Hi, new to the forum and looking for some advice.

I have a reliable daily driver which my wife got after we married this year (she works furthest away). We've been making do with 1 car and I'm looking at getting something a littlw more fun as I only live 4 mikes from my job, though we might be moving further next year.

At any rate, I saw this Jaguar on Craigslist for $3k with 90k miles. A 2004 x-type 3.0 automatic. I'm going to try to test it out over the next few days.

Does anyone have any advice on any specific issues I should look out for for this model? Anything I should ask the seller?


Also is a Jaguar right for my situation? The reliability reputation is fairly poor, and I don't want a money pit. I also have no clue how to work on cars. On the other hand, I have an independent jag specialist not to far, and I don't mind spending up to a couple hundred dollars a month in maintenance if I can get a nice running car.

Thanks for any advice!

 

Euclid, the big question I would be asking is whether the car was made on/before March 2004 or after that time. The reason why I ask is there were numerous changes made in early 2004 to the drivetrain and electrical system and this can change things a little bit.

The big one is the early 2004's had a viscous coupled transfer case where the later cars had an open differential transfer case installed. Where this makes a difference is if you live in an area that gets snow and/or ice. With the earlier cars, if you loose traction on one end of the car, the transfer case will automatically transfer power to the other end. Where the later car will simply spin the one wheel that looses traction unless the vehicle is equipped with DSC (Dynamic Stability Control, black button on the center console). So, this is a big thing to look at.

I would also recommend making a test drive of the car and check 2 things: 1) when you are driving, does the front end of the car make a metallic grinding sound like there is sand inside the transfer case or marbles inside the transfer case? If so, stay away from the car. The transfer case is starting to go and to get a new one is about a $3000 bill. 2) pull on the e-brake before going for the test drive and see if you can pull it up part way and have it engage or can you pull it all the way up to the top and it makes a sudden stop? You can then release the e-brake and go for your drive. If you can pull it up and only make it part way, then see if you have a hot rear wheel after say a 5-10 minute drive. If so, you have an e-brake lever that is frozen and it will need repaired. Or, if you can pull the e-brake handle all the way up, someone has been driving with the e-brake lever(s) frozen and they haven't noticed and have worn away a lot of the brake pad and therefore lots of rear brake work is in your future.

These cars are prone to vacuum issues. But, with this group, they are easy to fix and even without a lot of mechanical know how, we can step you through figuring things out. Even something like the rear brakes is an easy thing to do if you are willing to learn.

I would not call the X-Type a money pit or a vehicle that is expensive to repair. It is really a pretty reliable car. Yes, it has its quirks, but then, so does every vehicle. If you know where to get parts, they are not any more expensive than other cars you may have driven.

Now, one thing that I will say will make the X-Type not the car for you is how you plan on driving it. The X-Type is a cruiser, not a sports car. the X-Type likes to get out and cruise the highways at 75 MPH and will get you there in style. You want to have fun and go light to light, it is going to be an expensive car as the transfer case does not like hard launches and will fail in no time flat.

if you need more info, let me know.

 

Great questions you raised Euclid!! I am a new 04 X-type owner with only 55k miles and one previous owner. I paid $6,100 for mine and am ok with that mostly because of all the options this car has. It didn't come with a owners manual which is not a big deal but at least it came with two sets of keys. I am wondering at what point do I get a tune up because I have tried to look it up online through an owners manual PDF but not having much luck. I was thinking on just getting one done now so I have piece of mind knowing the type of filters, oil, and plugs I have running in the car. So Thermo what you are saying is even though there is an option for driving in sport mode this is something that should be avoided?

 

Hey Thermo any idea on when is a good time to get a tune up? Also how would I find out my 04 was a early or later model 04 that has the bad transfer case?

 

Jaguar 1981, as for a time to do a tune up? This has a wide range of answers and this what I feel is proper for the car: Every 100K miles unless you start having problems with idle and misfires. Then change the plugs earlier as appropriate. The big thing with this is KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Our cats HATE!!!!!! the special plugs (ie, Bosch +4's, Splitfires, or any other "multi-spark" spark plug). End of story. I can't say I have heard anyone say that their car ran great with those plugs. Most have horror stories, a few saw no change. Stick with a good double platinum plug and call it good. The big thing is making sure you have the correct gap on the plugs (don't trust the pre-gapped plugs as they have been tossed around inside the box and the actual gap can be who knows what).

As for determining whether you have an early or later 2004, that is easy. Go out to your car and open the driver's door. Down in the bottom corner where the front and rear doors meet, you should see a white sticker there with tons of information on it. Near the bottom it will say Build Date and it will give you a day. That is the date I am referring to. This sticker also has important information like interior color code and exterior paint codes. These come in handy if you ever have to replace any interior parts or need to touch up the paint on the exterior.

As for the transfer cases, it isn't so much that they are "bad". They are just not up to repeated abuse like some think that they should be. I drove my car out to 180K+ miles on the factory transfer case. Was I babying it all the time. Oh hell no. Was I drag racing it every chance I had. Of course not. If you drive sensibly, the transfer case will outlast the car. But, if you like to go fast a lot, it can wreak havoc. I would not be loosing sleep over it, but it is also something that you need to be aware of.