I recently bought an '05 XJ8L and I must say I am underwhelmed by the ride. I find that small bumps are extremely well absorbed, but that big ones are most definitely not. My old '76 XJ12 is a lot smoother and so was my old '94 LS400. Is there something wrong with the air suspension? There are no fault lights and the system works well otherwise.

 

My wife's 05 VDP rides firmer than the 1998 VDP she had before. The 1998 rode like a limo...I sort of wish we had kept it.

However, when we first purchased it the car had nearly new Khumo tires on it. We never suspected that the tires could have been an issue with the too firm ride, and just assumed Jag had increased the firmness through the mechanics of the suspension.

Recently we replaced the Khumos that were on it with Continental Extreme Contact DWS tires. Wow - the ride comfort improved tremendously, not to mention the road noise from the tires is completely gone. If I had known the Khumos were that bad I would have replaced them in the beginning.

It still is not as soft as the marshmellow ride of the 1998, but it is close now with the Conti's on.

 

What is your wheel size ? 19" and 20" make the ride much harder; harsh even.

 

Thanks for the notes, guys. I have 18" rims and stock tires, so not much to improve there. The tires may be the same ones that the car came with, considering the small cracks all around. I'll be fitting new tires soon, thinking Michelin. I'm sure that will improve road noise and compliance a bit, although I don't think it is going to do much about the smoothness over large bumps.

I'll let you know if I come up with the silver bullet.

 

OK, you're on the best wheel size, so nothing to do there. A 17" was offered; I looked at one with this size wheels in early 2010 before I bought the car I have now. Maybe I should have bought the car with the 17" wheels, it was very nice but higher miles.

I owned a 4.2 litre Series 3 for 14 years, and yes, it has the ultimate boulevard ride, far, far, better then modern Jaguars IMHO, but the youngsters of today don't seem to like this sort of thing and want much firmer riding cars. Having said that, my car is a Sport with even harder suspension, and I find it acceptable on 18" wheels. It was unacceptable on the 20" it came with on purchase in 2010.