Hey everyone, 2 weeks ago we picked up a new to us, 2018 Sportbrake. Black on black, 12kmi. Some sort of dealer car that ended up landing at an Audi dealership near me. This car is replacing a "project" car wagon we recently got rid of, a B6 Audi S4 Avant 4.2 V8 in Goodwood Green. The XF makes my 4th wagon I have owned, and I am absolutely thrilled to be in such a rare, and beautiful car. I hadn't realized both just how rare this car was, but also how affordable it has become, relative to its initial pricing that is. We were cross shopping with SQ5's, as we wanted to replace our beloved S4 with something in the family. Instead, we decided to carry on the rare wagon theme vs brand loyalty.

I am an avid forum user and am not new to documenting my ownership experience, modification journeys, and photo-journaling my life with my cars. Hoping to use this thread as a means to do so with this wagon. Looking forward to meeting some Jaguar friends, fellow sportbrakers, and hopefully adding to this community during our ownership. We are expecting our first baby, so this wagon is literally AND figuratively in it for the LONG HAUL with us. Just wanted to start off with an introduction and few images. Been getting up to speed one everything XF, Jaguar, and Sportbrake over the first two weeks of ownership

Couple Intro Images - Hoping to do a proper photoshoot shortly.









So far, I have done the following:

Couple newbie questions if anyone can answer...
1) How does warranty work? I believe is 5yr 60k if I read correctly, not sure if that extends to non-original buyers Do I need to contact corporate to have it transferred? Any perks for second buyers?
2) Any new ways of disabling start/stop beyond unplugging connectors in the rear? Dislike this feature.
3) Love the amber signals up front, would love if I could trade these to be DRL's and the white version to be the signals. Wondering if anyone knows if that's possible
4) Any other sportbrake clubs. forums, or groups out there I should join? Or do we need to make one ourselves!
5) Assuming I should get used to nobody knowing what this car is?

 

Hi
Welcome aboard. I spent about 8 months following this forum while I was looking for a used sportbrake that was not white or black. I gave up and bought the sedan in dark blue, used, 14k miles and 3 years old.
I got it from a dealer with their "Certified Inspection" and I got the warranty and service package with it. You need to talk to a dealer and find out if you got the warranty or not.

The auto on/off can be disabled, it is pretty simple, there is a long thread on this forum. There is a plug into a module in the back right rear corner of the boot, on sedans, somewhere similar on the sportbrake. I could not do the unplugging becasue my hand is too big to fit through the access hole. Good luck.

I would have rather had a sportbrake, but my rear seats fold down and I do have a long uninterrupted storage area back there if I want it, carrying sheets of plywood back from the lumber yard or whatever.

Check your oil level. There is no dipstick. There is a drop down menu or two or three and you will find a screen that is supposed to look like an oil level gauge. Mine read Overfilled when I finally found it, the owner's manual says don't drive the car, serious engine damage may occur. Turns out it had been driven 3,000 miles that way. I got a quart sucked out and then I got my scheduled oil change from the dealer 3 months later. When I picked up the car the first thing I did was check the oil level and they had overfilled it, again. This is my first car with no dipstick and I was not raised to be confident about dealers. Good luck with that. It could be real hard to find an independent Jaguar mechanic.

Other than that, don't worry, I have now driven the thing for a year with no issues and I do not expect any. The AWD is real solid. There is more power in Eco mode than I am used to. The full race mode is almost scary. The auto stop/start feature is my only annoyance. And I can't get the bluetooth to sync to my phone. I have set it up twice, to work for 2-3 days and then it craps out. I don't need it that much, so I live with it. There are rumors of software updates but I have not pursued them.

People on this forum are pretty helpful, you will be fine here.

P.

 

Very nice. Welcome indeed. I also have a B6 Audi S4 4.2 V8 Avant stick (227,000 miles second engine), our fourth wagon in a row. As you say, rarity and low ball price made us exchange our Audi Allroad wagon in August 2020 for our XF Wagon. Wife is main driver and really loving it. Only issue is it's quite wide for our triple 19th century barn/garage but so far so good...
Have fun and enjoy.
Oh, yeah, took off the auto/stop lug from silver unit back right in trunk (see threads) and its been totally fine since.

 

Carson & Marlow, thanks for the welcome and comments. And Carson I love that we both have S4's. What color combo is yours?

Here is what the XF replaced -



My first and wagon - ('08 Passat VR6 4motion)



Regarding start/Stop: I will revisit the unplugging method. I saw the connectors but wanted to hold off and see if there is another way. Glad a Sportbrake member was able to confirm this. Any benefit in attempting to protect the open connections?

Ended up going to the city yesterday and managed to get a few shots of the XF. Will post them here now and hopefully start to learn my new camera some more.

 

Welcome to the group, love the Black, they are indeed very rare, less than 250 in the US
I bought mine used with 375 miles in June 2019 from CA and sent to CO on a hauler.

For the remaining Warranty and Free maintenance, EliteCare, you can send Jaguar Customer Service a copy of your Registration to show the VIN and yourself as the new owner, that was a huge perk for me, I even added an extra year to my Certified Pre-Owned warranty to extend it out to Jan. 2026.
I'm coming up on my 3rd Oil change in 5K miles. When the car was made CPO after sitting on the dealer lot for 1 year they made it CPO with 375 miles and oil was changed then.
I had my 1st free oil change done last Jan and am taking it on Monday for the 3rd one. I hardly drive it at all anymore, working-from-home full-time now and I haven't reached 5K miles yet.

If you're on FaceBook join the 'Jaguar XF N. America' group, it's a good group and a few SportBrake owners in there.

Here's mine after the Ceramic coat and window tint (30%)



The only other 'Mod' I've done is got rid of the Pirelli Cinturato Touring tires right away and sold on craigslist.
I now have the Continental DWS-06 All-season Performance.



Are you required to have a front plate in IL ? I didn't want to drill the holes so I got one of these no-drill brackets that works really well

 

Nice to meet you JagWire, thanks for all the info.

- Good to know on the warranty, will get my info over to JLR customer service
- We are on that FB group, thanks for the +1
- Ceramic and tint look great against the white
- I have no complaints with the Pirellis yet, but i do LOVE DWS06 tires, they have never disappointed me
- Yes, IL requires front plate. Locally, it hasn't been much of a problem for me, but I already have the holes, so cheap fix for now is to use the plugs for the three holes. If I end up getting a ticket for the plate, Ill likely grab a bracket like you have

Anyone know the individual wheel weight of these stock wheels?

 

Oooo I like that car, DeviLSh. And I applaud the wagon theme!

 

Checking in as we approach a full 6 months of ownership with the wagon, and now at 16,500 mi we have put almost 5k on this car. Every single drive has been a joy. The comments and attention this car gets is incredible. Lots of thumbs ups and questions on it when just driving around town and going to cars & coffees.

Couple things have been handled on it since the first posts of mine:
1) Successfully disabled the auto start/stop, this was so annoying when driving.
2) Did the 15k service - oil change, brake fluid, and inspection.
3) Had to have the hood hinges adjusted, as they were making a creak noise over curbs and bumps (this has returned since adjusting, need to go back)
4) Driver front windshield trim was loose/flapping at the top end, replaced it

Also, couple things in the works in terms of mods/additions:
1) Mina intake kit (i understand the risk of performance loss) I am going to retain the stock lower boxes as the mina kit "deletes" the air pickup tubes and I am not sure why, They could have easily notched the provided heatshields to get the sound benefits of open filters, and retain heatshielding qualities with fresh air pickups. Either way, I may just modify some spare stock airboxes to make this kit the prefect mix of stock design and added sound/looks. Also thinking of powdercoating the metal tube for better engine bay appearance, If I can get it to fit to my liking. The OEM design is just very well built/designed, but too quiet for me. I have been driving with just the new filters on the stock system, and no upper airbox covers and the sound is incredible.

2) Resonator delete and aftermarket tips. Car has minimal exhaust note/character and now with the s/c whine, it needs a little balance and attitude. Bought a spare intermediate pipe from Jag to hack up and delete resonators on, and some 3.5" double-wall Magnaflow tips to better fill the valence cutouts and add some flair. I really wanted to do VAP or Quicksilver axle backs, but I am worried about drone being that the car is a wagon and in my experience, wagon's are more drone-prone as they are giant tubes with no dividing wall from the trunk area to the cabin. I am following suit with some XE and F-Pace guys who have deleted the pair of resonators between the center dual-in/dual-out and the rear boxes. This should also mimic the F-type V6 setup pretty well, so I am hoping to achieve a similar sound

3) WHEELS - Browsing tire rack and came across some heavily discounted 20" OZ Leggera HLT's. They had mixed stock, 2 grey, and 2 black - so I ordered all 4 at an average of 45% off. $1200 for 4 wheels, originally $565 a piece. I couldn't believe it and ordered them quickly. I havent been able to find a lot of good looking wheels that are $2k or less, and easily fit the Jags without needing to shell out $1400 per wheel for a custom set. My plan is to refinish the entire set in a similar gunmetal/grey to what is found on the oem Labryinth wheels as I really like how that looks on the black. Trying to decided if I should swap over the Pirellis, and get winter rubber for the OEM's, OR buy fresh summer rubber for the OZ's and do away with the Pirellis all together. I don't have complaints on the Pirellis, but I also don't love them. I could probably get the rest of Summer and most of Fall out of this set though and save some $$ here

OZ specs are 20x8.5, et45, and 23lbs each. They will poke 4mm more than stock (a welcome change) and should weigh significantly less based on most OEM wheels I have dealt with. Will weigh both to confirm, as any reduction in unsprung weight is always a great benefit to driving dynamics.

Will be back soon with pics and some updates on the above.

 

Very nice Sportbrake! I recently acquired mine (April). I’ll show off some pictures, too. I’m not really interested in doing any modifications, but I definitely like the idea of doing a paint correction and ceramic coating. Can I ask roughly how much it was to get that done?

Also, I did find a drill-free front license plate holder that doesn’t use the towing eye. I had this from when I was in CA and decided it would be fun to use it for the vanity plate now that I’m in FL where we don’t need front plates.






Drill-free plate holder mounts to lower mesh grill.

 

Finished the exhaust upgrade this week and LOVE IT.

Total Cost: $1,400
Spare Intermediate pipe from Jag - $600 (optional, I wanted something clean to work on, and to keep original)
Magnaflow 3.5" SS Tips - $120
Welding Labor and Material - $700 (SS and Back Purged all Welds)

That's equal towhat the Quicksilver axle back kit runs. I overpaid for what is essentially a very simple resonator delete. My guess is most people can get this done for $200-$300. But I wanted to keep stock parts for down the road, and my fabricator did a great job. No regrets here!

For sound - Thanks to this thread, I felt good moving forward and am glad I did. I was not sure if the car being a wagon would generate drone or boom. But it is 98% the same as stock in the cabin, with a TON of more character and sound outside. Even with windows down while driving the engine and whine takes over and its hard to hear the exhaust at all. It is very very similar to the V6 F-Type. Nice tone, good growl, just the right amount of rasp and pop when you want it, but zero buzz, boom, or drone. It is a very oem+ setup, and I think this will keep me happy for a while.

On the lift -


Resonators out -


Straight pipes being welded in -


Mid-Pipe Re-Installed -


Tip Mock Up -


Finished Product -








Decided to test out my new mic and camera for this since I also installed Mina Filters - Enjoy!


I didn't take any interior clips as it is really the same as stock.

Let me know if I can answer any questions.

 

Nice. Sounds like an F-Type IMHO

 

Nice, I really need to do this. Back in Feb of this year I knew I wanted to do something different with my SportBrake exhaust to give it some sound so I took the advice of the service advisor at my dealer and ordered a QuickSilver https://www.eurotoysltd.com/product/...cers-3-0l-s-c/ and had them install.
After a few months I realize I can't stand the Drone, even in Sport and Dynamic mode it just isn't good, I'd rather go back to stock, which I kept, than continue the way it is.

So it sounds like if I remove the Resonators and add a straight pipe it should be much better. Where is the best place to buy the spare / Intermediate pipe to replace the resonators ?
Any other exhaust mods that would be nice while I'm at it ?

Side note, when I was at the dealer last week for the free annual maintenance I test drove a 2020 F-Pace SVR. I have to say the sound is absolutely incredible, the videos don't do it justice, you have to hear it in-person.
If I could get the SportBrake to sound half as good as the SVR I'd be thrilled.

 

JagWire thats unfortunate but good to know. I almost bought that QuickSilver kit because the videos sound great from the outside. Glad you were able to report. Drone and exhaust noise is a really subjective thing, everyone seems to have a different taste, tolerance, etc. But Drone at the wrong rpm and speed for long periods can be super annoying.

I ordered the new intermediate pipe from my dealer, they matched the cheapest price I could find online. ($630). This was not necessary to do though, I just wanted my stock setup in case I ever want to or need to go back one day I can swap it out myself. Otherwise, I think most muffler shops could handle the job for $300 or less. My fabricator did have some initial struggles getting the stock one off (and I only have 17k mi on the car) just from corrosion and soot, so he praised me for buying a new pipe for him to weld on.

Had some time today to drive behind my wife in the wagon and the resonator delete was definitely the right way to go for me. It sounds great when you want it to, but not intrusive at all. Very clean and lots of character from the back and does not mute the supercharger whine.

 

Hey everyone! Couple updates. Car is almost at 20k now. STILL IN LOVE. Anyone who is on the edge on a sportbrake and stumbles onto this thread - BUY ONE.

Received my wheels from tire rack, and had them refinished is "Cosmic Grey". I decided to just remount the Pirellis on them for now and wear those down before spending $$ on new rubber. I will likely put some winter rubber on the OEM wheels and use those for when the seasons change. the OEM Jaguar "Labyrinth" wheels weighs 34lbs without a tire. The OZ wheel comes in at 23lbs, so an 11lb difference per corner in an otherwise near identical spec'd wheel. That's a total of 44lb reduction in rotating mass/un-sprung weight with this wheels swap! Something I could immediately notice when driving the car away after mounting. Car is more eager, braking more responsive, and turn-in and overall reactiveness of the car is sharper. Anyone who has installed lightweight wheels will understand this "feeling"

They were supplied with hubcentric centering rings and OZ carbon fiber caps. I opted for new black lugs for the install.

A few days after the exhaust install I also had some light vinyl work done to the car. I did:
1) Rear Chrome Hatch Strip
2) rear Window side spoilers (mine were fading and discolored)
3) Rear reflectors in a medium tint









The other day, our vanity plates arrived.. Illinois offers these black-out plates for the White Sox, so we decided to highlight the model of the car.



Loving how the car's overall appearance and driving dynamics are starting to evolve. The car now has great acoustics (supercharger whine and subtle exhaust character) a great look with the wheels/accents. And the ceramic coating is holding up great, so the car is super easy to clean and keep looking fantastic.

Thanks for checking in

 

One other update (somewhat major) is we added another XF to the fleet. We sold our beloved '17 MKZ 3.0TT and picked up another rare cat. a 2015 XFR-S with 43k. Polaris White exterior and carbon fiber interior.

I have been wanting to get back into a V8 since converting my Lincoln LS to a weekend project car, and I have always lusted after the 5.0L s/c V8 XF's. After looking at XFR's, XJR's, and E63's intensively, and putting a lot of thought into what the next car would be we started to focus on an XFR. However, after learning about the rarity and tweaks made to the XFR-S, I started lusting for one of those. A low mileage XFR-S showed up in CA and we fell in love with the idea of owning another really special Jaguar. Signed papers on my birthday and the car showed up about 4 weeks later. Approaching 2mo under ownership and still getting the car checked out and familiarized with it but all I can say is OH MY GOD. I have never loved a car so much the second I laid eyes on it and got in it. Will make my own thread in the X250 forum for it - but just wanted to share the news and looking forward to this new stage of car life for me. Super excited to experience both of these cars in parallel

Day we got it





]

Couple extra shots (first one is next to the old car we sold)

 

Whew!! Looks at the meats on the back of that XFR-S...

Congrats, man.

JJ

 

Getting ready for winter.. Got a set of the Conti Viking Contact 7's for the stock wheels. Never ran these before, looking forward to trying them out.

 

I think you will be pleased -- coming up on my third season with these as my snow shoes in New England. Zero complaints.

 

Beautiful vehicle and tasteful mods! Thanks for sharing. Love the AWD badge delete, I'm gonna "steal" that one and possibly scootch the S down a bit to center it, too

 

JagWire, I had the local muffler shop cut out the single of the three resonators and weld in stainless pipes, it looks factory and the car sounds like it should have from the factory..with no drone!!