I’m not sure why I haven’t heard this anywhere, and I’ve searched it to no avail, but the door handles on the XJS are hot in the summer here. I live in AZ and in the summer months you can’t open the car without using your shirt.
No other car with metal handles I’ve used, after being in the sun, are this hot. Is this some green energy anti theft device?
What gives?
it’s probably just a fact that the sun is at the right angle… now to over-reverse engineer this we should take the angle of the handles on the car and factor in the angle of parking the car(direction on compass) the elevation and declinations, the various hours of the day, the heat absorbtion of the metal and graph it out and as the British say… there you have it… have a good laugh it’s not a perfect world!
Would I be able to take them off and replate them in a different metal? If so, which?
Probably not, if they are like most handles they are likely to be ‘pot’ metal.
It’s British, you’re supposed to have a pair of lambskin driving gloves, or at minimum a nice handkerchief for such. 
Also the bloody ashtray doors, between heat from the drivetrain and the sun on them are super hot. I tend to place my cell phone there and it was way too hot for its own good the last sunny day we had.
Get used to it. Growing up in Southern California, i remember getting into a baking hot car in shorts, trying to sit on the vinyl seats. Then trying to handle the hot metal seat belts to buckle in.
Luckily these days, leather doesn’t seem as hot, and seat belts have plastic parts to handle
Reflection of those pesky ash tray lids is a pain for my passenger so i covered then with wood grain contact.
Planning on doing away with mine too eventually.
jason,
you could fit a remote door lock & catch release system with a spring bolt on the doors so when you click the remote it unlocks the door & slightly opens it as well.
I keep those pesky ashtrays in the glove box … along with the “pair of lambskin driving gloves”. 
that leaves an opening to set things in (keeping in mind that there is no ‘full bottom’ in them, so small things can disappear down there. One could wrap the inside of the recess and make if safe for small things.
I purchased the cup holder version of the center burl trim from British Auto Wood in Florida
I see that people have too much time on their hands and worry about very insignificant things
I thought it was about too much heat on their hands. 
Once you’ve opened the hot door handles, you now get to wrap your hands around a hot steering wheel.
Gloves aren’t just for winter.
yep… if you drive a sporty car isn’t gloves and sun glasses de rigueur
Our new to us MGTF (03 MY) has a large aluminium gear knob. That’s going to need gloves in our mild (!) winter, I must be getting soft.
More likely decomposed teeth and British social benefit payout in your wallet…
There are electronics freezing sprays. Alternatively - a bottle of mineral water will do. I would recommend sun lotion but unsure about effects on metal…mm
This is the first time I have heard about problem of such… New cars are made out of plastic. Maybe it will be worth considering swapping…
Anyway, hot handles are much better than rusy one/falling-out. Sun is good for XJS after all…
Just gpt a great pair of gloves.
Two pair. Real cow hide. for work.
but, I use tem for a lot of stuff.
great quality. good prce. Fas delivery. Amazon. Not quite nine bucks for tewo pair.
Replaced my clth gloves.
i do ave dress gloves. somewhere???
I never took t wearing shorts. but, whe we lived in elCentro, i kept a towel or two in the cr to deal with ot seats!!1
CHJ
CHJ