Had the bad misfortune of getting rear ended at highway speed mid july in my once immaculate 1997 XJR with 123000 km on the clock in mid July. Came out of it with a few bumps and bruises and a mild concussion, could have been a lot worse (Thank You Jaguar) unfortunately the car was a write off. Thought I would probably wait until next spring to try and find a replacement as I thought I would have to head down to Vancouver to find any sort of replacement. We lo and behold if a 2009 XF Supercharged didn't show up on Autotrader about a week ago being sold by a young doctor with a new baby due in October here in Kamloops just minutes from my house. Well I caught my wife at a weak moment she signed off on it and boom she's now safely parked in the garage. Only 73000 km fully loaded has all the maintenance records from the last 6 years that he has owned it, has all options that were available adaptive cruise control, heated steering wheel. Impressions so far, car is very powerful, fantastic handling, top notch sound system for whatever reason seems bigger to drive still trying to figure out how things work took me two days to get my in car garage opener programed. I'm sure I will have some questions for you XF experts as we go along. I still do miss the XFR though she was one classy dame.

 

The hardest thing will be to grow accustomed to the reduced visibility of the XF. Hope yours has the parking sensors and rear view camera. I couldn't park an XF without those features. Trunk is huge but access to it is a pain. Have to be very careful loading luggage when you go to the airport. But X308 can't be made to last forever and eventually the time comes when you have to update your ride.

 

welcome! lets see some pics

 

Greetings and welcome from another "convert". I had a 96 X300 4.0L Sovereign which I thought I'd never change. But age, wear and tear, and somewhat serious rust issues got me thinking...…..
I'm now the very happy owner of a 09 XF 3.0D, since January this year. It's "only" the Luxury model but has all the bells and whistles I want. Visibility does take a little bit of getting used to, but that's a small price to pay for the excellent sporty handling, hugging the bend like it's on rails, as opposed to the more sedate wallowing ride I got with the XJ. Running costs are seriously lower, with fuel economy and annual road tax at €750 as opposed to €1,800. I'm averaging a very acceptable 41mpg, against an average 25mpg on the XJ.
Enjoy your new car, it's still a Jaguar!

 

My XFs also have the automatic side mirror dipping which helps with not hitting curbs while backing up.

For blind spot visibility while driving forward, I have the silly blind spot warning system, which really isn't a good solution, but the side mirrors adjust out more than enough to use the mirrors in the fashion that the SAE published 20 years ago, but almost no one knows about:

https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...id-blind-spots

Old dogs that aren't good at learning new tricks will have a tough time adjusting to the "proper way" to use the side mirrors, but when you learn how to use them that way, driving becomes much safer and you'll be annoyed that other drivers aren't using this method since they are likely to change lanes right into you without it.

I had to learn this method since I drive super cars with huge blind spots, but it's really more valuable for my daily drivers.

 

Off Topic: What is it like living with the Espirit? Ive always had a soft spot for those cars and they aren't terribly expensive so I find myself eyeing them alot.

 

It's my second Esprit if that gives you an idea of what I think about them. I had one in the mid 90's, loved it, but wanted to try other cars, and after a bunch, I had to have another Esprit.

It's hard to find a good one that hasn't been neglected or abused because they are relatively the bargain of the supercar world. When they were being made, they were at the top in performance, looks, and Hollywood recognition. Being a bargain, you had/have a lot of people that could just barely afford to buy the car and literally not have 2 nickels to rub together afterwards, so they couldn't afford any routine maintenance like fluid changes and cam belt changes, or even a garage to keep the car out of the elements.

When you do find one that was well treated, they are incredibly reliable, keep their looks, and very inexpensive (relative to their peers) to maintain. Parts costs are not crazy like Ferrari and Lamborghini.

I have had both the 4 and 8 cylinders. They are both fun cars, but the V8 is where it's at. Much more driveable with the extra torque in modern traffic, and much more thoughtfully designed for working on it. Lotus was an engineering firm for other car companies, so they used their expertise to improve the Esprit in every way every year, so the later model the better from an engineering standpoint. You have decide what you like for looks though as that changed a lot over the years.

I'm thinking they will be "discovered" by the collector community soon and double in price, so if you want in, now is the time to do it. All of their peers have double, tripled, or quadrupled in price in the last 5 years, so they're next.