Hey hows it going guys, my lease is going to be up soon my supercharged xf and i am looking for a new car to hold me over till i get the new m5 in 2 years. Looking to save some money till then and getting something cheaper. Wanted to get an suv and was looking to get a range rover but after hearing about the problems all these years the car has been having i decided not to. Porsche cayenne turbo is way to overpriced, same with x6m x5m. But i guess you guys already know that lol.

My questions are, how is the ride quality, coming from an XF that is very smooth even on low profile 20 inch rims it's pretty important to me. Also is the car reliable, i will be buying a new one not used by the way. How does it handle, on the rain snow etc, how are the blind spots? If you guys can give me some PROS/CONS, hopefully the pros will outweigh the cons lol.

I know the car is a great bargain and test driving it myself will probably be a better idea but i would really like to know from the owners themselves how the car is. Sorry for the long first post, i appreciate the help and happy new year everyone. Thank you.

For the price, you can't beat the performance it has. It does ride a little "sporty" so to say so it isn't the smoothest thing around but with 20" rims and it being an SUV, of course it's gonna feel the road well. They do have aftermarket springs, sway bar links and sway bars available for it which makes it handle very well. It has been a very reliable vehicle to date, only needing a water pump and the dreaded tranny seal. Don't know if that's an issue with the newer ones. I've had mine for over 2 1/2 years and still love it tremondously! I plan on keeping it for a while. The aftermarket is so huge on these motors and you can purchase almost anything for it. I have rarely lost a race in it! I don't think you'd be dissatisfied with the lease but at the same time, don't think it's gonna ride like the XF. It's an awesome machine. Besides that, it STILL has a "Wow" factor to it. There aren't many on the road still. Do it already!

I dont mind the ride quality at all, I dont think its bad for a SUV with a big wheel/tire combo. It also handles pretty well for what it is from the factory and handling improvements are available from the aftermarket. The Jeep is fine in the rain and very manageable in the snow. I have only been through 1 snow storm but it was a pretty bad one. I had the stock wheels and tires on it. The street profile tires combined with all the HP arent the best but I would say its better then my fwd dodge stratus. The traction control really does a good job keepping it in line and with the autostick you can start in higher gears. There is also an 18 inch tire/wheel combo available that is realtively inexpensive ~1200 that I think makes a big difference. The rear park assist doenst like having snow and ice on the sensors but you can diable it with the push of a button. Reliability wise no issues but I have only had mine 4 months and put 4000 miles on it. I havent seen many reliability issues on the site.

Main problems seem to be a vibration at highway speeds. It seems replacing the rear driveshaft fixes it, not all have the issue, mine doesn't. Also sometimes the auto windows are a pain and after going up they go back down half way. People usually get this taken care of at the dealer. The last issue I can think of is teh stock goodyear tires have been known to split. A lot of complaints have been filled with this issue and if it happens to you most often I believe you can get good year to replace them since they know about it. A lot of people switch away from the runflats though for improved traction, handling, and ride. The last problem is once you start modding its really hard to stop!!!

Overall I love it and highly recommend it. I would go test drive one but I think you will like it :)

Appreciate the info thanks, but i cant mod a leased srt8 can i?

You can do whatever you like on a lease, the down side it won't net you $$$ on the return, it's money spent in the meantime to make the ride more enjoyable. My '08 King Ranch is a lease, I did an intake, exhaust, tune to make the 3 years better, but it sucked. The intake was noisy as hell, the exhaust lost torque, and the tune created crappy throttle tip-in and detonation on 87, so it all came off and I'm running the truck stock. It isn't lacking, I like the truck, a few simple mods "should" make it better, most of the time anyway. IMO a few mods that work, as in an intake and tune from MHP, is a cheap few bucks to make the ride better, and it does. I might as well of saved myself the time and flushed a grand down the toilet with my KR.

Appreciate the info thanks, but i cant mod a leased srt8 can i?

I dont see why you cant but I wouldnt do anything durastic that cant be undone. All my mods can easily be removed so far and I run 12.6 @ 107 in the 1/4.

Yeah but even if you can remove the mods wont you lose the money.

Yeah but even if you can remove the mods wont you lose the money.

Yes you will lose money. You will probably be able to sell them and make some of it back but you will definitely lose money. My current mods only cost ~1200-1300$ not including the mods on the way and in the grand scheme of things thats not really that much especially for the extra power I got. I'd do them even if I was only leasing it for 2-3 years.

Not really big on modding cars to be honest, like them stock will that be bad lol.

even stock, these rigs are monsters!!

Not really big on modding cars to be honest, like them stock will that be bad lol.

No not at all, even if you never install any aftermarket parts its still a great vehicle.

as for ride quality, if you move away from the stock runflat Goodyears, you should see a noticeable improvement. You can sell the runflats here and re-coup most if not all of your investment in new tires (depending on which new tires you go with).

Comparing the Jeep SRT8 to the XF, you're going to have trade-offs with ride quality as this is a sportier beast vs a grand touring type sedan.

There's also a drop off on interior materials used in the Jeep vs the XF. More plastic, less leather, no wood trim ;)

Funny you mention the XF SC as I sold mine in August and bought the Jeep as its replacement.

To be honest with you-the features that the Jeep offer (automatic high beams, etc) are right on par, if not greater, then the Jag. In comparing ride quality, I really didn't notice that big of a difference. Yes, the Jeep is a bit stiffer, but the Jag was by no means soft. The seats in the Jeep offer more support but lack the cooling that the Jag has (one feature I greatly miss). In terms of power, the Jeep is just stupid fun from the light. Yes, the Jag was powerful, but it doesn't have the snap that the Jeep has.

With all of that said, I do miss the styling a lot. The Jag was trully a beautiful car. What color was yours? Here's my old XF SC:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/ATXCLS/XF/XF_Passanger_Side.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/ATXCLS/XF/XF_Interior.jpg

Not really big on modding cars to be honest, like them stock will that be bad lol.

hahahahahhaa:D

Rookie!!!!!

Dude...You WILL mod that beast, TRUST ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks a lot for the help guys, will try and test drive one soon. This is my xf by the way G.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h294/giants0784/CIMG0410-1.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h294/giants0784/CIMG0421-1.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h294/giants0784/P1000014.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h294/giants0784/CIMG0412.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h294/giants0784/P1000017-1.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h294/giants0784/P1000013.jpg

By the way any reason why the srt8 does not come in white, really disappointed in that.

By the way any reason why the srt8 does not come in white, really disappointed in that.


Color choices have been really limited ever since production began. Some have had theirs painted white and it looks sweet!!