FAQ updated with the extra files. Thanks again.

 

ditch the spare and make the boot bigger.

 

I so agree. I love the simplicity of the X300 cruise control. It can be left on all the time (unlike many systems which need to be switched on first before you can set them - why?), one button press to 'engage', one little paddle to pull for 'resume', both easily reached from the steering wheel but not cluttering it up with buttons.

For me the only real bug-bear is interior space. I don't care about the back seat - it's got heaps more room than, say, an XK for the occasional occupants who stray into my car - but I'm 6 ft 2 in and the drivers seat is a bit cramped. It wasn't fixed until the X350, but then you have to live with a car I subjectively find much less attractive.

Other than that, I agree with an earlier post saying the switchgear, especially behind the steering wheel (except for the cruise control!) is a bit downmarket and hard to locate, but then they are very much secondary switches. Personally, I have no problem with the centre console layout or buttons - my a/c is constantly left on 'auto' at 23 deg, and the only buttons I regularly use are for the CD selection. If I used tapes at all these days I'd perhaps be irritated by the fact that my thumb often inadvertantly presses the eject putton beside the volume knob ... I sometimes pop-up the centre armrest cup holder by accident too, but then I never use that. My car is for driving, not dining in. If I want coffee, I stop at a cafe.

Whenever I drive or ride in newer cars I'm struck by just how 'right' Jaguar got this model all those years ago. Other cars now have far better packaging (actually, they probably did 20 years ago!) and are much more fuel efficient for similar performance, but there is a fundamental rightness about most of what the X300 does that makes it so satisfying. Mine is proving super reliable, everything works as it did the day it left the factory, and although servicing costs are a bit steep, it's at the bottom of the depreciation curve and costs me less than my wife's near-new Honda in real terms. That's why I don't plan on changing it for many years to come.