I'd go for it. It was a good year! Take it for a good ride and check the history. Has it been well maintained!. If you don't work on it yourself they will soak you for repair cost. But that's these cars and other foreign cars. Don't beat on it and it may last several years. Use the best fuel"93"octane. And best Oil. You'll love the cars' ride and the looks you'll get. Rear wheel drive is a learning thing for some people, I'm 63 and grew up with it.

 

I'll try to keep it short. Questions like these get asked frequently here and you can search using various key phrases (such as "S-Type purchase advice") that will provide you with plenty of pro vs. con advice....

As you've already learned, the steep early depreciation that all Jaguars are subject to make them very affordable to purchase two or three model years back. That's exactly what the majority of the regular participants on this forum have done, including myself. Although they are relatively inexpensive to purchase, they are not inexpensive to maintain. Parts are costly, and dealership service can also be very costly. I always say that if you can handle routine maintenance yourself, these cars can be very reasonable as long as you understand the expectations and requirements prior to jumping in....

You'll see a number of recommendations here that say when you're considering an S-Type, go with a 2005-and-newer version. I concur. I believe that the final 2005-to-2008 production run of the S-Type was its best. Ford's majority ownership in Jaguar really began to pay off by then as Ford's efforts to greatly improve quality and reliability became evident in the products rolling off the factory floors. The vast majority of the nagging problems of the early-to-mid S-Type production span had been resolved by the 2005 model year, and you can get a nice car for a great bang-for-the-buck price as a result. That being said, there are still a few issues but they are well-known and documented all over this website, including excellent step-by-step guides on how to effect repairs. The 4.2 V8 engine that you are considering is well-regarded and will deliver excellent performance with outstanding highway fuel economy if that is of interest to you. The key is to find the right car for you (perhaps you already have), and if you are not comfortable performing your own routine maintenance, then consider obtaining an extended warranty that will cover most of what may go wrong as the years roll past....

Use this website as a source of information on how to care for your S-Type and you'll come out far ahead on the maintenance expense side of the equation. There are a number of very knowledgeable folks here who can and do offer excellent advice, including several actual Jaguar master techs. When they speak, you should listen very carefully....

Good luck to you, and let us know how your situation turns out....

 

Are you from Toronto? That price is dealer price, the dealer is probably making at least 5k off you. I seen a 2005 jag 3.0 with 79,000km go for $13,700 But thats wholesale price. Just thought you may want to know.

Have you checked autotrader.ca I see some better deals?

You need to purchase a warranty, definitely with a jaguar. This car was rated the second most expensive car to maintain after porsche. I've heard mixed opinions about jaguars, some say its nightmares, others say they've never had a problem and thought in the beginning it would be horribly unreliable.

Make sure you sit in the car, turn the heater on and make sure there is no burning wire smell. This is a common issue. They drive good in the winter, it really depends how good of a driver you are.

 

Say what? Where'd you get that from?

Edit: never mind, it was probably from this topic:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=35173

which I interpreted to show that a Jag is only slightly more expensive to maintain than a lowly Yugo or bog standard Chevrolet, exactly as expected. Amazing how half-a**ed stats can mislead.

 

Was that from FrugalMechanic? Read their stuff and see how poor it is. Frankly not worth taking into account. Just look at the pathetic items they list and not even broken down by model or anything, let alone corrected for frequency or likelihood of those items needing replacement. I despair. I regret the time I wasted reading it.

Then I tried to use their site for my car and it listed parts that don't fit (drive belt 91" long and another equivalent that's 97" long, well one sure ain't gonna be right!) as well as leaving out ones that do. Again, a waste of my time.

 

Jon89 has it right on the button, second-hand Jags. do not fetch high money, parts are expensive too. The price you mention for a 2005 petrol seems a lot to me, $18,000, abt. £12,000. This would be considerably cheaper in UK from even a dealer, say more like £7000 to £9000. Before parting with money, I should test your intended VERY carefully over a period of at least half an hour on back roads and motorway/highways at a fair old lick, at least 80mph. ANY odd noises from the gearbox? Forget it, that's a big-budget item. Walk. Check also such things as the catalyser as far as you can, check windscreen for any star-shaped stone chips. If at all possible, take someone with you on your test who knows these cars.
It's a backwheel drive car, so it'll be twitchy driving in snow; conversly, the X-type AWD is phenominally good in snow, so much so that our UK Jeremy Clarkson in his tv show "Top Gear" on BBC had his crew use one to tow him along on skis at 30mph on a remote snow-covered road, in Scotland I believe. Let us know if you get it...
Leedsman.