Why didn’t I think of that?

 

That's how I finally found a couple of spring shackles I'd been looking for when I rolled one of my racecars. Fortunately, I just scraped a bit of paint off the top of my roll cage.

 

I drive my 2016 R, all-wheel-drive convertible, daily, in The Minneapple, Minnesota, year-round, winter, too. And I could not be happier about it.



Unless I am driving at speeds that I really shouldn’t be, my right hand is on its shift lever, with the lever to the left, in sport mode. Then that short-throw shifter is a veritable slap-stick --an instant-shifter that incorporates an automatic clutch which my left leg could never match for smoothness nor speed.



Use your arm and wrist if you like, but the wrist needn’t even move: your fingers alone will move the short throw enough to shift up or down while the heel of your hand rests comfortably on the center console. In that relaxed position, I shift more often than necessary purely for entertainment --entertainment from the slight G-force forward and back, or in-and-out, if you will; and entertainment from more-than-slight exhaust grunt and sometimes snarl that sounds astonishingly like a real, live jaguar in the wild.



When you have a manual transmission, in slow-and-go traffic, that constant shifting between first and second gear is a patience-tester of even a bodhisattva. With this magnificent auto-manual in sport-mode, such that it functions as a manual with no clutch pedal, then that slow-and-go shifting is actually a joy. (With this particular car, the V8, it’s between 2ndand 3rd.) That joy comes partly from getting to make a little, not-obnoxious, exhaust noise in that slow-and-go traffic while you’re at it.



But it is also entertaining because the shape of the handle becomes tantalizing; like having your finger on a trigger. (“Happiness is a warm gun.” - John Lennon)



I have learned that the above makes moot the argument about how a manual makes for more involvement of the driver.



And of course there is no argument about comparing shift speeds of manual vs auto.



Then there’s this: married to the 5-litre V8 with 550 horse and 502 ft-lbs of torque (nearly 500 at 2000 rpm, 502 at 2500 rpm, and remaining there all the way up to 5800), it affords a laugh-out-loud-inducing range of optional gears for in-town highway speeds.



Regarding that aspect of it, a quick story:



A beginning-of-middle-age guy in what was basically a school-kid's hopped-up box-shaped car with a fart trumpet on its exhaust pipe, wearing his cap sideways, decided to speed up to try to get past me and into the not-quite-safe-to-merge-into-length-opening that I prefer to leave in front of me, as his lane was about to come to an end due to its merging into mine.



He evidently expected he would thereby induce me to use my brake pedal.



On the contrary, this magnificent combination of 550 horses with 500 ft-lbs of torque routed through this wonderful transmission afforded me to instead use my go pedal --regardless the gear I was already in. Just a tap, barely more than a touch, and the cat lurched.



And snarled.



Loudly.







The gap closed virtually instantaneously. That placed him beside me, in what would then soon become the shoulder, with a look on his face that justified, all by itself, just this time alone, the cost difference between a six-cylinder with a manual, and this raucous V8 with this magnificent automatic.



I then flicked the ZF down a gear, so as to have this wonderful transmission thereby help engine-brake, instantaneously. And by then the line had begun picking up a little more speed again. Thus, my brake pedal was only a momentary touch.



Next, as traffic soon slowed again, just after he fell in behind me, I had the pleasure of letting off the go pedal right in that sweet spot of rpms that cause this musical instrument to produce its piquant pop-pop, not the full, burbling snarl, but the gunfire sound, from the two double-barrels pointing backwards --in this case, pointing at his bumper.



Tantalizing trigger, indeed.



That probably shouldn’t have pleased me like it did.



I love this lusty thing.



And I haven’t even described dynamic mode; the above was in normal, with the more-comfortable GT ride dynamics. In addition to that, in rain/ice/snow mode, this AWD car handles slippery roads better than my all-wheel-drive Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland does.

 

That is excellent Forrest, a great story. Not unlike why some of us choose the marque over the germans' offerings. Also a great testament to the AWD's capability. Maybe time for a "Jaguar Stories" section with Forrest as a senior content producer..

 

I recently bought a CPO base 2016 F type and I’ve been using it as a daily. I agree with the sentiments that it’s a wonderful comfortable car when just sitting in traffic—I feel cocooned in. But then when traffic does open up or there’s some back country roads, it is awesome to drive.

The automatic stop/start is pretty annoying in stop and go traffic. I saw several threads about how to rewire and turn it off. At least on mine, I found out there’s a button marked “A” with a circular arrow around it right below the traction control button. And pushing it turns off the auto stop/start. I wonder if this is the same as the ECO button some of you seem to be mentioning? Because I don’t have any ECO button in mine.

 

One of the impressive things about the F-Type is that so many functions have real switches - no faffing about with screen menus to do stuff. And yeah, the stop/start disable switch is often called the ECO switch, get in the habit of pressing it before engaging drive.

 

The nuisance of having to push that button every time you want to disable the irritating stop/start function - it takes 5 minutes (if you are slow) start to finish (pun intended) to permanently rid yourself of this horror. The simple instructions for doing this either on the two-battery system of the earlier cars or the later one-battery cars are detailed in several threads. Disconnecting the start/stop battery was done on my car immediately after delivery. There are no negative consequences (other than a very slightly increased fuel consumption, and that only if you spend a lot of time in stop-and-go situations...in which case the Eco system is positively maddening). And, no, my dealer doesn't care.

 

+1. On 2016 and newer, it's very simple and, frankly, the reason I found this forum. It was as simple as pulling one plug.

 

I don't know if my dealer would care or not, but it takes 30 seconds to plug it back in so there's no reason to take the chance.

 

Northeast Ohio, daily to work, 70 miles round trip
mainly highway driving. I Love it. I put it away for winter, but that might change in the future.

 

I live in Boston, a city deservedly in many top lists for worst drivers in the country. I drive year around and don't feel like the car is at especially risk and don't mind dealing with the stop start traffic (I have a manual so my greatest worry is stressing out the F type clutch). It is interesting /fun to watch other drivers checking my car out. Not infrequently a cross car conversation results as they admire it and ask me about the car. The autostart/stop is a nuisance but is easy to turn off. If they reversed the function so that you turned it on rather than off, it could even be a boon. In light traffic with infrequent but slow traffic lights such we have when I drive out to the suburbs, 30 seconds of complete silence with top down listening to the birds and wind etc.. is a great contrast to dynamic mode.
My only concern about daily driving my F type is parking in narrow garage spaces at work. The car is wide, and other drivers are too likely to smash their door into the side of my car (albeit I think most people try to be more careful than they might were it a beat up 1990 tan corolla).

 

Very good point about garage space and door dings. That is definitely one major point which is concerning me regarding its daily, although I suppose door dings can happen to practically any car if it's driven..

How does the toothpaste trick work for the cars? Has anyone got a door ding story. I would be curious to know what happens if you want to repair a minor scuff/paint scratch etc that doesn't come off with toothpaste. What are the usual costs for a most common or average door scrape?

 

I’m far more concerned with dings than scuffs. I’m not certain how well paintless dent repair works on aluminium.

 

The best option for scuffs is a polishing compound. Start with least abrasive. I try manual polishing with a microfiber cloth. If that fails I have a random orbit polisher that can take out the deeper scuffs. If its in the clear coat it can usually be taken out.