next? I've decided on a salary sacrifice lease that has fixed insurance costs for 3 years, maintenance, tyres, a three year warranty and no worries about depreciation for my 2nd new car in my life, is where I want to be. So providing the new government doesn't change taxation and electric doesn't charge much higher than it is, I should be getting my 10,000 miles a year for about 53p per mile all in, at around 2/3rds of a 16 year old banger with nearly 200k miles on the clock.

Going for a P11D of some £48k, I'd never ever buy it new, but there must be some serious volume discounts on Nissan Ariya's as my lease is at least £100 (stripping out insurance, large replacement car after 24 hours off the road, maintenance etc) a month cheaper than this exact spec other than colour £469 deal on leaseloco https://www.leaseloco.com/car-leasing/nissan/ariya... The Mrs and I are planning on a trip to Europe and this will suit the dog better than the XF or my Mrs Alfa GT. The car was really choosen for the dog carrying and looking over hedges on a road trip duties than anything else, that and the peace of mind of fixed costs that are not much more than a 5 year old SUV would cost to buy.

[DodgyGeezer]

excellent write-up - if a sad ending

[Wish]

Excellent write up.
And always remember, it could have been worse. It could have been a diesel Jaguar.

[gf15]

Fantastic car for 4 years. I’ll bet you look back fondly with your time with a serious car.
I ran an E38 BMW 740 from 70k to 210k and a BMW 650 from 38k to 202k. I should.have kept both of them. Those 2 BMW’s cost me less than half of what a company 525d would have cost me over the 14 years.

[thepeoplespal]

gf15 said:

Fantastic car for 4 years. I’ll bet you look back fondly with your time with a serious car.
I ran an E38 BMW 740 from 70k to 210k and a BMW 650 from 38k to 202k. I should.have kept both of them. Those 2 BMW’s cost me less than half of what a company 525d would have cost me over the 14 years.

Have to say every MOT pass was a throwing the hands in the air in celebration moment :-) . I had two more of those moments than I expected given a major breakdown would make it unviable to fix.

Ideally I would have bought another lower mileage SV8 and kept the old one for spares, but a saloon isn't what we need at the moment and XFR estates with room for the dog are incredibly rare and ultra expensive, as is european breakdown cover.