I want to get a 2nd car to commute to work. The other cars I was considering are the BMW 3 series and the Merc C or E class. But, I have always liked Jags and I think the XF is gorgeous. Upon my searching online, I see that the XF is in my budget for the 2nd car. The XF's I am looking at have either the 4.2 or the 5.0 N/A engines. I don't want turbo or supercharger. Here are my questions.

1. Is it a crazy idea to think I can use a XF as a daily driver? I drive about 500 miles per week. The one car that I'm most interested in is a 2012 with the 5.0 and only 88k miles.

2. What has your experience been like with the XF with regard to reliability? Have you had any major breakdowns or broken parts?

3. I like to work on my own cars. Is the XF "user-friendly" for a DYI'er? I'm talking about regular maintenance, fluid changes, struts, brakes, etc.

Thanks for your help.

 

Hi, I'm a Jaguar tragic from Australia. I have a 2.2 litre diesel XF from 2014, that I bought as demonstrator.
No major problems, have done most of the work myself, but, at 71, I'm relying more on my local mechanic.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a daily driver.

 

No you’re not crazy. I have a 2015 XF 3.0 SC that I often drive 5-600 mi a week for work. I bought it with 89k and it currently has 99k. It’s also tuned with a CAI. I drive it pretty hard too. Haven’t had a single issue.

 

I have a 5.0 NA XF with 83k miles and really enjoy the car. I bought it as a CPO car (6 years or 100k mile warranty) with only 15k miles in 2013 as a daily driver and swore I would sell it in 5 years and 11 months, but here it is 12 years later. I’ve found it to be among the most reliable cars I’ve owned. I’ve had to replace a couple of rubber suspension parts and I had to clean off all the sticky goo from the controls, but no major repairs. It’s probably due for new cooling pipes and a battery (dealer put in an AGM battery in 2015, but it still shows good). I recently did a front and rear brake job myself. It was straight forward, but you’ll need the tool to retract the rear pistons, which I bought off Amazon for under $30. I’m now retired so not likely to put more that 5k miles a year from now on. With 88k miles, I’d have your prospective XF checked out by a dealer or Jaguar mechanic. Realize repairs will be expensive at a dealer - easily $2-3k every time you bring it in for normal maintenance and a rubber bushing here and there.

 

the 4.2s are pretty unremarkable cars, you can make it to 200k with little to no real maintenance, other than some suspension components on the way.

5.0 NA isn’t worth the headache at all, chain job will total the car out.

 

Commuter car, take the bulletproof 4.2 engine all day long.

 

At what mileage should I expect a chain job to be needed on my 2012 XF 5.0 NA?

 

It is not really possible to answer this question without much more information. There are various members of the Forum who have reported mileages in excess of 100k miles. The factors are clear though you need clean oil, you need clean coolant and no significant extreme high coolant temperature excursions. Note that Jaguar have also changed the oil requirement from 5W20 to 0W20. The main failure mode appears to be the failure of the chain tensioner due to wear of the tensioner where the oil pressured piston pushes on the tensioner.

I think this is to reduce oil pressure on cold starts--the original Technical Manual for the engine quotes the oil pressure as 87psi at 1500rpm and 68F (I assume this is with 5W20 oil). I would think the oil pressure would be even higher with a 30F start temperature and flogging the engine at high rpm while cold. I have not found any information on pressure relief in the lubrication system.

 

My 2008 4.2 s/c is great for reliability- it can sometimes go several months between needing to remove the engine or completely dismantle the interior to access some failed electronic module or other.

 

I wondered why Jaguar reduced the oil viscosity in my 5.0 XF from 5w20 to 0w20. It certainly makes sense now. I just thought it was for fuel economy. Too bad our cars don’t have temperature and oil pressure gauges.

 

You can monitor engine oil temperature and engine coolant temperature continuously from the diagnostic connector

 

It's more reliable when you drive it daily

 

Thing is they are seriously undervalued cars. I cringe every time I see one sell on BaT for less than the local used car lots are getting for a same year/mileage Honda Accord. That said, its NOT an Accord. You can't just rack up 200K miles without even changing the oil They do require considerably more preventative maintenance than an average car even tho the Jaguar Marketing department convinced an awful lot of buyers otherwise and that's who we hear from about chain tensioners and head gaskets, etc. People buy old Jaguar X250s with 88K miles that the three previous owners always waited for the maintenance minder to pop up and then had Jiffy Lube just put in whatever, declining any other service. No matter the mileage, the engine or the year, the used Jaguar motto to keep repeating to the used car salesman is "No Records = No Sale." You need to find one that was always properly maintained, not just oil but all the fluids, plus shows a history of various suspension bushings and cooling system hoses and pipes being replaced because they do NOT last this long and if nothing has been replaced yet, then YOU are going to wind up doing it, soon and probably when it is the least convenient. What would be ideal would be to find one that's been in to a Jaguar dealership for various maintenance once or twice a year with significant money having been spent each time.

But does it make a good daily driver? Absolutely! Its right at sort of the average age of used cars on the road and its not any more likely to leave you stranded than any more common car, just that if anything does break, its going to be much more expensive than fixing a Ford. Sale price tho is dirt cheap so if it does blow up, just go buy another one. What it probably isn't so good for, and why they are so cheap now, is travel. Nearly all the Jaguar dealers around the country are closed down due to Jaguar's corporate shenanigans. I had to stop at a Jaguar dealer to get some help a couple years ago about 900 miles from home and that dealership, along with the two that were closest to me, are gone now. My local indie is scheduling appointments months out due to the backlog (and also charging accordingly). I'm afraid to drive my XF any further than my AAA Premier membership will tow it which is a shame because with my Spires suspension, its such a wonderful road car. I bought a new Ford to travel in because there's a Ford Dealer in every small town across America. As a second car tho, assuming you have something newer and under warranty, I think even with budgeting $4,000/year for preventative maintenance and repairs, an XF is still a great value. Just be sure to read these forums and heed the preventative maintenance advice of the forum, not what's printed in the Jaguar Marketing materials. We pretty much know everything that is likely to go wrong and have posted on here what to do to prevent it.

As a DIYer even better because you can save the labor costs. I find its generally pretty easy to work on tho access to anything at the back of the engine is difficult. Mine kept eating Jaguar water pumps until the aftermarket finally started producing replacements. But ironically it's about the easiest water pump I've ever done. Beats the heck out of doing the water pump on my 69 Corvette with having to remove all the accessory brackets and the bolt holes that go through into the water jacket (how the Chevy small block became so ubiquitous is beyond me). Mine still has way less than 88K miles so I haven't had to do many repairs yet. I've repaired virtually everything on my previous X308 however and its pretty easy generally. Granted there's a few things I'd fire the engineer's over, like replacing the fuel pump, but overall, its not terrible.

 

old 5w20 was an acea a1 which is obsolete. new one is c5 oil. c5 oils are held to a much higher standard for long life intervals than old a1.

the reason for using a 20 oil is because it provides non-negligible fuel economy benefits. the whole 2009 technical guide is just a laundry list everything they did to reduce parasitic loss and increase fuel economy.




the difference between the old a1 and new c5 oil when it comes to chain wear is when you’re doing factory drain intervals. biggest problem on a 2012 is the tensioner to moving guide metallurgy being wrong, they run out of adjustment well before the chain is worn out.

 

Interesting benefits for the change to new 0w20 oil.
My 5.0 fuel economy has been surprisingly good. Last year on a late night run from Austin to Houston, I averaged 28 mpg at 80 mph. I never get below 24 on the highway regardless of speed. If I get stuck heavy stop and go traffic it might get as low as 13 mpg, but I always average above 20 on a tank.

The last 2 oil changes, my JLR dealer has been adding BG MOA to the Pennzoil 0w20 oil. I know BG makes good products, but no oil manufacturer would ever support putting an additive to their oil. He said I need to just trust him. Perhaps JLR is doing it to help further protect the timing chain tensioners.

 

I get 16-19 around town, but can get up to 28 on the Interstate too. But to the OP, remember, you're supposed to run premium 91+ gasoline and unfortunately, its no longer just 30 cents a gallon more. Now its more like a $1 a gallon more. Unlike the X308, the X250 will tolerate the mid-grade 89 octane (never braved 87) but since I don't put a lot of miles on the XF, I just go ahead with the 93. Accidentally put 87 in the 308 once before I realized what I had selected and it didn't like it at all. It was like trying to get a baby to eat Gerber peas, spitting out a lot of it and swallowing only if I flew the accelerator pedal into her mouth just right to where she couldn't really taste it first. Can't say what impact a lower octane would have on mileage or long-term reliability, but yeah, 500 miles a week around town on premium gas will need to be budgeted for too.

 

I absolutely agree with dennis black

Hi Ski_Rush2025, don't forget to introduce yourself at New Member Area - Intro a MUST at the top of the forum.

We have a 2010 V8 currently at 271,449 Kms (168,670.5 miles)


2014 v6 280,374 Kms (174,216 miles)



For our Jaguars, I perform the Maintenace on these two cars, the SVR is done at the dealership as its under warranty.

I perform oil changes every 7000ish Kms or twice a year, whichever comes first, I will use either the OEM filter or the WIX57279XPXP Extreme Duty. My preferred oil is the Royal Purple 5W20 as I found it to my liking. I deal with the other fluids ever 3 years or so. Having the proper tools makes it so much easier.

Larger issues arise every now and again like all older used vehicles and are delt with as they come. I tried to post tutorials as I can.

The 2010 is constantly lent out to my kids when their vehicles are being services and the wife uses the 2014 when she doesn't want to take the SVR out, usually depending on the weather or just to keep the mileage down on the F-Pace.

I still have not needed to perform any major repairs on the engines although I was worried about the timing chain issues on the 2010 being how high the mileage is increasing but now have come to the conclusion that the previous owner might have corrected this prior to my purchasing when it had 120,000 Kms. This still doesn't mean I am not expecting to perform preventative maintenance soon only due to the wear and tear of use.

Oddly I found these vehicles more dependable, but sensitive at times than my domestic ones I own, it was a bit more of a learning curve and a collection of specialized tools that ended up making it easier in the long run. Obtaining parts at a reasonable price had been more if a concern to me. I found that the longer one sits, the more attention it wants.

Kevin