I only drive my 4.2 XKR in Sport mode and paddle shift. Its made for it and involves the driver somewhat more. 80k miles on the car, its had a couple trans fluid changes, no issues.

 

Now that's funny. My Lincoln has a Sport mode. It makes the throttle response almost to where I can get past the minivan in 5 seconds instead of 6.

 

How does Maserati and Aston get the paddles right, but Jaguar (and other like Mercedes, etc) does not?

 

At 2x the price, they better!!

 

They are not beholden to any demographic, if anything they enjoy being a clean slate with no specific design language and can be as bold as they desire.
Jaguar adhered to the grace, space, pace mantra on the XK.
The overwhelming majority of the 2007-2012 XK buyer were luxury buyers, execs, housewives, retirees.
The enthusiasts market only bought used- they are not Jaguar's customers!

For the typical luxury driver- the sport mode is well designed as on low throttle they get some excitement.

 

Come to think of it; owing a true sports car in a world where 80% of the cars are pickup trucks, SUVs, minivans, Prius, uber drivers, and delivery trucks, and the speed limited is 45; is as delusional as wearing a tuxedo to a ball game.
Its also somewhat super arrogant, everyone is dressed in casual/ utility and you want to dress to the nine's and then some for the same occasion.

The old British roadsters had it right, one actually felt sporty in normal traffic.

 

I don't see how the price makes a difference in the transmission tuning with the same manufacturer's hardware. If anything, Jaguar has more resources for development than Aston Martin.

A Ghibli is no better than a XF or at least a direct competitor IMO. Ghibli just depreciates quicker, lol...

GranTurismo was dead on competitor to the XK/XKR... One of the first take away's I had from driving a Ghibli (beyond the well stitched cheap quality materials inside) was "wow, this paddle shifts like a sports car!" GranTurismo didn't do anything for me. XKR is more exciting to drive.

 

I was just trying to be funny.
I think Q&C hit the nail on the head

 

For the last two months I've been on a quest to find my next awesome car. I was about to buy a GranTurismo in Florida, but I slept on it and changed my mind at the last second. I had even purchased the plane ticket to go pick it up. The seller decided the day before I was going to pick it up that he would only accept cash, and I wasn't about to get on a plane and be picked up at an airport by a complete stranger with $33,000 in cash on me.

Anyway... I'm going to pick up my XKR tomorrow. I'm happy to read that you think the XKR is more exciting to drive.

 

I am curious about you guys that change your transmission oil. I've been told by two dealers NOT to change it for at least 100,000 miles. I have a 2011 XKR with 76,000 miles and it pains me not to change it but I don't want to do it if it is a waste of money and time. It's very expensive to change it on my car but if it was the proper thing to do I would do it.

 

The consensus in here seems to be to change the fluid at about 60,000 miles. Sooner if it has been abused.
I changed mine at about 64,000. I didn't really notice any difference drive-wise, but the outgoing fluid was pretty nasty.

 

It isn't the miles but the wear.

Unfortunately this means we can't just give you an answer.

My car isn't the same gearbox as yours, however right as I got near 60K miles I had an audible symptom when I front from DS to D after crossing railroad tracks, went away with new transmission fluid.

This is my first car with an automatic so I do not know as much.

I would imagine heat cycles have something to do with breakdown.

 

Less shifts in sport as as only the first 4 gears are likely to be used instead of all six.

The ability to skip gears of the 5.0L cars might result in a somewhat different dynamic, but I lack the experience to say.

 

Change it, you'll be glad you did and you'll notice a difference. The pan/filter/fluid is around $550 done at an indy. Done on two Jags.

 

I bought my own stuff, pan/sleeve/12 quarts of fluid for $141 off Amazon and my European Specialty Indie did the labor for another $200.

 

Great price for both!

 

That's one part of the equation- the other is that it downshifts and uses engine brake, through every gear. There is no coasting at slightly above idle as in drive mode.
Thats how it feels unnaturally sporty even when no throttle is applied. Just like the loudness button on a boombox. The objective is to give the perception of loudness when there is none.

 

I went for a drive in sport, putting it there both on the way to get groceries and the way back.

It seemed to calm down the programming on the way back after picking up produce.

Perhaps if I always drove in sport I'd end up with a program very similar to the default for drive.

 

I drive in sport on the back roads, sometimes with the paddle shifters which I find to be quite responsive. I shift to drive on the interstate, and use the paddles when I want to downshift faster than a kick down. I've done a downshift paddle shift in either mode. at 6 - 5- 4 over 60MPH on occasion. The response is a word = FANTASTIC!!!