HI guys,

Question from a mate.

He loves the XF but hates the rotary gear selector. Does anyone know of a company that offeres a J-Gate style conversion?

Cheers,

Adam

 

Not possible.

Once you try that rotary selector you will never go back. It is the most intelligent automatic shifter ever devised.

To downshift rapidly you use the steering wheel paddles. Using an old fashioned stick shift would be way too slow.

 

I love the rotary shifter. Flick, I'm in Drive. Flick, I'm in Reverse. Much easier than any traditional shifter. If Mercedes had come up with the rotary shifter, the automotive press would be raving about it. But because Jaguar came up with it, they just ignore its virtues. I also love the electronic parking brake with automatic release.

 

Amen to that! You are 100% right!

 

My friend currently drives a BMW 5-series which he is due to replace soon. He is not keen on the latest 5, nor the merc e-class but loves the XF.

So after spending a drunken evening in a bar, i persuaded him to go and look at an XF. Phone call afterwards included the words "love the car, hate the gear selector".

Apparently it isn't natural feeling (not sure what he means by that).

Thanks all for the comments, i'll pass them on and tell him to stop being such a woman and live with it and go and place an order!!!

 

I had a bridge solution with the terrain selector on the LR3. I really like the rotary....one of its virtues is shifting to park even if you leave it in drive when turning the ignition off. Other virtue.....no quick getaway gangster bank heists will be attempted in this car either.

 

It is unusual but many breakthrough ideas are and this is a real breakthrough. As I said, use the paddles to shift and then the rotary selector makes perfect sense. The first time you drop your hand to surreptitiously select Sport at a traffic light reveals the true genius of this idea. Trust us he will catch on and end up loving this feature.

 

I love the rotary shifter and the automatic vents. It was 1 selling point for me. I even loved the Merc ML350 when they came out with the stalker shifter.

I hate the aston martin multiple push button gear selector. It takes up lots of room and seems liek a movie gimmick car. This is just my 2 cents of course.

 

I really don't get what the big deal is to people. Other than putting it in a place where you have to get out of the car to shift gears, does it really matter if it is a rotary knob or shift lever? Of all the time you are in the car put together over ownership you could probably fit the amount of time you spend using that rotary knob into a 5 minutes bucket. If you want the manual shift, use the paddle shifters. That's one area where they should be more robust than the black plastic. The rotary knob looks and feels great. Now that they've fixed the getting stuck issues, what's the beef? It's a conversation piece to every person that gets in my car. Never has someone said, "Wow, that sure is stupid". :-). To me that is like complaining about Porsche brakes because the calipers are not the color you want.

 

Ditto!

 

Update,

My friend has placed an order for a 3.0d XF-S portfolio in black/black. He has taken on board peoples comments and accepted the shifter.

According to another forum (fixit.co.uk), there is a conversion kit being produced here in the UK. It's made from a hybrid of Range-Rover and 2007my XK parts with a unique trim. Offering the same PRND then Left for S as the earlier XK. Rumour also has it that the same company are looking at modifing the steering wheel to take larger aluminium paddles, not just for XF but for XK and XJ.

*Note, not read this myself, nor have i managed to find the artical. This was told to me by my friend.

 

Since the plastic shift "paddles" are just tiny micro switches I do wonder why people keep expecting them to be more robust. The slightest pressure will actuate the shift so it matters not that the paddle is plastic. The real complaint, if any, is that the paddles are a tad too convenient and can be activated accidentally until one gets used to the placement.

 

My problem with the paddle shifters is that they 'feel' and 'look' cheap and nasty and are not in keeping with the 'hewn from a single piece of metal feel' required in expensive cars. Quality is both a measurable quantity (how often do things break, not function etc.) and a tactile sensation. The paddle shifters fail my tactile measurement criteria.

I have not had any problems with accidental operation so cannot comment on this aspect of the paddle design.

 

I can't see my paddles from where i sit. I guess I am just a function guy. If it works well then it doesn't matter how it feels. If it doesn't work well then it also doesn't matter how it feels.

 

It's possible that they may be plastic for safety reasons. For a frontal collision, it may be better that the paddles shear off if your hands fly off the steering wheel rather than having your fingers sheared off.

 

You could be right, but the BMW, Audi and MB paddles do not have the same cheap feel. BMW paddles however are different in that they push and pull for change up and down and thus are duplicated for left and right hand operation. Jag uses a separate paddle for up and down shift operation which is, in my opinion, more intuitive.

 

Come on guy! the way the shifter rises up makes my girlfriends wet themselfs . The auto handbrake and paddles rule. I cant' beleive anybody complaining about this.

 

Each to his own, I guess.....

Me, I like quality in a vehicle and the tactile sensation of solid switches etc. From the comments here I appear to be on my own.

 

I definitely pay more attention to the hot girlfriend(s)(?). More than one can present irreversible challenges. I am translating "wet" to "hot" as they mean essentially the same thing though that isn't intuitive.

 

I like the paddles....the way the door handles feel - meh......