Considering X351 XJ as a family car

[James-8rtnx]

Hey there,

I'm expecting our first child to arrive in the next few weeks and we're short of a family car. I'm not an SUV fan and I expect the majority of the miles I'm going to do in this will be on motorways, ferrying the family between grandparents and visiting friends.

I'd really like a super comfy, easy to drive vehicle to do this with. I'm picking up something sporty to scratch the performance itch and my wife wants to get a small Polo-sized car to get into town and back, so the obvious choice for me seems to be some sort of luxury saloon. Rather than the 7 series/S class I reckon an XJ would do the job. I can pick up a 2011 Portfolio with the SC diesel for about £10k, and have an awesome stereo, massaging seats and reasonable fuel economy. For a couple of grand more I could get into a facelift model. I think I'd be better off with the SWB version, but I'm open to opinion.

The main question is, of course, is this a good idea? I'm expecting to be putting about 5k miles a year away in it. Everyone tells me that babies need ALL THE SPACE so I've got to get an estate, or a people carrier etc, but I was hoping someone with more experience than me could tell me that the XJ is going to do what I need it to. Or not.

[P700DEE]

Can't comment on it's child carrying capabilities and they are super cars, but where do you live? I was thinking about one but 2011 are Euro 5 not Euro 6 so mega expensive if you need to travel into a city that congestion charges. Jaguar were slow to bring in Euro 6 vs BMW. If you are only doing 5k a year then go for either the 3.0 Supercharged or 5.0 V8 .

[James-8rtnx]

P700DEE said:

Can't comment on it's child carrying capabilities and they are super cars, but where do you live? I was thinking about one but 2011 are Euro 5 not Euro 6 so mega expensive if you need to travel into a city that congestion charges. Jaguar were slow to bring in Euro 6 vs BMW. If you are only doing 5k a year then go for either the 3.0 Supercharged or 5.0 V8 .

Interesting point - I actually live in the frozen wasteland of the North of England and don't plan any trips into congestion zones; I cycle or get the bus to work in my nearest city anyway. I had a quick look on the TFL website and a 2010 3.0d would cost £15 a day in congestion charge and no cost for ULEZ at the moment, but the 2011-2015 would be £15 in congestion and another £12.50 in ULEZ. The 2016+ appear to have no ULEZ charge applied, so possibly a great reason to buy an early one! Doesn't make much difference to me though, in an idea world I'd try and pick up a 2013 as it would have the facelift and I believe a slightly more responsive head unit etc, but as always it's going to come down to cost.

[OGR4M]

I have a 2011 - only 1 youngun but enough experience (3 years/60k) to give my 2 cents:

Seats don’t fold, no tow bar or roof rack options - annoying for me as I’d like to chuck my bike on it

SWB rear legroom is fine, but nothing more - my 5’9” dad doesn’t have much room behind 6’1” me.

Definitely opt for a post 2013 car - a read through the Wikipedia page shows there was a suspension rethink that year - my early model is quite ‘fidgety’ on 19s, 20s would be worse. 8 speed box from that year onwards will also definitely improve the waftyness to it.

Pre 2013 cars get a god-awful infotainment screen - but one can be retrofitted, I have a 2014 screen in mine.

If you’re doing low miles, anything under 8-9k, then you should be looking into the oil dilution issue - it’s caused quite a few 3.0D kabooms due to incomplete DPF regen cycles

All that said, I love my poverty-spec one, much less common than an XF, and even more so the German equivalents. I say go for it, they’re dirt cheap now. I’ll even give you a good price for mine

[Tentacle]

OGR4M said:

I have a 2011 - only 1 youngun but enough experience (3 years/60k) to give my 2 cents:
If you’re doing low miles, anything under 8-9k, then you should be looking into the oil dilution issue - it’s caused quite a few 3.0D kabooms due to incomplete DPF regen cycles

Thanks for the feedback, that's really helpful! I've not heard of the oil dilution before - I'll go and look into it now. I'm hoping it doesn't totally put me off because there's a 2013 come up for sale that I like the look of!

[Tentacle]

So from what I've read, the DPF/oil dilution issue seems to affect 2016 cars onwards? I'll keep looking into it, but if anyone has any further information on it that would be lovely.

[fatboy b]

Tentacle said:

So from what I've read, the DPF/oil dilution issue seems to affect 2016 cars onwards? I'll keep looking into it, but if anyone has any further information on it that would be lovely.

5k a year will see any modern diesel have dpf issues. Get a petrol.

[V88Dicky]

fatboy b said:

Tentacle said:

So from what I've read, the DPF/oil dilution issue seems to affect 2016 cars onwards? I'll keep looking into it, but if anyone has any further information on it that would be lovely.

5k a year will see any modern diesel have dpf issues. Get a petrol.

This ^^^^

[Tentacle]

Thanks all, that’s really helpful. I’ve not heard of these issues before, it would never have occurred to me that getting a diesel would be an issue with limited mileage. I may have to reconsider the XJ as the only petrol is the 5.0 v8 and after selling my c63 I’m desperate to finally own a car that doesn’t have perceptible movement on the fuel gauge!

[Trevor555]

Tentacle said:

Thanks all, that’s really helpful. I’ve not heard of these issues before, it would never have occurred to me that getting a diesel would be an issue with limited mileage. I may have to reconsider the XJ as the only petrol is the 5.0 v8 and after selling my c63 I’m desperate to finally own a car that doesn’t have perceptible movement on the fuel gauge!

They do a 3.0 V6 petrol in the XJ of that era (2013), not many about though.

[fatboy b]

Tentacle said:

Thanks all, that’s really helpful. I’ve not heard of these issues before, it would never have occurred to me that getting a diesel would be an issue with limited mileage. I may have to reconsider the XJ as the only petrol is the 5.0 v8 and after selling my c63 I’m desperate to finally own a car that doesn’t have perceptible movement on the fuel gauge!

So you’re a tight-arse too then?

[V88Dicky]

Running a 25mpg petrol car for 5000 miles will cost around £970 at current fuel prices.

Running a 35mpg diesel for the same mileage will cost around £740.

One diesel related problem crops up and that massive 230 quid saving is out the window

[Tentacle]

fatboy b said:

So you’re a tight-arse too then?

Lol, yes I am!! I just felt that with my other car being a V10 it might be sensible to get something...sensible? But I'm starting to come around to the idea of just buying the V8 instead and having done with it because part of the idea of having a diesel was increased reliability, and if that's not the case then there's much less reason to pursue that route.

V88Dicky said:

Running a 25mpg petrol car for 5000 miles will cost around £970 at current fuel prices.

Running a 35mpg diesel for the same mileage will cost around £740.

One diesel related problem crops up and that massive 230 quid saving is out the window hehe

I actually totally subscribe to this type of maths, but looking a bit closer, the V8 is about 25mpg (circa £1000 of fuel) as you say, but the diesel is more like 45mpg (circa £600) - then the road tax is another £300 for the petrol, then the insurance is more expensive... I'm seeing people suggesting just doing an oil change more frequently which I guess could work? I don't know though, I'm starting to think I should just get a 3 series estate like everyone else!

[OGR4M]

V88Dicky said:

Running a 25mpg petrol car for 5000 miles will cost around £970 at current fuel prices.

Running a 35mpg diesel for the same mileage will cost around £740.

One diesel related problem crops up and that massive 230 quid saving is out the window

To add experience to this, my lifetime average for 60k miles is 40mpg, my commute is A-roads and dual carriageways, ~60 miles per day and I usually drive Miss Daisy - cruise set at 65mph.

35mpg is actually quite hard to achieve on low miles, stop/start traffic etc.

The tax band on the 5.0 is also hefty - it’s the top whack for most years, but I can’t remember if any fall into a standardised band for their year etc.

But as Dicky says, diesels are prone to more costly issues than the petrols. Even maintenance, I’ve just had the cambelt done on mine, which is a ~£600 bill that isn’t needed on petrols due to their chain

[SM1]

Helpful discussion as I'm looking into a high spec XJL as a family "Sunday special" car. We have an i3 as the family daily (we're London based), and I'd probably keep my old Smax if possible for taking stuff to the dump, bicycle moving duties, camping trips with loads of kit etc. Tax and insurance on that is quite cheap and it's worth nearly nothing.

I was also looking at petrol due to the low planned miles. However, I will only be doing long, somewhat infrequent trips in the car (e.g. 1 trip of a minimum of 120 - 150 miles each way per month, with 3 - 4 trips per year of 500 - 1000 miles each) so I would have thought that the diesel would be OK with that usage (given its lots of short trips that aren't good for them).

I think the rear legroom is quite poor in the standard car, hence the decision to go for a long wheelbase car if I do get one.

What sort of mpg could I expect from the 5.0 supersport at a constant 65 - 75mph sort of average? The blended rate won't reflect my usage pattern as I won't be used in town at all.

I saw that Henry M, on his YouTube channel got about 35mpg in his 575 on a run, which I thought was good.

Edited by SM1 on Thursday 20th August 18:30

[ruhall]

There's a lot of, shall we say, perhaps less-well-informed theories spouted on PH. The reality is that, yes, diesels can have issues with DPF etc., however, it is the use to which the vehicle is put that is the most important issue, not simply 'oh, that mileage pa is no good for diesel'. As with most things, it isn't that simple. Also, the technology has improved significantly from the first attempts with manufacturers generally having also improved the regeneration parameters. That isn't to say that they're perfect, though.

Modern petrol engines are also becoming far more complex and most, if not all, now have particulate filters as well and the longer term implications of those aren't known yet.

The Jaguar 5.0 V8 isn't free of faults either, with timing chain tensioner problems cropping up yet again (in both Jaguar and Land Rover products). The issue was supposedly fixed but I haven't yet seen a definitive date or engine number but c2015 rings a bell - happy to be corrected.

I have / have had various of each (petrol/diesel) and the torque delivery of a big diesel on a long journey can make for good overall performance with reasonable economy. The difference in fuel use is noticeable on a 500 mile journey if one car achieves 40mpg and the other 15mpg, apart from the time taken for refuelling.

The best course of action is to determine use of the vehicle and then decide most suitable engine. IMHO, of course