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Contents
1. Buying a New (Used) Car to Suit - Part 1
2. Buying and Running a New (Used) Car to Suit - Part 2
3. Sales Details relating to Jaguar S-type W479 LDN

On 1st July 2007 we purchased an S-type. (It’s an X200, not a “proper” S-type, so don’t get too excited!) Oh! I probably shouldn’t say that, but I think that Jaguar should have better provided it with some form of prefix or suffix, to differentiate it from its predecessor!

Nigel Thorley then asked me if I would like to contribute a piece for the magazine detailing why we purchased it, how we got it and our initial findings. This I was pleased to do as I have been trying to learn as much as possible about Jaguars with a view to putting my knowledge to good use before I become too shrivelled! As I am hopeless at sticking to formal educational courses (and I don’t think anyone offers a degree in “Jaguar” anyway) I have studied privately in my own time and used this “report” on our S-type as an exam piece, to put my learning to the test! I still have an awfully long way to go, but if anyone would care to comment, disagree, enlighten me or otherwise broaden my knowledge of Jaguars, I would be very pleased to hear from you, and my contact details are on the "Contacts" page. I hope that any future work which I submit to the magazine will be regarded similarly.

“LDN” is our 8th Jaguar, but she is our first venture away from the XJ! My husband is unfortunately disabled and in common with others, it would seem, finds entry to and exit from XJ’s very difficult due to the large sill at the base of the door. These large sills were originally designed to stiffen the floorpan of the XJ40, by interlocking with the doors and providing torsional strength. The same floorpan is used for the X300 and X308 where entry and exit becomes even more difficult due to the bulkier door trim which effectively reduces the door aperture still further!

Fitting longer seat runners was an option we had considered (like Mr Lea-Jackson) but we felt that the depth of the door frame itself was the problem, in my husbands case, rather than how far back the seat would go. Besides which, my husband never keeps a car long enough to justify the outlay!

We also considered an XJS since the doors are enormously wide, but the seats are lower, in fact, the whole car itself sits lower to the ground and my husband (and father) had both struggled enough with our X300 XJ Sport, so an XJS was definitely out of the question!

The S-type was the first present-day Jaguar to be produced without those huge bulky sills. It makes entry and exit, to and from the car, so much easier for people like my husband and yet personally, being very short, I find that I catch my lower legs on the outer edge of the sill every time I get in or out – so I prefer the XJ’s sills!

This proves that you cannot possibly please all of the customers all of the time, and since every car ever made has faults of some kind, you must choose the one with the faults you can most easily live with, which is why I get annoyed when people criticize Jaguars, because if there was a perfect car which suited everyone – we would all be driving it and every other car manufacturer would have gone out of business!

The new style lower sills were also the reason, I understand, for many of the early cars suffering from water ingress caused by surface water being sprayed up under the door. Water also entered from the top of the door due to lack of gutters above the doors. These usually catch the wind, as well as the water, so the S-type may be wetter, but it should be quieter! Another no-win situation! However, I understand that the water ingress on the early cars has since been cured by the option of fitting the later up-graded door and boot seals, which is something I would like to investigate further.

The later XJ (the aluminium bodied X350/X358) now has the same door profile as the S-type, so if your pocket allows, you can still enjoy all the benefits of an XJ and have bigger doors too! For us, this was not an option – we will have to wait until X350 prices drop a little more! In fact, the S-type has only just fallen into our price range, so guided by this our target model was an early 3 litre V6.

With an S-type in mind, my husband scanned the pages of the Auto Trader for some time, and eventually came across a 1989 TWR 3.6 XJR – Yes, he’d finally lost the plot!

It seemed unfortunate at the time that it had been put there to tease us, a car we would very much have liked, but we needed an S-type for practical reasons and it was impossible for us to consider a second car for occasional use! I tried very hard to put the XJR out of my mind, but it wouldn’t go and after a week I made enquiries as to its authenticity, which is quite another story! Suffice to say that it turned out that the XJR had a companion who was also for sale – so if it wasn’t for the XJR, we would not have found our S-type!

On arriving to view the S-type, the owner opened the garage door and we went straight over to the XJR and began to study it. The owners face was a picture, and I don’t think he ever quite recovered from this or the fact that we had an XJ8 called “Frosty”!

We paid scant attention to the S-type, which along with the XJR was very clean and gave the appearance of having been well cared for. There were no obvious defects and the paperwork was fairly complete. Personally, I think you need at least 2 full days of hard driving to thoroughly evaluate a particular car – well, I do anyway! Does it do what it should under all conditions? Does everything work as it should? To add to this, I only pick out all its faults when I thoroughly clean it inside and out! By then it is too late, as I have already purchased it! A cursory inspection and short test drive is of very little value – a written warranty and good after-sales service from a reliable dealer is of much more value, because it takes time for problems to manifest themselves and they need to be properly addressed if you are going to enjoy your Jaguar as you should!

“W479LDN” is a 3.0 V6 S-type SE Sport in Titanium with Pewter Sports hide trim and was despatched on 7th February 2000 to Minster Jaguar, Leeds and first registered as L222ONG on 1st March 2000 to Mr Stephen Long of J Long & Sons Haulage, Leeds.

I have yet to learn the finer points of S-type specification details, but according to her documentation, her standard fittings are: Automatic transmission, Audio type R (what?), Sports seats, Traction control, Touring suspension, 16 x 7.5 Dynamic 5 spoke alloys, Front fogs, Glass electric sunroof, Sat nav pre-wire and Cruise control.

Optional extras are listed as: Premium sound, Full size spare, Heated front windscreen, CD autochanger, Electric rear sunblind and Carpet footwell mats. I can vouch for all of these being present and in good working order and in addition she has driver/passenger airbags, plus side impact cushions, sports mode, memory drivers seat, powered steering column adjustment, and is presumably pre-wired for a phone (or would that be “Audio type R”?)

She came with an S-type wallet, containing a comprehensive set of documents, including all past MOT’s, and 2 sets of keys with remotes, all in very good condition. Her first owner had been very fastidious and not only did she have an impeccable service record while in his ownership, but he also had her treated with “Supagard” to protect her paintwork and interior: fitted her with a Jaguar Tracker and had her windows etched. He had also purchased an extended warranty so that she wanted for nothing, and if the second owner had been a bit more diligent with servicing this would still have been in force!

Unfortunately, the second owner, who had her re-registered as N2 BLP, had made the common error of taking the 10,000 mile servicing intervals literally, so although she hasn’t yet missed a service according to her mileage, she has missed 2 yearly services due to covering a very low annual mileage over the last 3 years. Her mileage on purchase was 82,130 miles, with documentation to back it up. She has also acquired a mesh grille along the way, which I think looks very fetching!

S-types of similar description in the Auto Trader had ranged from £5000 to £7000, so at £6500, she was at the higher end of the price range, BUT other dealers had offered us a much lower trade-in price for our XJ8, so in reality, this one was actually cheaper than some of the lower priced examples!

We have now owned “LDN” for 2 weeks and in that time made a number of observations and discoveries about S-types in general and this one in particular. I find it much easier to make comparisons and study a particular model when I actually have one myself, so I have learnt much more about S-types in the last fortnight than I had in the last 4 years! So far, we have both been very impressed with this car. As predicted, my husband finds it much easier to enter and exit and he also finds the seats a more comfortable design than the XJ of the same year, or earlier, so the change has been successful from that point of view. Since all used cars have flaws of some kind, we were not expecting perfection, and hopefully, the flaws we have found to date, will be the only ones and I will report on these in due course. I was a little dubious about buying an early S-type, having heard all the horror stories, so I hope LDN will be relatively trouble free. She has at least had a good start in life, which should stand her in good stead, so hopefully, future reports by me on our S-type will be favourable!

Before I set about writing my first impressions of our newly acquired S-type, I decided to look back over some of the notes I had written about S-types which I had been given the opportunity of driving, and I felt that some of it was relevant and quite amusing!

April 2005 was the first time I ever drove an S-type. They were never one of my favourite Jaguars and I had paid very little attention to them. My comments at the time were “The most noticeable things about an S-type are the lack of sills on the doors, which probably accounts for their reputation for leaking, as there is nothing, save a door rubber, to stop water from being blasted straight into the footwell. This is probably also why they are so popular with older men, as high door sills seem to prevent older men from entering and exiting Jaguars with ease! The second most noticeable thing is the height of the waistline, which means that small drivers like myself would be stumped if the seat electrics failed! If you can forget that you are driving a modern S-type you might actually find that you enjoy driving it almost as much as you would an XJ!”

A month later, I drove a manual, and had this to say “More interesting to drive than an automatic S-type! Nice car, enjoyable drive. The one thing I hate about S-types’, is that I ALWAYS catch me ankle on the “sill” as I exit the car, however much I try not to!”

I then drove a 2.7 Diesel for the first time and noted that “For the first 5 minutes it is sluggish, then the engine warms up and it goes very well. It feels and drives just like an X350 and has almost identical interior specification, but psychologically I knew that I was still driving an S-type!”

Another month and I was given a second opportunity to drive a new 2.7 Diesel. Am I beginning to weaken, I wonder? “I noticed this time how much quicker than an XJ40 this car is, once warm. It is also very light to steer, and seems odd to me because the steering is so completely different to an XJ40. An S-type is very easy to drive, but I still don’t want one!”

Stubbornly attached to my XJ40’s as I was, I finally succumbed to the charms of the S type R at a Ride and Drive event in 2006, and if money was no object…………….but unfortunately it is, so for the time being here are my views on our 3 litre petrol SE auto, plus a comparison with our last XJ – a 3.2 X308 Executive.

Please remember this is only my opinion of one particular example of the S-type, compared to one example of a 3.2 XJ8, and even with my limited experience of driving different Jaguars, I know how much they can vary – no two Jaguars of the same specification seem to be the same after a few years and a few owners! If performance and handling are poor, how much is down to poor maintenance through the years, rather than poor design? New Jaguars, it would be assumed, should perform to their optimum ability, and therefore assessing them fairly is much easier. I would be very interested to hear other people’s opinions and comparisons.

Driving – First Impressions
These were my thoughts, after 6 weeks of ownership. I was the first to get behind the wheel on the day we purchased her, and re-tracing my steps down the same motorway that I had just driven to Plymouth on in our XJ8, it was immediately obvious that this S-type was a match for the equivalent 3.2 XJ8. Performance and ride were both very pleasing, and in common with the XJ8, wind and road noise were negligible!

Steering feels slightly heavier than an XJ8’s, but this is not to its detriment at high speed, and is compensated for at parking speeds by its shorter length and smaller turning circle, which allow it to be more easily manoeuvred in limited spaces. Handling is also significantly different to the XJ. At high speed the engine is as quiet as the AJ-V8. Pulling away at lower speeds, however, it does have quite a pleasing growl, and when in kickdown, the growl becomes much higher pitched than that of the straight sixes or V8 as it thrusts itself forward!

Gear changes from the automatic transmission are almost imperceptible. It is pleasant and relaxing to drive in Normal mode, and in Sports mode it becomes much more responsive and encourages very assertive driving! The actual gearlever itself can sometimes be reluctant to engage (when cold); lurches past reverse; and does not have a positive “Neutral-to-Drive” feel when re-engaging at traffic lights etc. This I find out of character with any Jaguar I have driven, but have been told that it is an early S-type failing. Perhaps some-one would like to comment on this?

I think there is a bigger difference between the handling characteristics of a 2000 MY S-type and a 2000 MY X308 than there is between a 2006 MY S-type and a 2006 MY X350. The X308 evolved from the XJ40 and still possessed some of its charming handling qualities. The S-type and the X350 were both entirely new and being created during the same era they share many of the same engineering concepts. I think that drivers of other modern luxury cars find it easier to adapt to an S-type than a pre-X350 XJ.

Other Initial Observations
After familiarizing myself with the XJ8 instrument panel, I found the S type’s more akin to that of the X300 Sport – a similar layout, and both lack veneer! But where are the gauges for charging rate and oil pressure? Both went missing in the XJ8, and neither returned to the S-type! Have the designers at Jaguar decided that we are all too busy keeping an eye out for cameras to check anything more than the speedometer on our instrument panel?

True, there is a lot of plastic, and Jaguar may have made a mistake by not providing us with enough wood veneer, but that which is present is very pleasing, and the important bits which actually require interaction, are tactile, inviting and have a feeling of quality. The all important J-gate and familiar Jaguar wood and leather steering wheel help me to feel thoroughly at home!

I think the lighting switches are ridiculously over-complicated, and by the time I’ve worked out how the fog lamps come on, the fog will probably have cleared! What was wrong with the XJ’s simple light switches?

Although I had no complaints about the steering column mounted stalks on the XJ, those on the S-type are better positioned and shaped, making them even more user friendly. The cruise control is more logically laid out, being operated entirely from the steering wheel.

As has been commented on with the X350, I find the S-type also has a pronounced blind spot caused by the wide A-posts and the positioning of the wing mirrors and probably also the fact that the windscreen is more gently raked than the XJ8 of the same year, which alters the angle of the A-posts. The XJ had more glass overall and lower doors/bootlid, giving better all-round visibility. I do find there is less glare in the S-type, possibly due to the angle of the windscreen, fascia and bonnet.

The sports seats feel very good in this car, and yet, at the Ride and Drive event where I tested a new S-type with sports seats and one with classic seats, I found that I preferred the classic seats, making me wonder if the basic design has changed in the intervening years?

Fortunately LDN’s first owner had the good sense to have Jaguar mudflaps fitted all-round which has saved the paintwork from unnecessary damage, however, they are too stiff and do not give when you go over steep rumble strips (however slowly!) so the bottoms are scuffed and at £150 a set, including fitting, you cannot keep changing them!

One day, soon after purchase, I noticed that our S type was rather stuffy, so I decided to make full use of the individual air conditioning controls. Sometime later, while basking in the cooled air, my husband complained of a draught coming from my side of the car. I told him that if he kept his mouth shut there wouldn’t be a draught, but he continued to whine, until eventually I was forced to turn up my air conditioning to match his. This disproves the theory that it is the drivers controls which take precedence - it is, in fact, those which are under the jurisdiction of the occupant who is inclined to make the most fuss! I now find the individual controls most aggravating as I have to discreetly reach across and change those on the passenger side as well as my own and inevitably get my knuckles rapped!

The radio reception is poor at times, but I already knew about this, and apparently it is because Jaguar tried to do away with conventional ariels by putting the radio receptors into the glass in the rear window. They must have received enough customer complaints to persuade them to revert to a conventional ariel for the new XK and now people are grumbling and saying it is ugly – Really, there’s no pleasing some people !!! Why not just turn the radio off, kickdown, and listen to that gorgeous growl as your Jaguar takes off !!!

The CD magazine is stowed in the glove box, rather than the boot, as was the case in all our XJ’s. This has the advantage that passengers can change the CD’s during the journey instead of having to remember to do it before you set off .It also makes the boot a little bit bigger, which can be useful! The obvious disadvantage is that the space gained in the boot is at the expense of that in the glove box! You can also hear the mechanism clunking around as it changes the CD, which you were oblivious to when it was stowed away in the boot! The centre console cubby box is also smaller, and the stowage trays in the doors are not so deep, but there are several new stowage areas, including one for a cup, one for coins, and one for audio tapes - but where do you store those extra CD’s?

The fuel filler flap, is in a more logical place in relation to the driver, so you don’t have to walk half way round the car to fill the tank, and if you did forget to close the flap you would be able to see it in the mirror! Being on the side of the car, it does not fill up with debris, like the XJ’s which need regular mucking out! I also like the fitment of the cap itself and the fact that it is attached and cannot be left behind. There is also a hook to keep it from banging against the bodywork when filling the tank.

Fuel consumption on purchase was recorded as 18.0 mpg! Having not re-set the trip computer, it has risen steadily and is currently reading 22.7 mpg on 15/8/07 – and is hopefully still rising!

After reading about all the Series 3 problems with build quality, which continued to an extent into the XJ40 and was finally overcome with Ford’s more stringent measures during production of the X300/308, it is nice to see that this was carried over to the new S-type production line! Everything appears to fit properly, and the overall finish is excellent. It is easy to take it for granted, but however good the concept, it would be nothing if it was badly made!

I like the colour of this S-type very much. I think it is very quiet, classy and sophisticated in Titanium (dark metallic grey) with Pewter hide interior and “Birds Eye Maple Mushroom” veneer.

The Things I Will Miss From My XJ’s
The electrochromatic function on the interior rear view mirror, which according to my notes, was standard (for MY2000 at least). This is one feature I know I will miss in the Winter when thoughtless drivers try to blind me with full beams!

I miss the chrome door locks on the XJ, which told me instantly if any doors had failed to lock. I do not like the S-type style door locks which are integrated into the interior door handles and I miss the central locking button on the centre console!

In fact, I miss the chrome! The X200 S-type falls into that period in automotive history when chrome was out of fashion – I see it has thankfully been re-instated on the XK and XF!

I miss the nice XJ8 clock, which was not only aesthetically pleasing, but also made a reassuring clunk at the end of each 60 second cycle AND you could read it even when the engine was switched off. I am very surprised that Jaguar reverted back to a digital clock. I do not find it aesthetically pleasing, it is in an inconvenient place and difficult to read when you are driving and trying to work out whether you are looking at the time or the wave length of the radio station!

In Conclusion
Each time I come out of the super market, I look across the carpark expecting to see an XJ! I catch sight of an S-type and then remember its ours! I then think that I prefer the lines of the XJ – I don’t get the same buss when my eyes fall upon the S-type! I think the S-type shape conveys an impression of power, rather than grace and that the XJ will always be my favourite! But close up, I forget her awkward lines – she responds immediately to her remote control fob and her electric memory drivers seat adjusts itself to allow easy entry. This has not always been the case with our previous XJ’s and it reminds me that she is a refined compact Jaguar - with enough optional extra’s to put her on a par with all but the most highly specified XJ’s and a service history which should ensure that she will continue to deliver a rewarding ownership experience!

Once inside, her slightly ungainly appearance is of no consequence, as I marvel at her smooth refined performance, and her responsive and agile handling. Her styling becomes irrelevant as she displays her true Jaguar characteristics!

My husband, on the other hand, prefers the S-type styling and says it has more in common with its original counterpart than an X350 has with a Series 1 XJ !!!

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