Recently stayed at my sister in law's in Norfolk and was eager to ride in her hubbies 2018 3.0 diesel XJ that has only done 24,000miles. The original XJ6 was developed particulaly with comfort in mind and was expecting his modern XJ to upstage my modest 2019 1.0 SE Tech DSG Karoq.

Beautiful interior, real posh, made my Karoq felt quite utilitarian alongside, but then I tend to treat cars more as a van and worry less about cosmetics. Once on the move I was struck by the Jag's restless (but quiet) ride, although the car did cope with broken road surfaces without much thumping or thrumming and possibly bettered the Karoq in this regard.

Another thing I noticed was the stop/start and the engine producing quite a pronounced shake to the car body, much more so than my petrol 1.0. The diesel is quiet when moving, though I reckon my 1.0 engine and my car generally is a touch quieter, but I have taken extra measures to improve this aspect.

So I looked up some reviews and it is noted that this last XJ was set up for sporting driving - better than the Merc S-Type here, but ride is not as good as a result, even though it is air suspension and I think active ride, a la DCC.

Coming home in the Karoq initially on the same road, the ride in my car was substantially more relaxed, with little of that bobbing up & down evident, but I was more aware of the contrast with broken road surfaces.

Of course the Jag has superb acceleration with a 0-60 time getting on for half my car's - you really feel being pushed back into the seat from all that torque - fun for the driver, but after a few times being impressed, it was really rather wearing as a passenger, that + the fast cornering my brother in law likes doing and already noted rather restless ride. A 0-60 of 11.0 secs in an Auto suits me fine - used to be considered fast - enough umph for the occasional overtake and for hills - I'd only drive faster & probably more dangerously otherwise - so no hate mail please.

Also noticed that with the low down seating position, the Jag seemed to be going quite fast at say 50mph, compared with the Karoq and it's elevated seating providing a seemingly more relaxed gait at the same speed.

You can't fit 16" wheels with high profile AW tyres on the Jag, like I've changed to, but still came away feeling rather smug about my car.

1 hour ago, croquemonsieur said:

but I have taken extra measures to improve this aspect

What have you done re soundproofing? It is something I have been considering.

tom

You may not like it, but as well as the mentioned higher profile AW tyres, I found there was mileage in damping down fibre board removeable shelf behind the rear seats. I did write up on this a few years ago and I don't think any of you sensible people tried doing the same - I first fitted timber stiffeners to the underside, but found further damping on top of the shelf with heavy mats reduced noise further, noticeably improving on low frequency thrumming and i think this + the wheel tyre change effected most improvement.

I also stuck a few commercial noise self adhesive damping pads to the boot metal sub-floor area and ensured the spare wheel, sitting on thin felt type material, was tightly fastened down to that metal floor. Also some extra mats to the boot floor sitting on the spare tyre. I no doubt added significant weight to the car in the process, but I do find road noise tiring & for me it was worth doing.

No work done to the engine area and I still find the 1.0 remarkably quiet, once on the move & warmed up, in spite of the reduced road noise. I thought this source might have been brought into greater prominence. Tthe only slight new noise I did become aware of, was a mild wind rustle around the door mirrors on motorways, which was clearly masked rather more before, but this is much less annoying than road noise. I usually only have the air-con fan on the lowest quiet setting as noisy fans also annoy me. I find this works OK up to reasonably hot temperatures, but may turn it up on extreme days.