Bonjour Dudes and Dames!

I'm a 73 y.o. Geezer looking for my first Jaguar. I'm ready to retire my beloved '07 Lincoln Town Car. I accidentally saw some ads for a 1998 Jaguar XJ Vanden Plas and it was live at first sight. I was about ready to buy it right then, but pulled back my wallet and jumped on here to find out from the experts what to get, what to pass on, and what to hope for!

ok, seriously. I love the look of the XJ and the XJ L. They are almost as big as my Town Cat, which is fantastic because i like the long low heavy cars. My main concern is what to avoid? Which are the problem cars? I only drive 5k miles per year, and i can afford maintenance if it's not absurd. I'd love to keep it under $25 grand, and under 75,000 miles. Possible? Or wishful thinking?

Any advice sourced!

 

Welcome aboard.

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

Indeed, you will love it. The X308 (98-03) has nearly the same magic carpet ride of your Lincoln but in a smaller package that is much easier to park, with near 360 degree visibility all around. Its the easiest car to "live with" that I've ever owned. I wish they still made sedans like it, but today, every sedan has to be a "sport sedan", shock absorbers filled with concrete, aerodynamic and so-called safety compromises that require video cameras and sonar sensors to park and everything today is as wide as your Lincoln. I do like some of the more modern features of my XF (and the hp) but its harder to see out of, much harder to park and though the trunk is larger, I literally have to crawl inside to reach stuff. My X308 just accumulated too many miles to rely on for commuting anymore but being retired, you could find one with lower mileage and solid maintenance records and do 5,000 a year for a long time.

There are things to watch out for tho in buying an X308. The best year is 2003 because by then the engineers had worked out all the bugs. 98-99 had plastic water pump impeller issues, but by now the water pumps are likely replaced unless its a very low-mileage car. 98 through the first couple months of 02 had plastic timing chain tensioner issues and with 20+ year old plastic parts we warn buyers today not to even start the motor until you can replace those tensioners with the new metal design. Not very many made it to 100K miles without being replaced but if you get one with like 60K miles that hasn't been, then you must replace them anyway as the plastic fails with age more so than mileage. Totally mileage based tho, they all suffer from wear inside the bore of the main hydraulic pressure valve in the transmission. If the little piston inside gets stuck, then the over pressure ruptures the A-drum in the transmission. Again, by like 80K miles, astute drivers notice transmission shifting issues and will have that fixed before it fails catastrophically. There's kits from Transgo and Sonnax that solve the problem and we recommend installing one by 60K as a preventative. Another way to avoid the transmission issue is to get one with the Supercharged engine as it came with a more robust Mercedes transmission. But regardless, the key is to get one with a complete service history so you can see that it was well-maintained and that all the potential pitfalls have been addressed. in the Jaguar world, No Records = No Sale.

Lastly, these were sort of "bespoke" automobiles, meaning you could order quite a lot of optional features and colors. You might want to do a little research as to what all was available and not just buy the first one that comes along. Maybe you want a Vanden Plas and not a Sovereign or a long wheelbase or you're an audiophile and want the upgraded stereo. Takes longer to find specific features and you may have to travel across country to inspect one, but then you get what you want. Good luck.

 

Welcome to the forum Desertratt,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.

 

welcome to the forum - good luck in your search

 

Thanks Phil! I feel like you just got me through Jaguar 101 class! Yes, the records- I can see that's crucial thing.

 

Hello,
Welcome to the forums from ElinorB.
(';')

 

@Desertratt, use the search function for the X308 forum to find the answers to many questions you may have.

If you opt for an earlier car, make sure the primary and secondary timing chains, guides and tensioners have been replaced as they can cause catastrophic engine damage if they fail.

 

Bonjour back Desertratt...

Phil D and NBCat gave you great advice on what to look for and what to watch out for so I won't repeat it, or at least I won't repeat all of it but I will repeat some of it. Maintenance records are more important than price.

As another old geezer, we will be leaving next week to fly from Edmonton to Victoria to pick up an '01 XJR to drive back sight unseen. This will be the third time we've done this, the previous two for Series 3 V12 cars. The first was in 2006 that was 15 years old at the time. She not only got us home flawlessly she was my daily driver for the next 15 years (and still would be if she hadn't met an unfortunate end back in January) and the XJR is intended to take on that role.

Each one of these cars came with a complete history right back to the day they were first sold and put into service. In terms of pricing, I happily paid what some might consider a hefty premium. I simply allocated half of the cost to the car and the other half to the service records and, 15 years later, both halves added up to being a bargain. For perspective, the XJR will command a similar premium that in total will still cost me less than a Toyota Corolla demo.

Not only are these cars as reliable as your Town Car, they are also easy to fall in love with and stay in love with. You will never park it anywhere without looking back at it fondly and you will receive more compliments from perfect strangers than you might have thought possible.

I hope you enjoy both your search and the results of a successful search - hopefully the search will last only a short time with the result being with you for a long time.

 

Welcome to the forums Desertratt,

Good to have you with us.

Follow this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xj-xj8-xjr-x308-27/ to the X308 forum for help, advice and information. The 'HOW TO' thread at the top is a good place to start for information on regular issues. You can also use the US Western Region forum by following this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/us-western-38/ to find other members in your region.

Please read the guidance for new members ( https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/n...ned-up-241802/ ) which answers many of the most frequent questions about getting started.

Enjoy the forums.

Graham

 

Welcome to the Forums.

 

I should have probably also mentioned that being garage kept is also key because all the plastics, rubbers and vinyls that deteriorate in the sun and the difficulty of finding replacements. Adding to Ken, the value is maybe 1/3rd each in the records and the past storage conditions. You might find one that has all it maintenance up to date, but was parked outside for the last five years. Yes, you could paint it, you could re-upholster the seats, but its hard to justify those costs if you can't buy replacements for all of the toasty bits to finish the job. The first things to go will be door handle gaskets, the drip-rail ends and the windshield defrost vents, the latter two being made of the rare earth element unobtainium. Inspect those things carefully.

The nice thing about Jaguars tho is that the original and often second owners could afford a house with a garage. By the third owner, they had depreciated to where they fell into the hands of apartment dwellers. They were almost exclusively leased from new for the first two to three years, then sold to the second owner for another three to four years. When I was buying, they were mostly just coming off the second owners. Now its more difficult, but there are still some long-term second owners out there and a few enthusiast third owners like me who kept them indoors.

 

Have you considered the new X351 XJ? Much better car but certainly not in the style of the one your looking at. I ask because at 73 your not going to be able to do a lot of mechanic work. I have had much experience with both models and there was just a lot more repairs on the earlier models. Because of age of course but they were just more problematic cars. Read the forums for more details.

With a $25K budget you can find many X351's in that range. Now I also disagree about them being close to your old town car. Yes they ride nice but Jaguar made the XJ a drivers car so you will feel more things in the XJ than you did in the Town Car. I don't see where you have driven any XJ? Be sure and drive a couple so you can feel the difference. Plus the Town Car is just a rock solid tank of a car. Not unusual to see 400K-600K miles on these in commercial service. So no comparison on reliability and long tern durability. The Town car wins there.

But I drive an XJ too and love the car. Just make sure it's what YOU want. Also you can't give these cars away. So do not fall in love and bargain hard and be prepared to walk away as there will always be another. I would really suggest asking this forum before you buy ANY XJ. Plus you might run across someone with a great car on this forum who is ready to move on? Heck maybe even post a wanted ad on the forum when you know what you want?
.
.
.

 

By all means, if you like the modern styling, test drive a newer XJ, but I get the "love at first sight" thing. When I was a kid, only men with families drove 4-door sedans so it was hard to imagine myself ever driving a sedan. However, the Series 3 was just so cool looking, that even at 15-16 years old I could see myself as a middle-aged executive in a Jaguar sedan. There was no other 4-door that did anything for me as a teenager (and I still kind of want a Series 3 but too little garage space and too many sports cars on the wish list). The X308 was the ultimate evolution of the original XJ and after a back surgery made my pickup truck intolerable for commuting, the X308 had already depreciated to an unbelieveably cheap magic carpet ride. I saw my opportunity to have one.

I only really intended to drive it temporarily till I healed up, but I fell in love with it and drove it daily for six years until at 117K miles the alternator gave out on the way to a business meeting where about 30 people were waiting for me to give the presentation. I realized that no matter how much preventative maintenance I did, its never going to be a new car again or have late-model reliability so I felt forced to update to something newer. I gave some serious thought to just seeking out another X308, a 2003, three years newer with much lower mileage, but parts were already getting scarce and then I'd just be back in the same boat in a few years. I don't recommend an X308 today as a commuter car, but if I were retired yet still able to DIY most repairs and still had a second car that I could drive while I waited for the parts on back-order, then yes, absolutely, I'd have another X308. Actually, as a retiree with time to hunt, I'd seek out one of the VDP SC or SV8s.

But one more thing about living with an X308 that I find cool (you may not) is that even with just a base model, is the attention that it gets. You very likely will not be able to fill up your gas tank without a total stranger at an adjacent pump complimenting your car. My Corvette, my Supra get some attention, but it just astounds me how much more attention the XJ8 gets whether I'm getting gas, walking into a restaurant or just thumbs up from other drivers. (The XF by contrast is a good choice if you're in a witness protection program.) But I guess that's something to consider if you don't want to talk to just about everyone who sees you with your X308. Granted nobody ever offers to buy it; everybody remembers hearing stories of Jaguar reliability from 40 years ago, Lucas electrics, Prince of Darkness, etc (even young people who weren't even born yet), but everybody seems to think it looks really cool. Something about the classic XJ series are just universally loved.