Jaguar's gear knob and air vents

These days gimmicks and toys sell cars. Even normal run of the mill cars like the Hyundai Elantra or the Proton Suprima gets auto lights, auto wipers, daytime running lights, a kitchen sink, bidet and even GPS. Everyone is enamored by gadgets in the cars that they buy which is why car manufacturers throw in even more even when we don't need it.

But we'd expect all of these toys and more in our luxury cars. Take for example Mercedes Benz and its new W222 S-Class. It has everything you can think of and more. It has a forward facing radar that can read the road up front and adjust the suspension to suit. It has mood lighting inside. It has a build in air freshener. It has LED headlights. It has all that and more. But, it does not have what Jaguar has. Covered motorized air vents and a motorized flush fit gearknob. Let me show you a few photos of the items below.

XF Vents closed (above), opening (below)

F-Type vents open

F-Type vents closed

Note that all of these gadgetry are actually  unnecessary gimmickry. Whilst I love being in any Jaguar, as I still remember hitting the night clubs in a very plush riding Jaguar XJ40 XJ6 (yes, yes I was one of those party people in my younger days), I am of opinion that if the best luxury cars in the world (think Rolls Royce, Bentley and Mercedes Benz) do not bother with motorized gearknobs and air vents. This is taking things a little too far.

 In a Jaguar XF, you have the motorized gearknob which is flush fit and rises up when the car is turned on and you have the air vents which will swivel open. You can set the 'always open' setting for the air vents through the car's system settings in the computer (on both the XF and the F Type) but there is no such setting for the gear knob in the XF or XJ for that matter. It will rise, and fall everytime you start the car and stop it.

At least there is an 'always open' switch for the vents, but why not the gear knob? You see, adding electric motors for everything adds a bit of weight here and there. In the XF, you have five, I repeat five small electric motors to power these gimmicks. One for each of the four vents and one for the gear knob. If each one weighs 500grams each complete with the required gears and levers that it needs to make it move then you've basically added a total of 2.5kgs to the weight of the car. You may think that what the heck is 2.5kg in a car that weighs 1,700kg, but note that the equivalent Mercedes Benz E250 weighs in at 1,680kg. Think of the fuel savings you could get just by losing 20kg? Or the ease of tuning the suspension to work with 20kg less. Yes, the XF may outhandle the Mercedes, but I think that that fact boils down to different suspension tuning philosophies.

And the one thing which really scares me from ever thinking of buying a Jaguar is that motors are electrical based items. One day these are bound to fail and imagine if you were being chauffeur driven in one and you're waiting for your ride to come but you receive phone call from your driver telling you that he's in the basement car park and he can't move as whilst the car can start, the gearknob is stuck. "Boss, got problem Boss. The gear cannot come up."

Of course, I have asked that question to a Jaguar sales executive, and he states that none have failed so far. But, it may happen. You never know. Especially in our weather. The humidity wreaks havoc on electronics in the long run. I may have the money or the credit facility to go out and buy one of these Jaguars but why buy something that will add to the worry in the long run? Some things should not be gimmicky at all.