I'm curious if a XF is quieter than a XK on long road trips. My XK gets a bit noisy on roads that have sort of an agregate material on them but quiet enough on roads with plain asphalt.

Maybe someone out there has both cars and can make a knowledgable reply from first hand experience.

NOT talking about piddling around the hood going to the store etc. at 40mph. Talking legal 75-80 mph speeds on the interstate hwys.

 

The XJ is very quiet I get XJL's as loaners frequently and they are silent.

If you XK is just becoming noisy and was not before, how old are your tires? What brand/model?

As tires wear they can get noisy.

 

Noise is likely from tires. XF is fairly quiet. Early cars suffered from wind noise.

 

Michelins and only approx 6mo old. It depends on the surface texture as to when the car is too noisy. It's tire noise, not wind etc. I was wondering if the XF transmitted the tire noise like the XK does.

There's a certain road surface that transmits noise more than a pure asphault type road. I know not what you'd call that surface texture. Aggregate???? The XK is just fine on most roads, but when you hit a section of what I call aggregate surfaced roads, it's bothersome to say the least.

 

If not concrete then what you are referring to is chip seal. This is a resurfacing repair method used to extend road life between repaves, or is sometimes used in rainy climates for surface drainage. It is very noisy when relatively new.

Michelin tires tend to be toward the noisier end of the available high performance tire spectrum. Pirellis tend to be quieter. Continentals are quieter. Michelins grip better, in general, especially in the dry.

The XF and XK use exactly the same suspension so likely road noise will be similar. Springs and damper rates will be different and may affect road noise transmission a bit but the XK is really a GT not a sports car and the drive should be very similar between the XK and the supercharged XF , for example.

 

My previous car was an '07 XK convertible. The original tires were Falkens and were very noisy at any speed. I changed to Michelins and the noise was improved, somewhat. I suspect that both seemed noisy because of the soft top. My current '10 XF Portfolio has 20" Dunlop tires and is extremely quiet. Of course all these comments are based on closed top and windows. On a side note, I was very surprised at how little wind I felt with the top down on my '07. My car before the '07 was an '05 XK8 and it was incredibly windy with the top down.

 

A lot will depend on the wheel and tire combo. A XF-SC or XF/R will be more noisy than other XF's because of the tire profile. I think there is a noticeable difference in the road noise from my SC to the other "regular" XF's I've driven. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

I really have not noticed any difference. Usually take the XF on longer trips because of the luggage space.
I converted the rear seatbacks to folding seatbacks.