Ping Steve Firth

But the VXR ones are still pricey, and the non-VXR ones look absolutely s**te.

Yebbut remember that in Monaro vs 300C vs S-type R, there was only one winner.

Good point.

I've done a quick run-down of running costs. It's not pretty.

They look like this, for an '03-ish car, financed over 3 years.

Loan repayments £250 VED £ 25 Insurance £ 40 Servicing £ 50 Tyres £ 50 Brakes £ 10

=========================== Total/month £425

That leaves me with a slightly tight £50 / month contingency for 'issues'.

Brakes surprised me - discs and pads are really cheap. Tyres are shockingly expensive. Service budgets were taken from a Jag specialist's service menu - so could be trimmed a bit by using my local bloke.

However, it's better than being hit with a bill for around £150 / month by Gordon for running an A4 TDI.

Hmm, the tyres for the old Daimler I had did cost a bloody fortune, but they were from the damn silly metric era when both BMW and Jag decided to use 390 tyres which cost about 4x the price of imperial tyres. IIRC they were at least £240 a corner.

I see the S-type tyres are about £150 each, or they're that much at dealer prices, and they only last about 22,000 miles. Hmm, ouch. This review seems pretty decent and gives a run down on typical costs.

It's worth mooching through all the long term reviews there. It lists all the faults encountered with the S-type.

It does make the S-type look less sensible for a daily driver, but it's good to see the Ford influence got the servicing costs down to something reasonable. You really wouldn't want the £2000 or so a year it cost to service the XJR.

As far as tyres go, it might be possible to economise a bit, the original rears are Continental Sport Contacts 275/35/ZR18 which are £208 each, the fronts are 245/40/ZR18 at £172.

Bridgestones with the same ratings are around £110 a pop, as are Pirellis and Dunlops.

It's a damned difficult choice with tyres on a car like this, the last thing you want are Teflon Freds, but bizarrely there are "Nexen" tyres which are supposedly suitable for the S-type (some twunt on Blackcircles mentions using them on a W12 Phaeton!) and they cost only £100. But would you trust your life to them?

If you get 22,000 miles out of the tyres on an S-Type R - there is no point whatsoever in getting the Type-R. The way you'd have to drive it would mean you may as well have a diesel.

That's not *too* shocking, especially for an R - £1000 servicing in 30k miles, but a V6 is cheaper.

It's a bit marginal. I really, *really* want an S, but I have to be relatively sensible. It's a bit tight on my £475 / month allowance.

And a bit cheaper again if I avoid examples with 18" wheels. The 17s are a fair bit cheaper.

No chance. It would have to be a premium brand on a car like that.

Hmmmmm. It's a tough one - I can't see an X-Type being significantly cheaper to run, either - same engine, tyres are a bit cheaper, but there isn't much in it. Don't think it's significantly lighter, either - and the 4wd system probably means that, although tyres are cheaper, I'll end up spending more on them as all will need replacing at the same time.

It's tricky, as the car allowance seems a bit low compared with the cars on the list, IYSWIM.

Having said that, there's still the opportunity to claim back the tax relief on IR mileage rates - AFAIK, I can claim back the tax on the full

40p / 25p rates, as the company provides a fuel card rather than paying a mileage rate.

Yeah, I know that feeling and that "little" white lie...

But then I have been running to intercept the postman (bringing those nasty letters "You have been caught...") too often these last fews weeks :-(

Tom De Moor

Yup. The later models with the 6-speed auto use the ZF 6HP26 box. It's a fairly bulletproof unit, and is still used by Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW, Bentley, Maserati and Audi among others. It's certainly nothing that should scare you away.

The X-type 3.0 SE estates are particularly desirable and sensible. The load space is larger than the Volvo that you were thinking of, and it has the unique "secret compartment" with a charger socket for laptops which is a plus for a road warrior. The performance figures are supposed to be conservative at 0-60 in under 7s, and double the legal limit at the top end.

Tyres are really fecking expensive - 225/45 HR 17 at £185 each, and only one choice AFAICs, Michelin Alpines. I'm assuming Z's would also be OK in which case you can get the price down to £115 is all you want is fast road use, Goodyear F1s. Again there's the usual line up of Teflon "savers" as well. I don't know if they're any use to you, but Tyresave at Queensferry always seemed to offer decent prices for good off-road tyres, they may do decent prices for Jag tyres as well.

Again on the negative side, the X-type is screwed together by Scousers, not Brummies and there have been lots of quality whines, usually ones that sound like carelessness rather than bad luck. Seats not properly bolted down, for example.