[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Cesc

. Do any of you have any experience or impressions of Jaguar XF from around 2011-12 vintage. Somehow I am fascinated by the brand and want to know how prudent it is to buy a pre-owned Jaguar as the first car in the states. 2011-12 XFs are all with the 5 litre V8 engine. Any servicing or reliability information will help as well.

When we moved to Kansas City within 48 hours I bought my 2003 XJR, 4.0L, V* supercharged from Ebay!

Couple of suggestions in random order:

Join one of the Jaguar owners clubs. Have a look on this site: http://www.jcna.com JCNA is like an umbrella organisation with many affiliated clubs in all the States. Lots of knowledge on their forum, and in the clubs.

I bought my XJR with approx 95K miles on it. I had it checked by a Jaguar dealer, cost around $100-150 or so. See if you can get hold of the dealer who has done the maintenance during the last couple of years.

Get a Carfax report on the history of your car too. Although not always 100% accurate it does give you a good impression and the one thing that is most likely 100% accurate is how many owners it had.

There is literally tonnes of information on what to look for in a used XF on your internet. Just google buying guide XF and you'll end with more links then you can throw a stick at:

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...-guide-feature

You might want to try and find yourself a dedicated buying guide for the XF.

Try and get a car with as much documentated history as you can find. On a car this young it should have been maintained by a original Jaguar dealers. If not, run a mile, because it was owned by a cheapskate!

All in all, I would think you should be able to find a very good Jaguar XF especially as you are looking for one only a few years old. These cars, by and large have proven to be very reliable.

Enjoy the hunt and lets us know what you get!

Jeroen

[Activ8]

Originally Posted by vasoo

Here is a photo of my rented car. Looks good, in my opinion.

Looks like the hood is permanently about-to-pop-open. I'm surprised you like it. The transmission is horrible, the engine sounds like a tractor and fit & finish leaves a lot to be desired. UConnect is pretty good though - probably the best telematics solution around.

Originally Posted by Cesc

Guys, I have my first concrete car query after spending lots of days browsing used car websites for deciding what car to buy after landing in the U.S. Do any of you have any experience or impressions of Jaguar XF from around 2011-12 vintage. Somehow I am fascinated by the brand and want to know how prudent it is to buy a pre-owned Jaguar as the first car in the states. 2011-12 XFs are all with the 5 litre V8 engine. I am looking at that vintage because I am looking to spend around 25k on a car and only XFs from that vintage are in that price range. Ideally I would have wanted a smaller and more efficient engine and better looking interiors but I can't get over the overall look and impression of the car. If anyone can share driving impressions of the car and benchmark that against the German trio then that would help me in evaluating it better. Any servicing or reliability information will help as well.

Jaguar XFs are pretty reliable - and Jag's been on top of JDPower for around 4 years now, so you'd be getting decent peace-of-mind with ownership. What you should consider is experience handling such a powerful car after just having landed here - that to me sounds like trouble.

Having driven a 5.0Supercharged 2012 XF, I think they're pretty sweet. You can definitely feel a sense of occasion when compared to the equivalent 550i or E550, and the rarity factor helps. And no one I've come across can tell the handling difference on public roads, so go get it and live your dream

with Jeroen's tips - they're are spot-on - get a piece with documented history so you know you aren't picking a lemon and read up on the Jag forums

[vasoo]

Originally Posted by Activ8

Looks like the hood is permanently about-to-pop-open. I'm surprised you like it. The transmission is horrible, the engine sounds like a tractor and fit & finish leaves a lot to be desired. UConnect is pretty good though - probably the best telematics solution around.

...

I have been driving in US since 1997 and every time I visit here I rent cars. Also I am a PC member in Hertz. I do like how the car looks and I did not feel any of the issues you faced except for a suspect build quality which I dont care for a rented car. Engine is much silent than most of the cars I rented recently and I did not face any issues with transmission. In fact it is the entertainment system I have trouble with.

[acurafan]

For new car buyers there are some fascinating deals floating around in the "dealersphere" for 2015 models. I got around 17.5% off MSRP for a 2015 328i with Premium, Tech and Driver Assistance Package for a lease of $340 pm with zero downpayment (Tax, title etc)
Similarly Audi was offering around 11-12% off on A4 and slightly more for A3 and Acura around 15% for TLX. So negotiate hard and get great deals.

Originally Posted by vasoo

I do like how the car looks and I did not feel any of the issues you faced except for a suspect build quality which I dont care for a rented car. Engine is much silent than most of the cars I rented recently and I did not face any issues with transmission. In fact it is the entertainment system I have trouble with.

Is that Chrysler 200 or 300? Either case I am quite surprised with Chrysler's evolution They are quite nice car to drive compared to what I remembered in the past. I do agree with your experience.

[Cesc]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Join one of the Jaguar owners clubs. Have a look on this site: http://www.jcna.com JCNA is like an umbrella organisation with many affiliated clubs in all the States. Lots of knowledge on their forum, and in the clubs.

Jeroen

Been going through a lot of stuff and looking up pretty much all cars of that vintage for sale on the web. 2012 is when the XF received a refresh and there's an all new model for 2016. I am hoping to get a decent deal on the 2012 vintage year XFs. After reading through on things I think the CPO route will work best here as any breakdown is likely to result in large bills. CPO XFs have a total of 6 years and 100,000 miles warranty. For a 2012 vintage that warranty should be sufficient. The warranty is also transferable. 2012 CPO XFs though are more close to 30k than 25k. If I can get one out the door at around 27k then that would be ideal. It will be early Novemner when I will finally be purchasing a car so that should put further pressure on 2012 prices.

As a broad tip - by how much are the CPO prices listed by dealers negotiable?

Originally Posted by Activ8

Jaguar XFs are pretty reliable - and Jag's been on top of JDPower for around 4 years now, so you'd be getting decent peace-of-mind with ownership. What you should consider is experience handling such a powerful car after just having landed here - that to me sounds like trouble.

To be honest that's my biggest issue with the car as well. A 3.0 V6 - a la 2014 XFs - would have been ideal. But I really don't know how long will I be in the U.S. Hence wanting to make best use of that time by driving something that appeals to my imagination. Planning to take it easy till I understand the car and it's responses fully.

[Cesc]

Originally Posted by acurafan

For new car buyers there are some fascinating deals floating around in the "dealersphere" for 2015 models. I got around 17.5% off MSRP for a 2015 328i with Premium, Tech and Driver Assistance Package for a lease of $340 pm with zero downpayment (Tax, title etc)
Similarly Audi was offering around 11-12% off on A4 and slightly more for A3 and Acura around 15% for TLX. So negotiate hard and get great deals.

That's a pretty neat deal. Pity there won't be any 2015s on offer in a few months time when I land up. Did you have to negotiate on the lease amount? What are the mileage restrictions on the lease (10k a year?) if you can detail your leasing experience a bit then that would help.

[acurafan]

Originally Posted by Cesc

That's a pretty neat deal. Pity there won't be any 2015s on offer in a few months time when I land up. Did you have to negotiate on the lease amount? What are the mileage restrictions on the lease (10k a year?) if you can detail your leasing experience a bit then that would help.

Well, I work for a fairly large company so we have some pull with the dealers around here, but the credit goes to one of my colleague who gave me the insight. First you negotiate for the final price of the car regardless of lease or purchase. Once that is established then everything is simple math. DO NOT ever go into the payment that you will be happy with argument from the dealer
So, this was the deal that I negotiated
MSRP - 8%
+ $1500 Buildout Cash from BMW
+ $1500 Company Fleet Program Incentive
+ $1500 Mission to Drive Sales Event (BMW celebrating Mission Impossible movie)
With all this you are looking at close to 16.5-17.4% based on your MSRP.

The Money Factor for BMW is 0.0013, for our fleet program it was 0.0011. Do not let the dealer manipulate this number, this is how they make money. The residual value for 12k per year lease is 64%. Plug-in these things in an excel sheet you can come up with exact lease amount. If you have cash in hand then you can look into Multiple Security Deposits which will reduce the money factor further 0.00049, thereby reducing the monthly payment even further.

Happy shopping !!

[Activ8]

You misunderstood what I wrote. Looks are completely subjective and I wouldn't comment on a person's choice. The experience part with cars here primarily has to do with your not finding issues with the transmission and NVH on the 200. Even if you discount build quality, a thread for advising folks on 'Buying, Owning, Driving & Maintaining' should contain user experiences. Yours just seems to be good with Chrysler (as have some others on the forum with Chargers and Challengers).

I probably should also put a disclaimer that I see the pre-production versions of a lot of these craft and happen to be able to see products from across all automakers which kind of colors the perspective and gives you insights that you might not otherwise note during a shorter period spent with the car.

Just for example, the 9-speed ZF transmissions built in Gray Court, SC and Kokomo, IN are distinguishable as chalk and cheese by even laymen from outside the industry. No prizes for guessing whether I'd buy a Chrysler over a Jaguar.

[amitoj]

I went to the Annual Adirondack Car show past weekend at Lake George in New York with some of my friends. There was supposed to be a parade and fireworks but both got cancelled due to incessant rain. Still, there were a lot of these beauties running around out in the open or just parked by the roadside. Here are a few pictures:








It was tough to resist the temptation to do all of these in black and white!










And this is the one in which we went to the car show. My friends insisted that we go in the charger

[VLOCT]

Originally Posted by amitoj

I went to the Annual Adirondack Car show past weekend at Lake George in New York with some of my friends. There was supposed to be a parade and fireworks but both got cancelled due to incessant rain. Still, there were a lot of these beauties running around out in the open or just parked by the roadside.

The Firebird and the Chevelle SS always rock my boat. Whenever I watch the classic car auctions, I want to clean out my garage, sans the '71 911 of course, just to get one of these American classics.

Thanks for the pics. Looks like a great time.

[akas_chauhan]

Arrested in a DUI couple of years back. I'm currently under 1 year probation. My 6 month ignition interlock will go away after 2 weeks.

My plea deal is a deferred plea deal, that says after 1 year of successful completion, DUI goes away from paper. Only FED and gov agencies can see the DUI, but not others such as job agencies or banks etc.

I've completed almost 7 months of probation without any trouble.

Need to go back to India as last time I was there, it's been 3 years.

My Perm will be applied sometime this month.

Need advise from members who have been on the same boat.
1 - Do I need to carry any documents from here while traveling? If yes, what are those documents and can my DUI attorney provide those docs or I've to go for another immigration attorney.

2 - How long it usually takes to get the Visa stamped? Read somewhere it says embassy asks for 221g and also blood/alcohol/urine test. Do I have to go for this test every time I visit India or just once?

3 - My visa is up for renewal on 05/2016. Is it advisable to go after visa renewal or I can go now and stamp the visa. (I changed employer after coming here).

EDIT: I'm on an H1B.

[Jeroen]

Nice pictures, thanks.

I used to love going to these car events when we lived in Kansas City. Throughout most of the year there used to be these sort of events in town and villages all over Kansas and Missouri. There were also plenty monthly events, where people would you rock up in their classic, hot rod, or whatever, would gather for a few hours early in the morning/late afternoon. Chill out, talk etc. Very amicable and enjoyable

Jeroen

[kashif_baig]

My dear T-BHP'ians,

I have received my PR for Canada and I shall be moving to Toronto in the first week of Dec. I need advice from any T-BHP'ians either currently in Canada or who have stayed there earlier for studies or on work permit.

My first preference is to get a new car. However, I have been reading up on stuff regarding the unlikelihood of being granted a car loan to purchase a new car to new immigrants due to their lack of local Canadian credit history. Hence, I might need to end up buying a used car & driving it for a year or so until I have sufficiently padded up my credit.

I would be grateful if you could please help me with the following:

1.) Is there anyone who has managed to get a car loan for a new car, either from a dealership/credit union/bank?
2.) If yes, could you please help with the contacts?
3.) If not possible, which dealerships do you have experience with in getting a used car?

- Kashif.

[tilt]

Kashif,

It's almost impossible for a newcomer to Canada to get credit at all because of non-existent credit history and credit rating. Please note that every time you apply for credit (meaning any kind of loan or finance or lease or credit card or even a home to rent) the "lender" will run a credit check on you; and when that happens to a non-existent credit history, it results in a severely negative credit rating due to the number of requests. And that results in it becoming even more difficult to get credit.

Your best bet is to buy a used car for cash or cheque; and then get a secured credit card and build your credit history for about a year or so before you apply for any credit.

In the meanwhile, since you're moving to Toronto, call Jeff at Toronto Mazda (he's the manager) and explain to him that you're a newcomer to Canada and ask if he can help you get a used car on finance. He only deals with new cars but maybe able to point you in the right direction. The advantage with Jeff is that he is that almost mythical creature - an honest car salesman.

Please note that even if some kind dealer gives you the option of finance, it might be on a car you might not be very happy buying for whatever reason, and also that the interest rate would be extremely high and the initial price also would be inflated, just because you do not have a choice and they know it.

Cheers

[ritz3645]

Hi,

You can get a secured CC after a deposit at any TD Bank branch. I did. More than the car it is insurances which is a headache. I advise to club with other household members and then call callcenter and get a quote.

For used cars look for direct sellers on Craigslist.