Pros:

• The 2012 redesign is the best looking XK yet

• Lots of smooth power

• Excellent craftsmanship both in and out

• Captivating leather aroma

• Wonderfully cooled seats especially when the AC is set to bilevel

• Excellent dealership service team

Cons:

• Too many warranty issues already (450 miles)

• Vibrations probably from flat spotted tires

• Steering wheel shimmy 50-70 mph, could be from above

• Brake judder and wheel pulls to left when braking; could be warped rotors or a binding caliper

• Condensation in both headlamps after washing at coin operated spray booth, washer kept at a very safe distance from surface of car.

• Excessive brake dust

• No/poor voice control

• No engine temp gauge

• No split navi audio screen

• No compass in rearview mirror; have navi but it so nice to just take a quick look in the mirror plus if the audio is displayed on info screen you have to manually change screens to get to navi.

• Cold start issue; could be from bad gas and will know by next week.

• The LED running lights are not running lights like on the new XF/XJ's or as even advertised in the new XK brochure, but must manually be turned on/off; such any easy thing for Jag to have done, but they didnt and dealership can't correct it as if they change the country setting all the lights turn on including the headlights, rears and LEDS. Hope fully Jag will correct this on the 13's and be available to the 12's.

• Horendous initial MPG...I'm avg 11.9 with VERY conservative mostly city driving; hopefully after break-in this will improve.

Overall I like the car but I’ve become a bit disenchanted due to all the aforementioned issues especially the drivability ones. Once the tires are replaced (dealership taking car of this, going to Michelins from Dunlop) and the brake issue resolved I should enjoy the car much more; but so far we're off to a shaky start; no pun intended.


I'd like to know if anyone here has/had any steering wheel shimmies from brakes and or tires? I've read for the 2012 XF there is a brake judder issue going on. http://www.xfforum.co.uk/archive/index.php/t-7182.html?

Thanks,

 

Matter of opinion that one

Does anyone know if the 2012 XF and XK use the same brakes?

 

Once you get those warranty issues resolved you'll have one of the finest Sports GT's ever created...and the second best looking XK ever!

Bruce

 

I get about 15 MPG around town. Best I've seen on the highway is about 19ish. That's hand calculated. I've got just over 5k on the odo now.

I have shimmies due to the tires being out of round. Probably from having the car sit for so long prior to my purchase of it. Verified at my local autoX tire shop. Oddly enough, once the tires get heat in them, the shimmy goes away.

 

I actually love having fog lights for dusk and dawn driving. That being said...

The best looking XK to date would have to be the 2008 XKR-S, europe only, it has the smooth silouette of all models (2012 XKR-S is over done and loses it's fluidity) plus it introduced the big rear spoiler(yet subtle), side skirts, front splitter and the rear diffuser only offered on select models (75, 175, black and speed packs).

The only thing the 2008 XKR-S lacks are the 2010+ tail lights which was by far the most major aesthetic improvement made from 2007-2012.

 

I have the 2008 XK, but I must admit the 2012 is a wee bit better looking...

Wow, I have not had nearly the number of warranty issues described. Basically, I have had a heater relay replaced, and will probably need to get the struts tightened, as I hear a distinct "thunk" coming out of the front end when I stop and then back-up. That's about it...Oh, and the battery kept running down until I finally figured out you gotta lock the doors everytime you leave the car (that puts the electrical system to sleep).

...and I am averaging 22 mpg combined city and highway (with a rather heavy foot, I gotta admit)

I would definately stay on the dealer to fix that 2012. It is just to beautiful a car to be that aggravating...

 

No Doubt LOL

 

Can't wait Bruce, vibrations and shimmies on cars like these are totally out of character.

I'll settle for second best looking

 

My car like yours sat for a long period of time at the dealership (7mos for mine) without being driven and in the hot FL sun which may have created permanent flat spots. My car vibrates pretty significantly after it's been driven from sitting overnight and the wheel shakes like crazy, after a few miles the vibration goes away but the steering wheel still shakes, albeit not as much and still primarily between 50-75 mph.

The problem we are both experiencing is partly due to flat spotting and the Dunlop Sport Maxx's are notorious for this; problem is the flat spotting should really only be occurring when sitting for longer periods of time not just overnight. I would say it’s safe to assume that once my dealer swaps out the Dunlop’s to Michelin’s Pilot Super Sports the overnight flat spotting will cease as will all the shimmies. Tires can also be out of round even with no flat spotting due to radial run out. The Hunter GSP 9700 is a road force balancer which really helps identify and correct this problem; most high end car dealers have them.

I now have to see what's going on with the brakes as I either have warped rotors, a binding caliper or a pad imprint left on the rotor from sitting and rust. In my case get up to 70 mph take hands off wheel for a second, apply brakes and the wheel pulls to the left a bit and starts shimming, let off the brakes and the shimmy stops.
If I knew my car sat for this long I would have chosen another one.

I'll take 15 mpg around town no problem, but 11.9 with super conservative driving is nuts, no doubt after break-in it should improve. FYI starting with I believe the 2009 EPA mpg #'s, they were made much more realistic than previous years.

When are you due for new rubber?

 

Thanks Stillwtrs,

Yes alot of initial issues for sure but hopefully they will all be corrected. Nice to hear you're getting decent milage with some afterburner runs included.


She is a looker for sure, many that have seen the car comment it looks like an Aston, I tell them it should since it was redesigned by Ian Calum recently of AM.

Not just because I bought one but the changes for 12 were spot on, I can only imagine how amazing the 2014 will be with Ian starting from a clean sheet.

 

Since we have almost the exact same car, I'll add to the Cons section:
No Bluetooth A2DP connectivity to the audio system (I understand the '12 XF has it).

I'll end up having to either load my music to a USB drive or buy an iPhone.

No problems with steering wheel shimmies from brakes or tires, though.

Mike

 

Hey Mike,

Glad to hear no shimmies etc. It's really amazing the much lower priced XF has so many extras we don't, especially considering our cars were facelifted models.

I may have another con: can't turn on the driving:fog light with parking light, have to turn on headlights to get them to turn on. Why Jaguar why!!!

 

Hi Mike,

Do you have an Android Smartphone? If so, then you should be able to put the phone in USB Mass Storage Mode and the player will read the audio files stored on the SD card.

Tom

 

At least the 5yr older 2007 XK can run wth parking(usually referred to as side lights in the UK) and fog lights combined.

 

Hi Tom,
Yup, been there, done that. I have a Motorola Atrix and tried to connect using the USB port using Mass Storage Mode. The XKR's audio menu recognizes that something was plugged into the port but doesn't see any music files. The USB port on the XKR is expecting a certain file structure on the device. There's a whole thread on this over on the XF forum.

Mike

 

Don't quite get why they changed this?

 

My car runs automatically with cool led lights even when the head lights are not on. I've gotten a lot of compliments on them. Are these led on all of the xk's or just the S?

 

All 2012's. Only way mine come on is with parking lights. I'm thinking my dealership does know how to program them correctly and/or my car was a very early 2012 build (July)

 

You're right. If my car has the LED lights on automatically while driving without turning on parking or headlights, the dealership should be able to program yours as well. However, when I first got my car I thought my LED's only came on with the headlights, so I called the dealership and was told that they could not reprogram it, so who knows!

 

These cars are kinda quirky comp'd to our former P cars and most every other German car...hope I didn't make a mistake as I've had way too many issues in only 500 miles; now I'm getting a mysterious squeak comning from the rear of the car when I turn it off. WTF!?