What will they cost?

Quite often in our used tests, a few thousand pounds splits the contenders, making cost a relatively close-run thing to judge. Not here, though.

When it was new, the Jaguar F-Type was predicted to have strong resale values, but they haven’t held up quite as well as was first thought. That’s good news for used buyers, though, as it means the F-Type is now available for relatively little outlay – we reckon the earliest examples will set you back less than £40,000.

While you can, of course, get a Porsche 911 for less than £40,000, it’ll be a much older, higher-mileage example – if you want something like-for-like with the F-Type, you’ll have to pay considerably more.

Fuel and tax costs on the cars are pretty similar, meanwhile, with the Porsche pipping the Jaguar’s fuel economy figure – they get 34.4mpg and 32.1mpg respectively. That follows through to emissions, as you’d imagine, and therefore tax – the Porsche will cost you £270 a year, where the Jaguar will set you back £295.

Jaguar hasn’t yet added the F-Type to its menu service pricing for cars three years of age and older, but based on the prices of the XK and XJ, which use similar engines, we’d expect it would be a lot cheaper to service than the Porsche.

While we don't have specific reliability data for either model, nor do we know of any particularly serious common problems that may affect them. However, while beither marque has a particularly glowing score on the What Car? Reliability Index (both are still below average), Jaguar finishes higher than Porsche.