Car looks awesome. Congrats.

I see they're still throwing all weather tires on the XE, and even on the S model... those extra 40 horses would be much more enjoyable if you could really put the power down.

I thought the S was supposed to come with P Zero's? At least it does in the UK...

For those of us who bought the 35t and happen to be cursed with all weather tires, I'm sure we'd make much better use of some P Zeros than an extra 40 horses haha.

 

yeah...you know how the XF has the lighting package where you can adjust the lighting colors, the XE S has that, such as in Asia, Middle East and pretty sure europe but not in the USA? that is kind of lame that they don't do that for the US market.

 

After reading through my quote, posted 'standard' features for the XE S, and reading through the manual I should be able to change the colors of the interior lights and set the brightness (Standard Features for XE S 'Customizable Mood Lighting). Thus far I have been unsuccessful at doing so. I have also been unable to customize my home screen which leads me to believe that something is going on in the system.

I will be taking it to the dealer this week for a review with service and sales.

Also for 'alphakinase' the tires that came equipped are Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season tires. They perform very well in dry and wet conditions, although I have yet to push it in wet conditions. They seem like a solid tire but you can surely break them free with the S model. I will have to get some additional time driving with these to give a better opinion. This car is amazing even with all season tires. Had a little 'spirited drive' with an AMG C43 and no wheel spin or loss of traction whatsoever (Dry conditions 85 degrees).

TBC

 

sounds like you have my luck...every time I buy something new the first time around there is something wrong or missing...

 

Cinturato are the worst tires I have ever owned. I am not 6K miles on my car and on my 5th tire. It's not the roads, drive the same roads in the Lotus and our previous Jags... 2 bubbles, 2 rips, and one nail... two wheels needed to be repaired due the damage. Luckily I bought tire/rim insurance as it has already paid for itself. Dealership says replacing those Cinturato's is a daily service call... That being said, I do think they drive well enough. No complaints on that; just at how fragile they are.

 

My XE 35t came equipped with the cinturato P7 tires as well. They're not terrible, but I really think they are unfitting for a car with this level of performance, especially given what the suspension and chassis and the XE are capable of. If it feels great now on these all weather tires, imagine how much better it'd be with a proper set of summer tires such as MPSS or PZero. Whip the car hard into a corner, or get on the throttle mid-corner, and you can see that the all weathers really do hold it back, leaving a lot on the table.

My original comment was meant more to point out the fact that in the UK the "S" comes with PZero tires, but for some reason we don't get that treatment here.

 

To all new potential buyers please note that I have confirmed that 'Configurable Mood Lighting' is not on the XE S as a standard interior option, nor is it available in this model. The build on the website shows something different which is all I had when my car was ordered in April. Seems strange that the F-Pace S this is standard, but not available XE S.

According to my salesman it was: Configurable Mood Lighting as this was an update to the 2nd round of features in the Technology Package

Sounds fishy to me. I'm not going to let this go and sending a letter to corporate. TBC

 

It seems we were under the same belief about the mood lighting when we ordered our XE S, and slightly disappointed when we realized it wasn't there. I think we must have ordered and received the cars at roughly the same time. Ours was also held up at port, I just figured it was because SC was increasing the new vehicle tax by $200 on July 1st. I haven't seen the display issues, but will keep an eye out. All is well with ours so far. We've got about 1000 miles so far. I'm in love with this car! (Haven't seen the valve stem gift yet though)

 

I ordered mine on 4/21 and received the vehicle on 7/5. It should have been delivered on the 26th of June but the hold up in port was due to labeling on the fuel cap of the vehicle. In the end the dealer made it right and gave me a loaner for 5 days as they promised delivery by the end of June.
I love this car as well. When I had service done, the dealer being only 3 miles from my office dropped off a loaner XE Premium 35t (nice touch) and then I picked it up later that day. After driving the S for a few weeks and going to the Premium, I am so glad I ordered what I did. The interior is a tremendous step up and noticeable.
Keep in touch with the service manager as there are more patches coming through for the Infotainment system. This appears to be focused on the NAV of the car which surely needs some refinement. I do like that you can flip the NAV to the center gauge cluster which makes location of the streets much easier not looking back and forth.

 

Shagman-thanks for the update on the mood lighting as well as the updates necessary. I sent an email to corporate yesterday asking about that it states configurable mood lighting and if I am building it from scratch and mood lighting is offered in other markets on the XE S, how hard can it be to add it to my order...I doubt they will budge but I will try to convince the dealer to put it in a note on order so maybe they will surprise me!. you know what will happen, the 2019 XE S will come with mood lighting...lol. Also, I will make sure that before I even drive it off the lot that we have gone over all the necessary updates/patches.

 

I am reviewing my order...and yes they didn't get it all right. They totally forgot to add the Heads up Display!! critical to me! dealer says "interior mood lighting" is the same as "configurable" well I want them to confirm. Also, is it 18 way seats or 14 way seats? and did they add the wifi into the tech package because website says it is $310 extra but my order says it is included in tech package! and get this....build will not even start until November with delivery in Jan/Feb!!

 

Very interesting. I believe that the seats are 18way, but I will have to confirm when I get home. I just setup my seat from day one and am very happy with it. The Wifi comes equipped on the XES with an included SIM card that has a 30 day trial period. After using it for a few weeks I really enjoy this feature, not as a hot spot but to use with extra features in the ICTP screen, Spotify, GPS, Etc. Nice touch

As to the lighting I'm very curious at the response as this might confirm something the salesman double talked a week after I received my car. He stated it was in the Second Round of the XES technology package that the lighting was included which may be why your build is delayed.

If this is the case, I wonder what legal grounds I have to go back to the dealer as the builds are still the same and the pricing is the same as well. I hope this isn't the case as I will demand that this option be added.

Sure glad I joined this forum in the first place. Great information.

 

Yeah....they are saying that the 380hp engine is in delay and won't get it until November. I also confirmed so far that my dealer was like yeah it includes configurable mood lighting and I basically told him to confirm, but all he confirmed was with his local inventory manager that said on the XE S there is NO configurable mood lighting, only on the portfolio model. So I wrote corporate again today (still have not heard back from my first message) that how hard can it be to add configurable mood lighting as a customer request? I told them Jaguar needs to bend over backwards for the customer and if they can easily do it for the exact same car model, but just a different build then why not. I said I want to talk to someone from corporate and not to pawn me back to the dealership because it seems customers like us on this forum know a lot more about the car than the salesmen at the dealership.

Also, they say 14 way seat but then there are 4 other things that make it an 18 way-or so my dealer says!

 

Can you please look at your order from the dealer to the factory and see which code is used for the mood lighting. Just curious to see how this story pans out.

My order showed: B65A Interior Mood Lighting

 

If they lengthened it I doubt it was to do with fitting the engine in the car. The V8 and the V6 are dimensionally identical. Remember that the V6 is the same block as the V8 - the rear two bored are blanked off in the crank case and there are counterweights fitted to the crank where the rear two journals would be. Shorter blower and a cylinder head that's missing the rear two ports. Different pistons & liners.

On an FType, the downpipes for example are identical on V6 & V8 versions. And having seen both engines close up I can verify they are the same.

 

I believe you are correct. They had to move the headlights up 15 MM to fit the bigger/wider front tires according to Harry's Garage review. He also stated that engine is making nearly 800Hp at the crank, they say the supercharger siphons off nearly 180 HP before the power hits the powertrain on the Project 8.

I also noticed Jaguar has discontinued offering a 6Cyl based 35T RWD without the S badge. Those of us that got the 2017 35T v6 will have some very rare birds.

This puts the entry level v6 XE at $54K (XE-S), instead of $43K (not S), for 2018. I think they figured because we were buying the 2017 340Hp non=s version and tuning it up to/ or past the performance of the "S" for $1K instead of them getting an additional $10K.....did not make them happy. My advice is for people to seek and buy the RWD 2017, if you can find one, and get the tune, if you want to save some real $$$.

Of course if you like all the fancy options, feel free to get the S as the interrior is nicer than the base level XE, for sure. And there is still some tuning goodness to have if you go up to 416Hp.

 

The S has nicer brakes which I find on a low point on the XE. I wonder how much better the S brakes are? I wish the carbon ceramic were available as an option. I get those in a heartbeat!

 

I think the only difference in the brakes (XE-S vs regular XE35T)is the color of paint they used to paint the calipers. No other difference to my knowledge. Project 8...completely different story.

Features of XE-S 2018

"Red Brake Calipers"

http://rules.config.jaguar.com/jdx/e.../jdxmodel.html