Glancing at the X350/358 sub-forum, I see nothing but 'problems' and very negative stuff, which totally contradict my 8-year mostly trouble-free ownership experience. So with this thread I hope to bring some positive 'Chi' to the forum.

My car still gets admiring looks whether parked in my driveway or on the streets. Even when visiting the local Jaguar dealer from time to time, I get compliments from the sales staff, because the new cars they're selling look nothing like the classic old XJ style, so it's like a breath of fresh air to see my car and I always make it a practice to park right in front of the showroom when I visit

Cheers,

 

Funny you say this, in the last week I had 4 people compliment me on mine. The diversity is the interesting part. Two women, one probably 65-70 the other like 30ish. The young one loved the color and leaping cat on hood. The other two were men, one was my age (60) and said he always loved Jags and mine was the last of the original look while the other guy was probably 25..... knew it was an R and asked if it had more than 400 hp. I told him no its stock but it will still get up and go. Also thought I had aftermarket wheels on the car which I don't but they are upgrades as we Jag people know. Anyway...... I get compliments a lot but never 4 in a week which I found interesting for a 12 year old "old mans" car, LOL.

 

Parked outside the auto paint shop to get some colour-matched touch-up paint. Lady comes out with a beaker of mixed paint to check it against the car, and upon seeing acres of it goes "Oh wow, nice colour!" - honest.
I'm not gonna spoil your day by revealing the DGM colour.
(P.S. John Fox I would have chosen your colour, my wife chose my colour but I got to choose the car!)
--------
Why was I getting touch-up paint? A damn stone landed in the middle of my pristine bonnet. It's really small and only I know it's there. And you.
Fortunately the bonnet/hood on these cars is huge, sculptured, and bedazzling. And the centre bulge in the hood, hardly noticeable from the outside, reminds me of the drivers view from my E-Type of long ago.

 

Oh I do get my share of people staring at my 2005 Jaguar XJ8L, and I got the impression that a Jaguar dealer service manager preferred mine over the new Jaguars.

 

Long, Low, Sleek - And look at that curve on the rear windscreen!
The 2005 XJ8L with its longer wheel base (and commensurate appearance of a longer, lower, sleeker line) looks like a more modern version of the X308 with a better engine, more headroom, more boot space, better gearbox and much better power-to-weight ratio.......!

And for me, the essence of a Jaguar XJ has always imitated the power of the 'haunches' of a Jaguar; in my opinion, this may be the last XJ to have that gorgeous and powerful 'tucked in' rear view - Like a springing big cat...….But with space in the boot! You will obviously have your own opinion!



IN MY OPINION!

 

Last week I had two memorable "admiration moments".

1: While getting gas at the local Exxon/Circle K and some candy for my daughter ( a place which happens to have extremely bright florescent lighting that "loves" my Ebony paint) a guy came into the store and said: "THAT is the cleanest Jag I have ever seen!" I demurred saying thanks but now I am conscious of the water spots from the rain 10 minutes ago. I usually whip out my spray detailer and take care of it. He was not discouraged and said: Regardless that Jag is superb!

2: I (sort of) blasted across the oncoming lane, at an angle to the wide entrance to McDonald's in an effort to get my breakfast just a wee bit faster than the approaching car; apparently on a similar mission. Then the drive through line appeared enormous, I parked, and as I walked in, the guy I headed off at the pass motions me over to he open widow - he took the drive through route. Feeling a bit sheepish and ready to apologize for my McMuffin lust, I walked up, but he said, come here, meaning closer, instilling some alarm in me, and causing me to wonder if I was going to get a bit of road rage directed at me. Nope. He says: What model is that car you are driving? I explained it is a Vanden Plas. "You must love it! When you passed across me, I thought: That guy takes extreme care of his car (he isn't wrong) and he must love it like crazy (also correct) I thanked him, of course and did in fact apologize for seizing right of way. He waved that away with a gesture, and said he loved seeing people who take care of the things they work for and that my car was "Just beautiful"

On that I have to agree. The previous owner who I traveled about 800 miles to acquire the car from had described it in a voicemail similarly: "Lost for words to describe it, he said "It's a beautiful car" Agreed. It no E-Type, with the impossibly long hood, short deck proportions that make it drop jaws 50 years on. With the advent of Ian Callum's modern vision for Jaguar, I have wondered if the diverging styles of XF, F-Type, XE, and mostly, the Flagship, the connection to the past, the XJ. That it should have taken the drastic "Rethink" it did. Love it or ate it, it's not connected with Jaguars legacy, even with little stylistic "nods" to past cars. A taillight shape will never make a F-Type remind someone of an E-Type. Ever,


the X350 has some proportions seem a bit off: X350 Hood/Bonnet and Trunk/Boot seem a little abbreviated in proportion to the larger passenger "Box" on the 3 box design. In fact the tallness (57.3" compared to the X308's 53.2" That's a lot of height to try and style) of the center box/passenger cell seems a bit ungainly on X350's at certain viewing angles, but I find it lessened on LWB cars. I do wish they had found a way to make the front and rear sections appear longer as they can seem stubby on such a long - 205" car with a 125" wheelbase. In the picture below, it gives the XJ more of a BMW 7 Series vibe than traditional Jaguar-ness. Having had a 98 Vanden Plas these center to front/rear section proportions seemed odd. I even mapped the numbers of total length to wheelbase at one point trying to understand what my eyes were seeing, lol! Being on the compact side myself at 5'7" I didn't need all that volume, but any 6 footers I traveled with made the x308 show its tight interior accommodations. Grace and Pace, but perhaps not so much space.



For anyone who blithely dismisses the X350 with "It looks just like the previous car", I suggest a long look at this picture. Its a LOT bigger. As much as I love X300 and X308 cars the squareness of the roof section at the back always makes me see XJ40 with new front/rear clips. I don't see it as a cohesive "whole" design, simply because I know the history and how it came to be.



Of significance is that this is a LWB X300 (rectangular side marker lights give it away) against a SWB X350 - Tell me that 4" of height isn't noticeable here!

The face-lifted X358 feels shortsighted. Why do things to modernize a classic design? Feels at cross purposes. Front fender "blade" works I think in body color, not chrome - At first I liked the new lower grill but it lost it's appeal over time. Upper grill nice, but looks like other Jaguar products. The blocky bumpers with blades removed leave me cold and that blocky full width plynth on the deck-lid is plain horrible. It's one item that looks outright FORD, it's the kind of trim style that could have come off a Crown Victoria.


Don't give the X350 demerits because the boot/trunk is not closed, lol. I like the bumper chrome blades and upward curved plynth vs. the "band of chrome" on X358.

For those fans of the X358, I am not criticizing you or your tastes. The descriptions I made were all intended to illustrate my opinions on various style choices made by Jaguar Cars, Ltd. The subjective thoughts and analysis are entirely my own Any similarity to cars living or deceased is entirely coincidental.

I considered the X358 - and found the process difficult, since getting a 1 or 2 MY newer car has its advantages. I end up strongly leaning toward a lower mile example of the last cars made prior to the face-lift. Overall, in spite of SOME nice bits, the face-lift itself has a feeling (to me) of being a bit haphazard, of not being the result of long considered styling changes but rather more of an accessorizing approach, sort of aftermarket bolt-ons. Ultimately it was these considerations that caused me to take a pass on it.

I feel like I have a point-in-time capture of the XJ when it was closest to the things that appeal to me, essentially what I would do if I had the ability and talent to make "the perfect modern XJ"

 

I will put my opinion in and sorry Blairware, I don't agree. The X350 vs. X358 debate has been done on many forums to death, but I will say I receive way more compliments with my facelifted XJ vs pre-facelift. Look at the prices of parts, it is a very popular mod to facelift a X358, no one back dates a X358?

Of course this is all my opinion, just as you are allowed to yours

 

In Toronto my X358 gets far more compliments than my 911s, SLK55 or M6 ever did.

 

I was gonna say, what happened to the compliments?
I love you all, XJ's (except the current one]
Now go criticise your wives and see what happens :-)

 

Chris Mills - You're right; we did ambush Wolfy's original post and start banging on about X308's, X350's and X358's!
Since I started this bad behaviour and by way of an apology I was recently cleaning my wheels outside my apartment building when the doctor who lives in the same building and who owns a Rolls Royce Phantom stopped to admire and very closely inspect my XJ8L. Suffice to say that I offered to swop with him!

 

My 05 gets plenty of attention. The X350's have aged very well, especially for a mid 2000's car.

Everyone looks at it and thinks the car is worth 2-4x as much as what I paid for it

 

I did actually get the hots for a 2000 Bentley Arnage for my hobby car, before deciding a Jag would be "less problematic".
(a back-handed compliment is still a compliment :-) )

And every Beauty has some wart on her face, in the case of my X358 it's on the side fenders LOL.

 

Quite often get people saying 'nice car', and mine is definitely not a pristine example.

 

I get lots of compliments everywhere I go in my 05 super V8 ebony/charcoal - especially stopped at fuel stations and when I'm washing it in my drive. All the neighbors noticed the car the first time I drove it in my hood. And when I'm on the road I notice lots of heads turning to glimpse the car.

I recently changed my OEM star wheels with "Vela's" from a 2011-15 F-type -XF. The car now looks much more aggressive - a look I did not think I'd like but is awesome after the fact.

Most people think I paid WAY more than actual. Most compliments are "that's a really nice car" or I've always loved Jags" - the usual.

Soon I'll pst a few pics

 

This picture is very interesting to me as I had probably 10 308's and loved them all, thought they were big and would have bet money they were bigger than the 358 but seeing this picture makes it look like a X type, LOL compared to the 358 style. Honestly never thought there was that much of a difference but its clearly there. I have never owned one of each model at the same time so I never saw this in person. Thanks for posting.

 

Are those 95-96 GM Impala wheels?

 

I Have a 2007 XJ8 (X358) my preferred driver, always gets favourable comments...Gunmetal

 

Most people don't know or see the differences between the 04, & the 07, even when both are in the garage, till they are pointed out.

People of all ages look, smile, comment on how great they look, seem very surprised at just how old they are, & still look that great.

 

I don't think the comparison photo is quite flattering to the X350 in terms of camera angle. To my eyes the X350 Long wheelbase looks just fine. I find the X308 design -- long and low with chromed pillars -- rather dated now. While X350/X358 still looks modern even after 8 years of seeing X351's. The sleeker A-pillars of X350 and its overall design are meant to convey a sense of forward motion, ready to pounce, even when the Cat is sitting still. Now look at the comparison photo again and notice the 'static' X308 on the left vs. 'kinetic' X350 on the right.

In my driveway, quite an attention getter in my neighborhood of only German and Japanese cars, not even a Land Rover...

 

Well, remembering that I own an X358, it looks "chunky" in comparison photos to X308...Series 2....etc
BUT ONLY SIDE-BY-SIDE
Overall I credit everyone at Jaguar besides Ian Callum for the MODERNISATION program of the XJ over about 40 years. Ending in 2009.

Now, back to how to get into my boot...lift the engine to change the alternator... :-)

(The SOLE reason I have an X358 is because it was the latest (real) model I could buy. Absolutely happy with it (we are talking looks-wise). But then, I would be happy with any of the XJ's from Series 1 onwards. So long as it didn't have square headlights...too long a rear door...oh you're winding me up.)