[Thincat]

To try and help those people trying to decide what extras to pay for I thought that it might start a useful conversation if I reported my experience with some of those features with my well equipped F-Pace:

Absolutely Essential Features I could no longer live without!

• The heads-up display - I drive slower and observe the speed limits much more
• Powerful and automatic LED headlights - I'm looking forward to the Matrix ones
• The 360 degree cameras - the birds eye view has helped me in several tight situations and I use the forward view every day to look both ways as I pull out of my blind drive - brilliant!
• Adaptive speed control - it took me 9 months to trust it on my XF but now I use it more often than not.
• Folding mirrors with the pool of light including the Jaguar logo - the car is so big that they do need to fold but the pool of light with logo is very useful and very cool!
• Gesture tailgate opening - its very frustrating when you can't get it to work and our dog has less trouble working it than I do (accidentally) but its has saved me a lot of trouble when I have my hands full of stuff.
• I like the smartphone app that allows you to download a list of your journeys for submitting expenses claims.
• Heated and cooled seats.

Things I would rather not have

• The automatic parking system - it's far too slow and it rejects spaces that I can get into without much trouble. It should also control the throttle because it's too easy to reverse into something; the last twice I have tried to use the system I almost hit another car because I forgot to brake! Does anyone find it useful?
• The blind spot monitoring - because I never see the warning light.
  The way that the adaptive cruse control panics when someone in front is turning off either left or right - It doesn't understand that they may be stationary but they will soon be moving.

Features I would like to have

• The way that the Tesla can park and unpark itself from a tight spot without you being in the car - brilliant!
• An auxiliary battery that works like a spare can of petrol for when you are on a long journey.
• A photo-voltaic roof that turns sunlight into electricity.
• I would like the voice system to be linked to the Sat Nav - even if it sometimes makes mistakes I would like to be able to say "take me home" or "navigate to Birmingham Airport" or "Take me to the [insert name] Hotel".
• The ability to personalise the warning noise emitted to warn pedestrians you are behind them - for example I'd like to be able to select an F-Type exhaust note, a polite voice saying "Excuse me" and a klaxon - just like adding ring tones you add to your phone!
• A memory setting on the passenger seat so that my wife doesn't have to complain after I give someone else a lift.
• I'd like the smartphone app that is supposed to allow you to pre-plan trips to work better

What does everyone else think?

 

[John32]

On my 3 year old car from one of the VAG brands, the park pilot thing is great! It fits into tight spaces and has failed me only once. The car before that one needed a large space indeed

 

[Thincat]

On my 3 year old car from one of the VAG brands, the park pilot thing is great! It fits into tight spaces and has failed me only once. The car before that one needed a large space indeed

I also have a VW Golf SE with adaptive cruse control and that is much better when being used in a traffic jam but not so intuitive at higher speeds. I don't have the park assist but I'm sure its the Jaguar one that is not very good and others are better. However EVERY time I use the VW I end up hating it (a) because the keyless entry only works on the front doors and I want to put my things on the back seat before I get in and (b) because it's impossible to turn off the radio without also turning off the Sat Nav and every time you turn on the car the radio comes on at the same low level; just too low to make out what it is but loud enough to annoy me. I think it's because these extras are not part of the original car design and haven't been thought out enough and its also a symptom of cost cutting - not having automatic unlocking on the back doors and not having a radio on/off switch is worse than only having one reversing light and one rear fog light! The Golf is a good car spoiled by the details and because of that I would never consider buying another VW. My point is that all makes may appear to have similar features but they are often very different. I complained that the rear camera picture on my Golf is very poor quality, to be told by the salesman that 'they are all like that' to which I replied that the one on my Jaguar was far better, particularly in low light. He started to say 'well, what do you expect' but stopped himself. The one thing lots of modern cars appear to fail at is the software - my Jaguar often has a blank screen for a minute or more when you turn it on and the VW always covers half of the rear camera view with a 'Park Pilot' display for a crucial 30 seconds after you engage reverse. You don't find these things out until it's too late :?