boy do i love hertz and its prestige collection. if only they just would rent me the latest aston for my test and evaluation.

anyhow, they do rent ford's jaguars. and i rent them whenever i fly into a venue where they are available.

so, here is a review based on my 2004 rentals.

earlier this year, in LA, i rented the new, all-aluminum short wheelbase XJ8. one thing i liked about it was that like most of my benzes, its controls were recognizable and a continuation of the past[i.e., the car did not have to be pre-flighted, i did not have to spend an hour studying the owner's manual as i did when i rented a new bimmer with i-drive].

the only thing that was odd about this new jag was that it went over road irregularities with more noise and out-of-controllness than its predecessor.

wha happened? the pre-2004 models were marvels of supple suspension, handling the highways with no noise, no upset. this XJ8 handled these road irregularities like my old 1986 w126, 1987 c126.

i rented XJ8's twice more in LA, once in MIA, and once at ORD, since then. all exhibited the same deterioration in suspension suppleness.

over thanksgiving, hertz at LAX handed me the keys to a virtually brand new XJ8L. great. my family loved the extra leg room. if you want a jag, this is the one to own.

and i expected the longer wheelbase to give me a more supple suspension.

i don't understand how ford got it so wrong. suffice it to say, this suspension requires smooth pavement. it handles road irregularities as if it has a solid rear truck axle.

in fact, under moderate acceleration on barrington south of pico, it encountered road irregularites that drove the rear suspension to the bump stops, making the car quite a handful.

and somehow i don't think that this is a rental car idiosyncrasy. i think ford and jaguar screwed up on the tuning of this suspension somehow.

anyone know of a brand new prior model vandenplas[XJ8L]?

ford better get this problem sorted out mach schnell or it will continue to see jaguar sales decline.

i care to conclude by saying this, i found that lexus did the same thing with the ls430 versus the ls400. why is it that they got it correctly in a previous model year, and then went south?

all ears.

Sorry to hear that. The new XJ8L Vanden Plas with the piping and TV's gives me a woody. Really thought about giving up the SDL for it. Now I'll have to rent one and see just how bad it is.