CarWow which is a price comparison site with franchised car dealers advertising special offers and you can search for a particular make, model and spec and see what the best deals are on offer. To cut a long story short, I came down to a


decision to either buy an Audi A6 or a Jaguar XF saloon new. It was quickly evident that this would be a better financial decision for me rather than look to buy a used car. After test driving both cars when I returned home


and seeing what the best deal was, I decided to go with the Jag. I went for a PCP deal which is a private contract plan as I had decided to opt out of my company car scheme and go private. A lot of people are doing this these days. The


company car can have a big personal tax liability and I know of friends and relations that are choosing a cash alternative rather than accepting a company car with their job. On the road price and engine Co2 emissions will dictate what tax band a car falls in to in terms of your personal tax liability. This is the so called BIK “benefit in kind”. So why did I chose the Jag over the Audi. Well, I


preferred the driving experience of the Jag and it was actually cheaper on monthly rentals. Additionally, the A6 at the time was in run out in advance of a new model introduction whereas the Jag had recently had a new model change. So what’s it like to drive you might ask? Well the


car is stylish in my opinion, well made and I find the local Jag dealer to be very good at customer service. I can carry 4 people in comfort and it has a decent size boot. I went for a Prestige spec which is the entry level grade but still comes with a lot of kit. I chose the 2.0D engine with 180 HP which makes it pretty quick and on long motorway journeys in Eco mode it delivers over 60 MPG. I avoided the numerous options available apart


from specifying metallic paint in a nice gunmetal grey and choosing the 8-speed auto gearbox. I was amazed to find that you can have a XF with manual gearbox. I can’t see too many people specifying that unless you go for the Sport grade version. Dislikes? Well, I find the driver’s seat a bit firm


particularly on my long regular monthly drive to South Wales. I thought over time that the seat foam would soften and it has a bit but I think that the seats could be better ergonomically. As much as I have always liked Jags, I feel that


the modern ones have lost a bit of the Jaguar magic. Whilst I understand that they wanted to target a younger driver and owner, I still feel that the saloons in particular would be better if they had wood veneer dash and door inserts and a better quality leather interior as standard. Jags have always been known for having


comfortable and cosseting interiors and some of that seems to have been lost. The engine in my Jag is their new “Ingenium”


design which covers both petrol and diesel 2.0 litre 4 cylinder engines with a turbo in various states of tune and power output. Comparing the engine in my car to my previous BMW 2.0d I find it is not as smooth or refined as the BMW engine nor as powerful. Don’t get me wrong, it is not unrefined but I think that Jaguar needs to work on it to improve the refinement.


www.themaa.co.uk


DRIVERLESS CARS – FULLY CHARGED AND RARING TO GO!


I wrote at length in my last column about the future of motoring and the revolution of driverless cars. To add to that, I want to give you some further insight in to the way that the electric powered cars will in particular change. At present if you own an electric car you need to plug it in to a charger each day to ensure that you don’t break down at the side of the road with no power left! Going forward, new technology is coming. We


will see contactless charging pads in parking spaces. Essentially you will drive in to a parking spot and it could be on your street or drive way or in a multi storey car park etc. You will be automatically charged from a pad built into the road which your car will tap in to recharge the batteries. This system is similar to the contactless charge pads that you can get for mobile phones. The party trick with driverless cars is that once


they have been fully charged, they can move out of the parking spot and let another car in to be charged. So picture the scene. You live in a street without driveways and limited street car parking. You come home from work in the evening, running in driverless mode, you sitting back and reading the paper or sending messages on your phone while the car takes you home. You pull up to a parking spot near your home and


the car parks its self. You get out and go in doors and after say an hour contactless charging, the car moves off and allows your neighbour to move in and charge their electric car. Your car can then find its self another parking location within say 5 minutes of your home. Then if you wish to go out again you can call up


the car from your mobile phone and it is just like calling a taxi or Uber! Your car will come round the corner and pull up outside your home to collect you. Sounds like science fiction? Well, it’s not. This


technology capability is here already and within just a few years you will be able to buy such cars with these features. My own personal opinion on this rush to


driverless car and electric car technology is that we need an awful lot of infrastructure improvements to make it work. We have some of the worst road surface conditions of any country in Europe and the cost to fix it all and the time it will take is going to take billions of pounds and a long time. At the moment we don’t seem to have the money in the public coffers to pay for it all either. I think that driverless cars still have a long way to


go and whilst I would be happy to join the electric car revolution I want to see an infrastructure improvement to support it and with battery technology that gives us much longer driving ranges between charges and a rapid charge system on every street which takes minutes instead of hours.


MAA Agents News 13


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