For anyone thinking about buying old an S type....

Vital Stats - S Type SE | 2001 | 3.0 V6 | 24,000 KM

- I bought this car in Tokyo, from a picture and description (its extremely difficult to find a second hand car dealer in central Tokyo). Paid ~ 7000 USD , inc 500 USD cleaning charge and including ~1500USD taxes.

First impressions
Pro
- it looks beautiful inside and out. (sapphire Blue)
- We can notice ppl staring at her all the time, and on the small streets with lots of people where you need to drive really slow, Ive heard 3 or 4 times Dads saying to their kids "Ohh, Jagga Da" which roughly translates to "Look Son, its a jaguar, its awesome, please take note :-)". Little do they know this is a 10 yr old car! You cant tell the car age from the number plates in Japan, which is pretty cool.
- very luxurious compared to my previous Toyota corolla Spacio (Small ish station wagon)
- Ride comfort - absolutely awesome, number 1 thing I love about the car. I seem to float along the road. If the kids are tired in any way the fall asleep within 5 miles or so. This was pretty rare in the old Toyota.
- all the electrics and mechanical things seem to work perfectly. you see some horror stories in the forums, but Ive seen none of that so far
- ooomph. This car can really move.

Cons
- compared to the Toyota, the low driving position took some getting used to. One of my kids, 9 yrs old gets travel sick in this more in the S type than in the toyota, perhaps because of this.
- Its way too big for the backstreets of tokyo. I end up zigsawing in and out of corners all the time when I need to turn down narrow roads. If I knew how big this car was, i probably wouldn't have bought it, since my house is located on a very narrow road. Raising the radio antenna on the left front corner helps a bit. Hoping this will get batter as I get used to the dimensions and the low driving position and get less obsessed about scratching her.
- KM/L is not great, actually I don't care about this so much, its the price you pay, but including since some ppl might care. It took me 3 weeks to reach 100 KMs. I only take her out on the weekend, weekdays I cycle pretty much everywhere. Anyway, ave speed 12KM per hr (this is Tokyo!!) and that got me 4.7km per liter with the high octane premium fuel which I paid 156yen per liter currently -~ 1.90 USD.


Dont lets the list of cons fool you, overall, I am extremely happy with her, Jags are pretty rare in Tokyo, way too many mercs abd bmw s for my liking.

 

Congrats!

Don't put higher octane in than jag state (don't know what that is for Japan) - just a waste of money but harmless if you do. Pump tyres up a bit (but not too high) for lower fuel use.