Great review and it's a beauty, congrats! I think the touchy accelerator may be smoothed out with a tune. But I don't think anyone has released one for the XE yet.
XE Turbo diesel great for mountain roads
After ordering my XE Prestige TDI back in November it finally arrived on Thursday and we picked it up Friday. So far we have about 300 miles on it, 100 of them on the freeway bringing it home, and 200 up on our two lane twisty mountain roads.
My impression so far is it's a keeper, with just a couple niggles. I believe that the accelerator is a little too touchy. When you start off even with a very light foot the car wants to surge ahead, and I'm hoping that there's a way to soften that initial surge. When accelerating sedately you can feel the transmission going from gear to gear. It's nothing that you can't get used to, but I've been driving a M-B and the shifts are seamless, so I'll give this some break in miles to see if if becomes less noticeable. The position of the accelerator and the brake, at least for me, are such that I find myself braking with my left foot. Usually I only use my right foot on both the accelerator and the brake (I guess this comes from driving standards for so many years, where the left foot is for the clutch), but the pedal locations seem to make this awkward. No big deal, and again, nothing that I can't adjust to.
I like the power and acceleration and the handling is terrific. Up here where it's mostly two lane roads I believe that the handling is really going to be great. My only complaint is that I couldn't get a standard transmission. Ya, I know, use the sport mode and the paddles, but it just isn't the same !
I'll be working with Malone to see about a tune for this engine. At least with the VW TDI when they put a tune on the engine they also tune the automatic transmission, so we'll see how this works out. There is no lack of power as it is, but a tune will add power and also increase fuel mileage, so I'm going to go for it.
Overall, my wife and I both really like the XE and feel that we made the right choice of the XE over the M-B, Lexus, Audi, etc.
My impression so far is it's a keeper, with just a couple niggles. I believe that the accelerator is a little too touchy. When you start off even with a very light foot the car wants to surge ahead, and I'm hoping that there's a way to soften that initial surge. When accelerating sedately you can feel the transmission going from gear to gear. It's nothing that you can't get used to, but I've been driving a M-B and the shifts are seamless, so I'll give this some break in miles to see if if becomes less noticeable. The position of the accelerator and the brake, at least for me, are such that I find myself braking with my left foot. Usually I only use my right foot on both the accelerator and the brake (I guess this comes from driving standards for so many years, where the left foot is for the clutch), but the pedal locations seem to make this awkward. No big deal, and again, nothing that I can't adjust to.
I like the power and acceleration and the handling is terrific. Up here where it's mostly two lane roads I believe that the handling is really going to be great. My only complaint is that I couldn't get a standard transmission. Ya, I know, use the sport mode and the paddles, but it just isn't the same !
I'll be working with Malone to see about a tune for this engine. At least with the VW TDI when they put a tune on the engine they also tune the automatic transmission, so we'll see how this works out. There is no lack of power as it is, but a tune will add power and also increase fuel mileage, so I'm going to go for it.
Overall, my wife and I both really like the XE and feel that we made the right choice of the XE over the M-B, Lexus, Audi, etc.
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About the tune, did they give you any sort of timeline?
I know that information is typically limited with development but I figured this would be easiest to get
I know that information is typically limited with development but I figured this would be easiest to get
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
