It's not a bad idea to have Jaguar look at it every 15K while doing an oil change. That's the dealer's opportunity to find extra service work, and you can then choose whether to do it yourself or by them if you feel it's necessary. You can also buy the suction thingy to do your own oil change, but then you miss having experienced eyes giving it the once over.

Bruce

 

Interesting, I specifically went over the oil change thing when I bought mine. I was told, even encouraged, to change the oil in between the service intervals if I wanted (he suggested every 7,500 or so). Nothing mentioned about Castrol but he did say to use the Jaguar oil... though he didn't say it'd void the warranty if I didn't. I was told the only reason my warranty was voided would be if something I did specifically caused an engine failure (using the wrong filter, something like that).

The no drain plug thing isn't as big a deal as I think some are making it out to be. If you unscrew the oil fill cap, you can see there is a little tube there to attach an oil extractor to (which aren't terribly expensive... I remember seeing vaccuum extractors on Amazon.com for around 60 bucks I think). That means no messing around with stuffing a hose down into the oil resovoir and wondering if you're at the bottom, etc. The filter is inverted, right there next to it, so no need for getting under the car at all.

I've not actually DONE this yet, so take it with a grain of salt... but I have every intention of doing it eventually. 10k mile service interval is great and I'll take it for the yearly service also, but since I'm planning on keeping this car a while, changing the oil twice a year instead of once seems like a reasonable investment.

 

I've never used an oil extractor - never had an engine that did not have a drain plug. I am gonna talk with Hennessey Jag tomorrow and verify that if I do the oil myself that it won't interfere with the warranty.

I'll have to get an oil extractor - I don't want to go 15K miles without changing the oil.

 

Hey congratulations on the '10 Coupe. I looked hard at a '10 in black before chickening out and opting for silver. No question the coupe in black is tops appearance wise, just requires extreme diligence to keep it clean.

I too was blown away by the blown 5 liter motor, and, like you, stumped at the 4.4 0-60 results. Tell me it doesn't feel like a flat 4 second car! Just so much torque and such an exquisite transmission... I have a feeling we'll crack the nut and figure out how to put power to ground properly and start posting some times more in line with the seat-of-the-pants dyno.

Why don't you like the dynamic cruise? I love it, one of my many favorite features. Set it at a speed higher than traffic, set the distance to the closest (shortest), and let the car flow as the fast lane opens. I bought mine in Houston and drove it back to San Francisco, and was loving the CC. Also got tons of slow-down/drive around thumbs ups, two from police officers (Texas Highway as I recall). Love the radar CC, what's not to like?

For a car so civilized and refined, it gets awfully rowdy, stiff, and loud, I'll tell you that: Try hitting and holding down the lower-left button (with the race flag) for a few seconds, then let it go. It'll tell you that you've put the car in 'dyno' mode, which tightens things up, increases throttle response, and yes, it opens the exhaust up, running it through a tuning chamber built into the back of the motor and through a more direct route out the back. You'll notice a far more bawdy and snarly snapping roar, especially if you shift manually and wind it up to 4k or so before changing gears, from first to second, then to third, maybe downshift down to second @ high RPM with the windows down... Pure bliss. Sounds like a seriously tweaked pure performance car, at the push of a button and stab at the throttle. Find a canyon or tunnel and amplify the noise, you'll be shocked at the sound levels!

Congratulations again my man,

Skeeter

 

Ok, here's a silly question: While it sounds like a neat feature, what happens if the dynamic CC ****s up and doesn't slow down when you're approaching traffic? Doesn't it take a lot of trust to use it? You're turning the control of your car over to a computer.

 

As a lawyer, first off you'd have a nice juicy lawsuit on your hands, and if it malfunctioned often enough to be a danger they wouldn't have put it in there, not in this litigious age (this isn't the '70's). We'd find other Jag owners who experienced similar malfunctions and put together a nice little group, hopefully only different speed rear-end collisions with no serious injuries or deaths and I'd bet an expert could reverse engineer a bug/malfunction if there was one, and lead to a quick and tidy settlement. I know, awful that that's my first though, but that's another story for another day, lol...

I mean, I keep an eye on things even with the radar cc set. Usually it just lifts a bit off the throttle far enough in advance that a catastrophic failure just wouldn't be an issue, I'd have enough time to hit the brake. And if some idiot jumped in front of me going 20 in the fast lane, I'd damn well jump on my brakes, radar cc or not, just reflex, I wouldn't expect the radar cc to keep me safe!

I've used the hell out of mine and it has never given me reason to worry. You can even turn on the 'proximity sensor' side of the equation, so that the display will throw a triangle symbol when you get 'too close' (based on your setting) to the car in front, but without taking any action. Try that till you are comfortable enough to trust it a bit with the brakes and throttle.

I find that it reacts early enough that it isn't an issue. Were it NOT to intervene, I'm alert enough to slam on the brakes if the situation demanded. It is a simple and elegant way to swim faster than the other fishes without having to constantly reset your cc speed when traffic moves in and out of your way.

When it comes down to it, we trust our lives with hundreds of systems in our cars every time we drive. This is a fairly simple and reliable one, basic and well tested software and a sensor or two. I figure the odds are that statistically it is more likely to avoid scenarios where drivers space out and rear end someone than it malfunctioning or turning rogue and accelerating into the car in front of you.

But point taken, human oversight and intervention need to be in play no matter what.

Skeeter

 

Thanks for the well wishes.

Well, *my* biggest issue with the Adaptive CC is the "gap" that you select. Even with the shortest gap selected, the car ahead of me was at least 8 car lengths away. I tested it with the largest gap (3 of the ">" symbols) and geeze...the car was constantly slowing down. It seemed like you had to be half a mile behind something before it would speed up to the selected speed. The Interstates are not that sparsely driven these days, even at 2 in the morning (well, maybe some places).

So the operation of the ACC will take some getting used to. I found myself canceling the ACC when I started approaching cars in front of me and taking over acceleration and braking myself. The gap was causing the car to break long before I would brake myself so it just wasn't working for me. And I am not someone that drives up to someone's rear end before I change lanes, or one of these a$$holes that continue at 85 MPH until they get within 4 or 5 feet from you and then swerve over at the last second just missing the back corner of your car. I've never understood why someone does that.

Anywho, just something for me to adjust to given my driving style.

 

Well done - great ride! wrt ACC, you may want to have the dealer check it out, there may be a software update*. ACC works very (perfectly, as far as I'm concerned) on mine - with the preference set for distance >>>, it rolls-off and rolls-on power pretty crisply when the target vehicle is there or out of the way.

* I drove from Denver to Atlanta last month, moving (home) to Atlanta for a new role and had an ACC error on the trip. The dealer did a s/w update that fixed it. BTW, if you're up for showing the car some time, I'll buy you a beer.

 

I will check out the software update with the dealer.

I live in the Stone Mountain area and work near Suwannee. Where 'bouts are you in the ATL?

 

I'm in Sandy Springs (Abernathy and 400, just north of 285) ...close enough - and always up for a drive, and a beer, and good look at a great car. I'll PM you my email.

Again, great upgrade to the '10 XKR - really well done. I'm still surprised there aren't more of these driving around. I probably reduced the XKR population in Colorado by 20% with my exit. And I think you'll like ACC when it's dialed-in.