It is what it is.

 

I'm surprised at those who say the XJS is difficult to drive. I went from driving a tiny kei car to piloting Her Ladyship without a hitch--or almost. Did manage to drop a rear wheel off the road once (and only once, and early on in my ownership) when reversing because I had no idea where the back end was. A reserving camera would definitely be nice. But in terms of threading through traffic, I've never had any problems. I've taken her down some rather narrow roads, driven her in heavy traffic, in the rain, and never had a problem. Though there have been a couple of times that I've looked at a tiny road and thought "nope, not going down there"....

True, the turning circle is is more like a turning orbit, but that just means you do a 5-point turn instead of a 3-point turn, and that long bonnet makes it very easy to place the front at least. And true, you want to move in very gingerly if parking nose-first.

Basically, the car is a lot easier to manoeuvre than I expected. True, the seats aren't quite as comfy and supportive as I would like, but I can still drive her for hours on end and manage to get out without the assistance of cranes.

 

I'm not really sure what you are on about. The steering effort and brake pedal effort are pretty middle of the road. We are seeing cars returning to more steering effort after the terrible over-assisted steering of the 90s and early 2000s that leave you with no "feel" for the car.

The turning circle isn't great, but thats what you pay for the rest of the front end. Its height, width to fit the V12, caster that makes it good at high speed, etc. I honestly have a harder time parking FWD cars that have much better turning radii because the distance between me and the wheels always feels weird, they honestly feel like they track like a long wheelbase vehicle in that sense. I can park an XJS on a razor, but I guess I drive on everyday.

The long hood and upright windshield that hurts aero is great, I really dislike how you can't see where the car ends and begins in new models, makes parking in tight spots a lot of guesswork.

I've heard the XJS referred to as a "4,000 lb miata." It not a super car or anything, but generally I think it has good balance of responsiveness and luxury.

 

And when that top comes down......