Please ignore if you don;t care about a newcomers opinion. I am here to learn and share. No its not bad, and I am not complaining, I'm just saying what it seems to me being here for a limited time. No offense to anyone, I just hope this community is as inviting as the ones I have left.

I just bought another Jaguar. This one is a 2103 AWD XF. So far I like the car. Purchased at a Jaguar dealer as new car trade.

I last owned a 2011 CPO XFR. Loved the car but need AWD here in New England. I sold the R after moving East and CPO expired (so before I got to play around with it. or had to fix it myself.

It will be my daily driver ( just like my XFR, for gosh sake its just a car, not a show piece...) I expect to put 25K a year on the car, so buying used was not an issue and I will maintain the car myself, so as long as I can get parts and not many special tools are required, I am all in.

I intend to be an active poster here. I have over 10K post on the various Saab boards after 13 years. I consider myself a Saab expert if anyone else has a Saab disease. I've owned 9 Saabs over the years and I modified to extremes. Driven them over 1 million miles in total...

As a Saab enthusiast I am perfectly accustomed to owning a brand I'd like to modify that has limited aftermarket support. Shows in the limited number of posters here.

Upon lurking here I saw a few main themes running across many of the posts.

1. Not that many DIYers. I've seen folks pay to have the dealership to do many of the simple non-mechanical stuff even. Such as adding new trim ,spoilers and such to their cars. Adding/removing trim and painting rims that look great is as easy as opening an iPhone LOL Not much to break when adding trim and you can always strip a bad paint job.

2. People gravitate to the major aftermarket suppliers without even considering eBay or one off custom places. I will be experimenting for sure. Things such as well as paying to paint rims, vinyl wrap and all sorts easy stuff to just at least try that you can't really screw up. Stuff I would at least try to do.

3. Not that many how-to posts or questions never answered. Lots of one post threads of folks looking for help. I have seen some and had replies from senior folks and they are very helpful, thanks for all that!! Maybe this is because no one has tried it because the dealer is the first to get a call.

4. Fear of the "big job" As long as you don;t break anything (yes its still a British car like my TR6 I know the Brits make may fragile things and sometimes when you put stuff back together you break more that you had to fix. Still a lot cheaper than 145 and hour and remember how to put it back together. Removing a super charger is easy so don't sweat it. Take picture if you are worried about getting it all back together. I do that all the time now, my memory is not what it used to be. I blame college (well actually all the DRINKING in college.

4. Have not seen many Jaguar techs on the boards, but that my just be my limited exposure. Feel free to introduce yourselves to me if you are out there. I have been known to send along cases of beer ( or bottles of wine because its a Jaguar) to anyone who can help me out when I get stuck.

5. Lastly, this one does bother me. People who spend time and money to figure something out, or have custom made pieces don't seem to always want to share with the whole community where what and how much etc. It may be that they are just not on here long enough or often enough to respond to the questions others have but I have gotten and seen several responses saying (well I figured it out you should too) Not at all like the Saab boards and pretty disheartening actually. I hope that goes away over time.

All in all I have found some helpful people and posts and hope to continue to see more. I will post as well and hope others feel that I am adding something here. ..

 

For myself, I will take issue with your judgement of not many DIYers. I have 3 of these and only once have I farmed out a job. It was a rear end rebuild and I wanted to make sure it was done right the first time. Paid through the nose for it too! Last year I replaced a failed head gasket, have rebuilt suspensions front and rear on the xj40s, and am in the process of rebuilding the front end on the 66 after having rebuilt its rear last year. I am not offended by your post, I am simply responding with the idea that perhaps its the forum that you are following that isn't as "self helpful." I have found abundant help, advice and specifically how-to threads with pics aplenty on request if not posted at the time. All that said, I realize that yours being a much newer car, its owners are more likely to "trust a professional" than the guy with the older car he just wants to keep going (and not necessarily wanting to modify)… Best wishes!