This is my first post, so please be gentle. When I first saw the F-Type I fell in love with its looks. It's just an incredibly beautiful car. Then I found out that it couldn't be purchased with a manual transmission. So, I ended up purchasing a 2014 BMW 435i MSport. After driving it for a while, I feel it's a pretty decent car, but there are a few negatives that I didn't anticipate which really take away from the car in my opinion. Not being able to drive an F-Type for a while, I'd like to know your opinion on the negatives. FYI, here are the major negatives I've found regarding my 435i: (1) Steering does not feel connected to the road. My Honda S2000 and Subaru WRX (previous daily driver) felt connected. I definitely want more feedback through the steering. (2) The 435i pours brake dust. In fact, it will dust more in one day than my wife's Toyota Sequoia will in three weeks. (3) The display for the stereo is awful. I can't believe I paid an extra $1000 for an upgraded stereo. (4) Cup holders are small and won't easily let go of cups that are put in them. So what are the negatives that one might not anticipate about the F-Type? Thanks in advance.

 

Biggest negative is that I work only 5 blocks from my home so I can't drive my F-type every day.

This thread probably has what you are looking for.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...f-type-138199/

 

I'd just take the LONG way to work if I were you!

 

Haha, it's LA so technically, every road is the LONG way.

 

The biggest negative with the F-Type is that you aren't currently driving one!

To quote Nike in the '90s; "Just do it!"

 

Don't have mine yet so I can't fairly answer your questions. Others, though, have elequently spoken to the car's shortcomings in a vast number of very recent threads.
My question for you is how you like the manual gearbox in your 435i? It's the exact same gearbox as in the F-Type (ZF S6-45).

 

It's not as good as the S2000, but still pretty decent. I did not realize they were the same. If I get one, I guess I'll have to live with that push forward for reverse thing.

 

Not sure what you are hoping to achieve by coming here fishing for negatives about a car you didn't buy, apart from making yourself feel better about a purchase decision you appear to be regretting.

Are you contemplating getting rid of your BMW in favour of an F Type? I would encourage you to do so if you have that option.

In short, my F Type R is simply awesome, and there is not one single aspect of the car that would make me regret buying it.

 

I think that I've been pretty straight forward about what I'm hoping to accomplish, but I'll repeat. I likely would have purchased an F-Type a couple of years ago, but it wasn't available with a manual transmission. The 435i is a good car, but it doesn't have the sports car feel that I want. There are things about the 435i that I know now that if I had known then might have changed my purchasing decision. Therefore, I'd like to know what sort of things like this the F-Type might have. It's no more complicated than that. I'm just looking for intelligent feedback and don't have other psychological motivations.


Yes. The BMW is currently my daily driver. I drive my S2000 about once a month.

That's the way I feel about my S2000. I guess there are things that could be better, but the car as a whole is so awesome that they don't even show up on my radar. The BMW is nice, but it just doesn't give me that same feel even though it is actually faster and significantly easier to push to the edge.

 

Are you thinking about the convertible? The extremely small trunk and lack of spare tire is an issue to some. I can get my golf clubs in the trunk, along with shoes and hats, but that's it. I'm planning to get a strap-on luggage carrier for longer trips if I have someone in the passenger seat. For now, luggage goes in the passenger seat.

 

The F-Type has little idiosyncracies as does every other vehicle. I regard them as completely trivial.

My view is it's better than any car I've every owned in terms of balancing pure driving pleasure with suitability as a daily-driver. I prefer it by leaps and bounds over any of the 8 BMWs I've owned in the past, including 3 M-cars, from 3 different generations. To boil it down to the simplest way of saying it, there is NO car I've liked more, and I've owned over 50 at this point in my life.

 

Your correct, distance is usually measured in time, not miles!

 

As much as I love my Jaguars and would not replace them, if you are looking for a light weight sports car feeling of the S2000 this is not it. I would say that I enjoy this car much more than I enjoyed my heavily modfied Cayman turbo with GT3 parts for suspension, clutch and flywheel ...

 

Go trade in your 435i for the ///M4 if you feel your steering is disconnected. I came from the E92 M3 and feel the 2015 F Type has every bit of steering feedback I need and its probably due to the fact they're both hydraulic steering. Your biggest negative will be the seating capacity and I feel that manual transmissions are over rated.

 

That says a ton right there.



I'm not looking for another S2000 as I already have one. My previous daily driver was a Subaru WRX. I really liked it even though it drove much differently than the S2000. I learned to live with the less than good looks and cheap interior.

I could buy an M4, but I figure that I should just get the car that I wanted to begin with. I feel I'm more part of the car when I'm driving a manual. Plus, my wife won't want to drive it.

 

biggest negative...the interior/infotainment/radio/nav/etc. in the F-Type will probably feel like it's from 1980 compared to a BMW. If you value this aspect of the car, it's horrible.

 

The 80's, really? Perhaps, the 00's.

This post is grossly overstated. The interior itself is very nice, although not the very best among luxury makes. I think is MUCH nicer than current BMWs. However, Mercedes has claimed the best title with their new interior designs.

The sound system is NOT horrible when they don't have vibration and rattling issues, which most don't, but too many have. I think it sounds great in my car, but it's not as good as the Burmester in my wife's MB.

The Nav is just OK, but again, not horrible. I don't think any OEM-installed nav systems do as good a job of routing around traffic as the Waze app, so I'd rather have a car without nav anyway.

 

The infotainment system is very very very slow. You press something and literally need to wait a second before the next screen. It's like using a very old computer or smart phone. Let me try to do a side by side video comparison of how responsive the Jag's infotainment is compared to a $20K Chevy.

 

I was a proud owner of an AP1 and AP2. You'll never get the point and shoot handling responses of the s2000 in the F Type..but gotta love the torque!

 

You said the 80's. There were no such systems then.