I sold my 2014 BMW 650i vert a few weeks ago so that I would be ready to purchase a F-type R. I found a used 2015 R thats not too far from me. It's IRR with, Black Gyrodynes, the black pack and vision pack. The previous owner replaced the chrome emblems with black ones and he tinted the tail lights. One thing that I dont like is that he painted or wrapped the bar in the grill to match IRR. It makes it look like the cat has a tongue. I would change it back to black. Other than that I love the look of the car. It has 6k miles and the build date is 2/14. The price is reasonable. I'm trying to decide if I want to drive down to take a look at it. If I like it I would have Jaguar do a pre-purchase inspection before I decide to buy it.
My only hesitations are that it has an older build date (2/14) so I wonder if there were any issues that were resolved in a later 2015 build. I'm also wondering if I should wait to find a CPO instead since I would get a longer warranty. The only problem with waiting for a CPO is that I may not find the specs that I want. Should I be concerned with the build date? I've read up on the problems with the cars in this forum and it seems that the main issues seem to be the stereo/ battery drain and rattling.

 

F-type is too new to understand long term reliability, but so far aside from occasional lemon, these are trouble-free cars. However, the sound system is **** on all of them without exception. You shouldn't care about build date for R, as there are no major issues that were later resolved in production. However, I am not certain 2/14 would be an R and not V8S.

CPO is generally a money make for the dealership, they don't do enough to the car to justify the premium. However, CPO enables you to purchase extended factory warranty and that is the real value of it. Generally speaking, $100K+ cars are awfully expensive to maintain out of warranty. Would F-type be exception to this rule? Time will tell.

Now, for buying the car unseen - you are crazy to trust someone to accurately represent it. Go see and drive it, or pay someone local to do it, and then run VIN report (CarFax and so on) to make sure it is crash-free.

To me, mods you described are one of the red flags about the car. It is indication of a poser PO, and typically such people don't tend to care about cars and only have them for image. It wouldn't surprise me if PO spent thousands on tint, wrapping, and CF and zero on maintenance.

 

Duplicate Post

 

I have a 2014 V8S and have read all the usual posts. My opinion is that these cars are very reliable with very few reports of what I consider to be serious issues. 99% of any issues/complaints tend to be around minor fit/finish and or electrical bugs......I'm not trying to trivialise any issues that members have had but comparatively speaking, there is a deafening silence when discussing major repairs, component and driveline failures, etc.

The most common complaints are about the sound system, misc. rattles, noisy exhaust valves, some finish/paint issues, dead or dying batteries and misc. electrical faults (which aren't excessive IMO given the massive amount of electronics on this car).

There have been some parts upgraded over the years; early clutches were revised, there is a TSB out for upgraded side window rubbers. The center HVAC outlet motor has periodically failed, some noisy rear struts have been replaced, there have been various attempts to isolate sound system rattles or improve sound output....

Maybe I'm not picky enough but I have had zero issues that I've felt warranted a comment or trip to the dealer. If I tried to be as picky as possible; my exhaust valves squeek when I shut off the dynamic exhaust and my coat hook behind the drivers seat had the rubber ripped when I adjusted the seat into it. .....that's it. I do keep mine on a battery tender so I've had no issues with that.

Hope this helps,
Dave

 

Thanks for the reply. I would never buy a car before seeing it. The car is only 3 1/2 hours away so I would drive down to check it out. If I like it then I would have the dealer send it to the local Jaguar service dept. to perform a pre-purchase inspection. I don't know if I would categorize the previous owner as a poser. I've seen a lot of people in this forum mod their cars in various ways. I've never moded a car myself because I usually buy them with the options that I want and keep them that way. However I like most of the mods that many of the forum members have made. I've only seen a few tacky ones but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

Here are a few pics of the car. I wouldn't have tinted the tail lights or painted the bar in the grill. I do like the black Jaguar emblems.

 

The car looks nice, I don't think I would worry to much about maintenance on a car with 6k miles. When I purchase my 14 it had 13k miles on it and the dealer had just done the 30k mile service on it. The dealer should have a record for the car and I bet they already did the service when it came on their lot.

 

Any chance the crossbar is wrapped rather than painted? Would make it easier to undo it if you prefer black.

 

Uggg on the red grill bar......I don't like the grill bar at all but having it body color definitely looks worse IMO. My preferred look;





Thanks to Polaris for the pic. :-)

Dave

 

I hope that it was just a wrap instead of paint. The first thing that I do would be to remove the wrap if it is a wrap. I've seen pics of F-types without the bar in the forum. I love the look of the grill without it.

 

I'm not sure but I hope that it is a wrap. That would be the first thing that I change on the car.

 

If it is paint you could always wrap it in gloss black. Probably a $200 job, and gloss black wrap matches the black pack.

 

North of $72k too much, South of $72k decent deal.

Don't drive 3.5hrs just to check out the car when you can Yelp for a car inspection service there - $150-$350.00. At least if your time is worth more than the $50/hr time there and back + expenses (Cheaper to hire a pro).

If you want to purchase, lock in the car conditionally - based on the inspection. They will look for every scratch, drive/test the car and since they are working for you will dig dig dig to find anything wrong.

6k miles car doesn't need a Jag dealer only inspection - just a well qualified general inspection service. Carfax report also of course, but you probably already have that sheet.

Powercoated Gyrodynes? Fine, just as good as factory paint if done by a pro.

 

As the car is a coupe, it would be a 2015. Don't think any coupes were V8S in the USA, anyway.

 

The part itself is only £130 new!

 

I agree on the price range. Prices are starting to drop below 70k. I just noticed a low mileage Salsa Red 2015 R for 68k in the same region as the IRR car. https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/d...3940/overview/
I've even seen a few CPOs in the low 70s but none of them have the specs that I want. I don't mind driving down to Atlanta to check out the car. I purchased my last car and my wife's car in that area so I'm used to traveling there. I also like hanging out in ATL so I've probably made the trip at least 3 times this year already.
The Jaguar dealer charges about 300 to do the inspection. I think that's reasonable.

 

I just hate purchasing from a dealer because you have no true car history. For all we know a 17 kid ran the hell out of it since day one.

Selling my CTS-V right now and the guy has 67 pictures, coming to my house, knows every detail, etc. Just can't get that from a dealer turning over a used car.

 

I agree about the poser thing, but I wouldn't worry about lack of maintenance. It's only got 6k on the clock and it's CPO. You could make replacing the crossbar a part of the deal and let the dealer do it.

 

I couldn't add this to my last comment/edit however I will say that dealers and not private parties are being more reasonable with pricing.

KBB $70k say for an exc 2015 R. Dealers asking $67k-$71 for nice models.

Then you look at private party ads and you see $74 to as high as $99k (lol) for a 2015.

Dealers seem to be a lot more realistic. Private parties will relist their car 10x without lowering the price to market value, hang in there for months, and eventually cave in to a fair offer they should have accepted months ago.

 

@OP, I'd like to ask why you sold the 650? I test drove one when they were reintroduced.