We understandably see many threads with questions and comments about problems but I thought I would add one with a positive slant.

Phoenix to Las Vegas and back with stops for a small rum distillery in Kingman AZ, a tour of Hoover Dam and a visit to see London Bridge.

750 miles round trip. Averaged: 25.1mpg, 51mph (includes the city driving Las Vegas).

Nothing to report beyond a grand tour through varied terrain with the occasonal sprint to 100+.

It was a pleasant reminder of why I love the car, supple ride on the motorway, confident handling on the B roads and effortless torque for overtaking.

Happy motoring.

 

Thats great to hear. A few weeks ago I had a chance to put mine on the road and did about 800 round trip with no issues.....and it was some very spirited driving! My car has been virtually trouble free. I have been taking preventative measures and my car has been returning the love. May you have many many more trouble free miles!

 

Happy New Year to all. Last fall, my wife had a meeting in San Francisco and I was going to an Audi Track event at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, so we drove up and back in 48 hours in the XKR, about 850 mile round trip at speeds that were, shall we say, above the legal limit. We make this trip every Thanksgiving to my sister and brother-in-laws' house in Berkeley but with the whole family piled into the Enclave. It was so much more enjoyable in the Jag. And no problems We have the timing down to a science after doing this for nearly 30 years. We drive 2 hours and 27 minutes (give or take 3-5 minutes), arrive at Harris Ranch Inn for breakfast in their beautiful dining room. We eat for an hour, get on the road, and 2 hours and 27 minutes later (give or take another 3-5 minutes), and we're in Berzerkley, under 5 hours of driving for about 410 miles, with a great breakfast in between in each direction. I go down to San Diego several times a year from Los Angeles to play golf and visit our restaurant on Coronado Island. The XKR seems to thrive on the open road, begging to be opened up a bit more than its daily routine.

 

Do love to hear more about cars that are running well. It is easy to get the impression everyone's is broken from reading the forum and I know that is simply not true.

Did a round trip run to the Houston area for Thanksgiving. Put on about 600 miles and not a hiccup at any time. Not much construction (a rarity on that trip) so averaged about 55mph, including in city driving. I think I averaged 26mpg on gas.

Wife unaware of our highway speed until she pulled out the GPS for no apparent reason and it told her the truth. Stupid tattle-tale machines.

 

And by the way, I find that I get close to 28 mpg on a highway tank of gas. Truly amazing!

 

Back in October we made a 400 mile round trip here in Nebraska with no problems. Did it on one tank of gas too.

 

Sounds as if you had a great trip. It must be wonderful to be able to drive to Las Vegas for a few days over Christmas!

 

There is no way I can touch that at straight up 85mph cruise. More like 19 mpg(us).

Are you running on the original O2 sensors?

 

Right after Thanksgiving, wife and I took our '97 coupe on a house hunting trip from Fairfax, Va. to SE. Fla. 2900 miles in nine days. A lot of time on "95" running around 80 to keep up with the traffic. No problems. Now have 46K on the clock

 

My wife does six or seven solo round trips to and from Tampa each year to visit her elderly parents. That's 1,400 to 1,500 miles per trip depending upon how much driving around she does while down there. We purchased our S-Type in December 2008 for this purpose, and she's done it with her XK8 ever since she obtained it in early February. No issues thus far on any of her trips, but I go over the car with a fine-tooth comb prior to every trip and again upon return....

 

I will jump in too... We drove from Saint Augustine to Sarasota and back yesterday and today...total miles clocked was 568. Car ran beautifully! What a dream. It rained most of the trip out, at times very heavy (have to LOVE those rain sensing wipers!). I almost did not take the Jaguar because of the rain, but it was a nice sunny ride home going through Ocala rather than Orlando, such a pretty, rural ride. We do this trip often and never had any issues at all with the car, but this trip just seemed extra enjoyable, maybe because my confidence in the reliability of the car continues to build. Last spring we did the trip in my wife's new Sonata, not nearly as enjoyable, and frankly, I was exhausted after driving her car that far, but not the Jag, it just is easy, smooth, powerful, confident, pretty, and people always comment. A neighbor of our friend came out and asked who delivered her car? She is retired, and said these are the most beautiful cars ever made and she always wanted one. BTW, I still am running ethanol free fuel, and averaged 26.8 mpg in sport mode the whole time, and I maintained speed with traffic which often was moving at 80 and 85.

 

I've done two cross-country drives in the XK8 with nary a problem. One was WDC-Las Vegas-LA-Las Vegas-WDC with detours through the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Monument Valley, Continental Divide (Rio Grande headwaters). The other was WDC-Tucson-WDC with a top-down drive up the Lemmon.

I love my Jag.

 

You guys in the States have more opportunity for long trips than we have, but I did manage a 500 mile round trip to visit my Son in Wales the week before Christmas. The XK8 didn't miss a beat. The trip down on the Friday evening was in the dark in heavy rain and very heavy traffic around Birmingham. Managed just over 30 mpg on the trip.

 

How are you guys managing such high mpgs in the XKR? I manage about 14-16 mpgs in my car at highway driving like what you describe.

 

Supercharging doesn't make much differerence to highway mpg but the 6spd transmission helps.

I think renaultvation is the winner of the best economy award, 30mpg is impressive for any model, supercharged or not.

 

As mentioned earlier, one of the realities with forums is that you get to feeling that all the cars are broken or have problems. A thread like this is refreshing to read...

My 2000 XK8 is a daily driver and regularly makes 200+ mile trips without a thought. More telling though, it makes many, many 10 to 20 mile stop and go trips in all weather, hot and cold, wet and dry without problems.

I really think that as second cars for the most part, many examples of XK's suffer from the cumulative effects of lack of regular use and indifferent maintenance.

 

It should be a forum rule that every road trip thread MUST include cool pictures of the car in nifty and exciting places, preferably with a scantily clad woman posing alluringly next to the car in the photos.

The scantily clad woman is just for bonus points, but the car pictures should be a RULE!

Time to send a message to Jim, I guess.

 

There's even a thread for that!

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...r-today-77347/

 

I'm through page four and I have not yet seen a scantily clad woman.

 

Sadly not so many XK8/Rs either.