Hey everyone, long time no see! Or talk, I guess
I sadly have gotten rid of my XJ. This was a month or two ago and I got over what I paid for it out of it. My entire headliner came apart one day when I had the windows all down. I must not have noticed it was coming loose or something, because they sure as hell would not have been down had I known this. Between this and the timing chain, I was quoted $14k at the JLR dealership, and $10k at an indie. I didn't feel this was my best bet, as I was coming up on needing new tires, brakes, and spark plugs/belts as well. Thus, I spent time in a few different rental cars deciding what was up next. I ended up going back to yet another XE. I went with the same year and model as my first XE, as I sold it with very high miles that were entirely trouble free. I already miss the growl I received from my XJ every time I pushed that pedal in, but I got a very insane price on a 20,000 mile CPO with 2 years/unlimited mileage warranty. I got the Polaris White and already have an appointment scheduled with a local shop to get the rims in gloss black and potentially black out the chrome pieces on the car including my side mirrors. It should be here within the next week and a half! I am very sad about leaving the XJ club, but I am still obsessed with our Jaguar's and had to go with the XE with CPO. Hope every one of you have been having only good times with your XJ's since we last talked!

 

It has been total pleasure driving my XJ it was a coin toss between the XJ and a Kia Sprinter and the Jaguar won out and I've never looked back.

 

I couldn't agree more! I went from an old Mercedes to my first Jaguar XE, then a brand new mercedes (which i hated) to a brand new tesla, to then my Jaguar XJ, and now another Jaguar XE. The CPO for 2 years and unlimited mileage is one hell of a deal too.

 

Jaguars......you gotta love them even with all their issues

 

I'd be interested in hearing more about your experience going from a Tesla to the XJ.

 

So the tesla was both great and terrible.. let me elaborate

PROS
- Super fun to drive and unlike any other driving experience you've had, it's quiet as a mouse when driving minus a whirring sound that is actually kind of cool (doesn't compare to the sound of a v8 jaguar though ). That immediate full driving power is quite an exhilarating feeling off the start. The cornering is one of the best I've ever felt in a car.
- Regenerative braking is awesome and once you get the hang of it, you virtually never use your brakes anymore. Maintenance is slim to literally none.
- Crash protection was awesome, one time I looked down to mess with the climate controls on the tesla screen and the car in front of me quite literally slammed on their brakes in the two seconds I was fiddling with the controls. When this happened I nearly hit them but the tesla took over and did some of the craziest braking I have ever experienced. It genuinely felt like the back end of my car was lifted off the ground. I can only imagine what it looked like to the cars around me.
- The games on the tesla are great for if you have kids or usually have a passenger. Same with the streaming apps on there so you can watch Netflix, Hulu, etc.
- Stability control is pretty crazy, even though I had the RWD I had to take it out in about 7 inches of snow once and was stuck going up a pretty intense hill that none of our RWD Jaguar's could get up without some Blizzak's (still a stretch in our Jag's) or snow chains. It cruised right on up without a problem due to the insane stability control system they have.

CONS
- Auto pilot was awesome when it worked. If you live in a humid environment or a rainy environment then it can and will get into the auto pilot camera's and disable it. The worst thing is you can't even use cruise control when this happens so it then becomes even more annoying.
- Charging, Charging, Charging...at first it's fun going to the supercharger and all the tesla owner's are kind of like a little cult honestly lol. You can play games, take a nap, etc. HOWEVER, if you are typically a highway driver or commute as much as I did (about 50k miles yearly back then) you will spend hours on hours at the charging stations. Your miles are nearly cut in half as you use almost 2 miles of range per mile on the highway. For example, at least twice a week I would have to drive to St. Louis or Kansas City, which are both a 100-115 mile distance from me. I would have to charge to 100% before going (20-55 minutes depending how charged I was) then another 20-30 minutes when I arrived, and then another full charge before leaving (another 40 minutes) and then I'd have to do a top off charge when getting back home again. This would amount to 2 1/2 hours charging on average when I had to make these drives and I truly started dreading it because of how much earlier I had to leave and how much later I'd make it back home.
- I also am quite certain the car was tracking some of my "wasted" miles on the highway as actual miles and it was aggravating because obviously this meant my warranty was to expire sooner than it should have.
- In the summer the AC uses up a large amount of your charge, and would also have the AC on nearly the entire time you are parked outside when shopping or at an event when it's anything over 90 degrees and it always sucked getting into the car with a much lesser charge considering I didn't even drive the dang thing. Then in the winter, using your heat uses up almost double the charge as AC and if you're parked at an event or are shopping somewhere of course the heat is on nearly the entire time to keep all the electronic components safe.

All in all, I do like the idea behind EV's and will probably own a Lucid Air within the next 4-5 years, but they are just not where they should be yet. The drive is exhilarating and fun, but everything else kind of sucks.

 

Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Tesla. I thought that the constant charging would be an issue, and the Tesla is the best electric car there is! At this time at least. Teslas are everywhere in my neighborhood and part of town. I can imagine how something like a Nissan Leaf would be even more
inconvenient. In my former employer's parking lot there were ten chargers, which was okay, because there were few electrics, I imagine that things would get tighter as they become more numerous. The parking lot chargers work for people that work at a single site, they can charge while they are inside the building. For someone that has to move around to different spots for meetings and consultations I imagine that would charging would have to be done when your workday is finished and before the commute home.

 

No problem at all! The charging definitely was my biggest issue. All in all the concept is great, but must be significantly refined before they're purchased by every driver across the states.

 

Just curious. What does it cost to charge from almost depleted to full charge.

 

me to, took the Sprinter for a test drive and then a month later the jag. The XJS was the better option hands down.

 

At my time of ownership, it was about $22 or so for a full charge. I'm sure rates have gone up slightly. This is also dependent on where you live/charge the car too, as every state has different rates on electricity. I was spending $40+ daily on charging which I would have rather spent on gas in a Jaguar.

 

I miss my XJ every single day. I'm still delighted about my XE though and plan to purchase a 2019 XJ in a couple years when I'm done with the XE. They're just too nice of vehicles. I want to stick with Jaguar when they go fully electric if they have their sh*t together. It's horror story after horror story in the I-Pace forum.

 

Thanks

 

You should have 2 vehicles. 1 EV and 1 ICE
EV for shopping, short trips (errands) and use on work weeks
ICE for long drives.

 

If/when everyone (or even half of everyone) goes to electric mobility, what would you think will happen to the price and availability of electricity?

And do you get to choose who you buy electricity from where you're at? There is no competition in my neighborhood. One power company does it all.
No choice or competition there.
I hope hydrogen fuel cell technology and development evolves soon.

 

Hybrid is the way.

 

Great point, and I agree (but sort of forgot!). It's the best option for the next step in the evolution of automotive power I think.
The down-side is that it has the worst of both worlds, as far as both ICE wear/maintenance & repair plus a whole electric drive system that also needs to be maintained and can break-down.

But when it's all working, it never needs to be plugged-in. And the option of plug-in hybrid is good too.

 

Yes, I agree that having both an EV and an ICE vehicle would be awesome. If I had enough cash on hand to own both I would 100%. I don't like having loans so my cars are always paid for up front. My 2017 Jaguar XE (Polaris White) just came in to substitute my XJ and I love it! Though, it does have some winter stains on the lower trim and scrape marks under the bumper. Probably a curb from ice as it came from upstate New York. I will probably order and replace my trim pieces and see about repainting under my bumper just so it can all look new again. Biggest con of ordering cars 1,200 miles away, lol!