F-type R vs Evora S?

[CaptainSlow]

It's that time again, three years into the ownership of the primary toy car, winter time, a bit of laid back internet browsing... Starting to feel the all to familiar itch for a change. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Evora despite a few niggles and such. But still, I've started to look at some alternatives. Presumably British which limits the alternatives. Has anyone here tried the Jaguar F-type Coupé R? How does it compare to the Evora S? It's certainly heavier but what about handling, quality impression, seating, gearbox, noise? Even Clarkson mentioned that it was a bit loud and that he would prefer the V6 :-O

Will take a look at a V8 convertible next weekend, not an R though but to close to home to ignore.

[JayEmm]

My step mother is looking for an F-Type, if I drive one (I usually wind up helping her and Dad pick their car) I'll report back - but the last Jag I drove was an XKR-S and despite sporty pretenses, it was still a big old wallowy GT car

[Bibs]

I've driven one and it is a very big, wallowy GT car but it did sound epic, really epic

[JayEmm]

I followed one recently and it was comedy. He was following a Nissan Micra or something, road was too narrow to overtake. So I was behind this big menacing car doing about 45mph. You couldn't hear it and when the Micra driver panic braked for the corners, the Jag driver lifted and it was like someone throwing firecrackers in the road. 

[mawheele]

I've owned both a V6S coupe and Roadster.  Roadster was better of the two. 

Build quality, dealer experience, reliability and manufacturer experience are all inferior to Lotus and my Evora 400. All F-type have serious issues with poor stereo performance, vibrating door cards which JLR have still not fixed after 3 years of production.

Better: 8-speed auto, service intervals and service costs. 

Also, you'll grow bored of the styling versus the Evora within a year. 

I would never purchase a JLR product again. Customer service dates back to the 70's

[Colin G]

Bloody gorgeous though, the F-Type coupe. Won't turn heads like a Lotus, but it's a completely different proposition anyway to my eyes.

[JayEmm]

I'm in a minority but I really am not keen on the looks of the F-Type. Something about it seems wrong. Aston seem quite happy copying it though

[CaptainSlow]

I certainly like the looks of them, both the convertible and the coupé. Unlike Lotus there are quite a few dealers in Sweden incl. some of the larger multi-brand dealerships. For the good and the worse of course. But compared to having no Lotus dealer and one official workshop in Sweden it's still an upside.

 

[Bibs]

I'm not sure that's the case with JLR. As @mawheele pointed out, their customer service & aftersales is truly dire.

[Colin G]

13 minutes ago, JayEmm said:

I'm in a minority but I really am not keen on the looks of the F-Type. Something about it seems wrong. Aston seem quite happy copying it though

Have you seen the latest Aston? It's an abomination. It could maybe at best be a kitcar copy Jag -

And as for that interior, stomach content ahoy. They've lost all class.

[JayEmm]

The V8 Vantage is the best thing they've done in my mind, I never was fond of the older cars. It's 11 years old or so and still looks good. @CaptainSlow would you consider one of those?

[gregs24]

To be honest if you drive an F-Type, Vantage, and Evora you will only be satisfied by one of them depending on your priorities. They are very different cars.

I suspect you will want to stay with the Evora.

 

[CaptainSlow]

7 hours ago, JayEmm said:

The V8 Vantage is the best thing they've done in my mind, I never was fond of the older cars. It's 11 years old or so and still looks good. @CaptainSlow would you consider one of those?

I've been looking at them as well. There's an Aston Martin Vantage V8 N400 for sale which looks nice. Haven't had a look at it in person though. But it's a 2008 which is becoming quite old. The newer ones are north of 100k which is out of reach for me. 

6 hours ago, gregs24 said:

To be honest if you drive an F-Type, Vantage, and Evora you will only be satisfied by one of them depending on your priorities. They are very different cars.

I suspect you will want to stay with the Evora.

 

Might be so, as said I quite like my Evora. If/when there's an Evora roadster that might be the solution.

[Bazza 907]

I sat in an F-Type coupe at the weekend. It's a lovely place to spend time, the interior feels quite special and really benefitted from the panoramic roof. 

[C8RKH]

My god @Colin G don't know where you found those Aston pictures but they make the car, inside and out, look truly awful. I've always been a fan of the V8V and the DB9 and still hanker after the latter, but that thing. Oh no.  The interior looks like something SSanngsyong or whatever they are called would have come up with. Truly awful.  I'll not be buying one of those, but if I had that sort of money it would be a red or black DBS manual for me, or a nice peacock blue Vanquish.  

I like the f-type. I've owned a Jag XJ before and my local dealer in Perth was a joy to deal with and the car was uber reliable covering 100k miles in 4 years with nothing more than routine maintenance. In fact, thought about buying another one recently when a 2008 XJ Soveriegn came up at a bargain price with only 24k miles.  The car very capable on long cross country journeys, surprisingly so for big saloon. I have heard a few horror stories though of JLR customer service, and that's from people with £100k Range Rovers and down to £30k XK's.

[JayEmm]

The good news with old Astons is the depreciation slows after an initial hit - the early V8 Vantages have been sat at £30k for years.

I think the demonstrator DB11 they sound out was in that colour wasn't it? Hideous choice... interior looks far too fussy, not Aston at all.

The last Jag my Dad owned (a long time ago) was an XKR (the first gen), he loved the car, but it did have a lot of issues I recall

[mawheele]

There is an immense difference between an enthusiast brand and a mainstream premium player. One will look after you and your car and understand that its not 'just' transport. The other ignores who you are, how you expect your vehicle to be taken care of reasonably whilst its with them and treats you like a number with a machine tea and packet of bourbons. 

JLR owe everything to their design departments who win them new business, whilst their customer service department do an even better job of loosing them customers. I can't imagine many F-type owners going into another JLR product afterwards. I'm fairly sure they'll migrate as I did to something else; probably an AMG, 991, 718 or DB11. I've had a long affinity to Lotus and the Evora 400 became a more rounded proposition at the same time. 

[Colin G]

@C8RKH yup, I can't believe how badly they've gone wrong with this one. It's howlingly ugly now, and I can't see time being any kinder on it as it goes on. Was stunned to see many people raving about how good looking it was on PH, they've even made their own trademark front grille look goppingly ugly.

[Bazza 907]

In the flesh in a decent colour like olive green metallic they do look very good.

Those pictures do it no favours and the dual interior colour scheme is awful but reminds me of the interiors of the DB7's when they were first released. 

[Neal H]

17 hours ago, Bibs said:

I've driven one and it is a very big, wallowy GT car but it did sound epic, really epic

To be fair, the Evora 400 does a pretty decent job of sounding epic, really epic and handles properly as well

I do really love the look of the F-Type Coupe though, and if the Evora 400 didn't exist it would have probably been top of my list for a test drive.

[Stubox]

OP , if you can get a drive in the F Type R then its the only way to see if thats your thing....given when I had one through a few weeks of moist roads it was a pigging pain in the arse get traction....that was prior to the AWD version which I assume would solve it. Plus a Panoramic roof is a must. And sadly the 'stealth' mode within the operating menu did not make me invisible .

On the DB11, don't judge it by the hideous colours going around the web, in the flesh in proper colours its very nice. 

[Colin G]

I've seen one in the flesh (Aston is next to my Lotus dealership) still thought it was howling though! 

[DJW]

Test drove an R Coupe and thought it was good fun, some real theatre about it. Price was a bit high for my liking so ended up buying a S/H V6S roadster, high spec, switchable exhaust etc,.   Very capable car but I started to drive it harder and then realised the weight.  Don't get me wrong it handled pretty well for for its weight, but it's still a heavy car.  10 mins hoon meant cleaning alloys as they were plastered in brake dust. 

Car lasted 3 weeks and I sold it .  Week later I bought an Exige V6S and realised what I was missing.  Now have an Evora 400 which I love. Can cruise in comfort or be a complete animal that handles well too.  For me, the Evora all day long 

 

[Colin G]

Wow, three weeks, that beats my record of deciding I hated a car I'd bought and selling it by 50%!!!! I didn't even use the first tank of fuel that came in it from purchase in the six weeks I owned it. 

BTW, this was the car prior to my first Evora, and apart from a year in an Aston it's been Evora's ever since!

[chylld]

Test drove an F-Type R AWD as a potential upgrade to my Evora S. Much better as a daily driver on the street as the exhaust hushes up very nicely (more so than the 400) and the ride is very compliant. However it's absolutely horrible on the track, zero feedback and zero confidence in placing the car and it would often jump 1 car width to the left or right under hard braking.

I find the Evora 400 to be 80% as good as the F-Type R for daily driving, and much better than both it and my old S on the track