My first drive on the motorway in my newly acquired 2004 X350 XJ6 (RHD), I discovered something odd about it. In a high-end luxury car with oodles of features and options, the passenger side rearview mirror on the door was flat.

I discovered this when I was pulling into the slower lane to get to the exit - using my turn signal, which like red flag to bull, prompted the aggressive driver in that lane to accelerate to get ahead of me. I did not see him in the rear view mirror.

Easy... I'll order a stick-on convex mirror on eBay UK.

Umm, not so fast.

First, they only show them for the S-type and the X-type. Eventually I found a forum comment that said the X350 XJ is the same size as the S-type.

Then when I ordered on eBay, it said there was something wrong with my address, even though on the product shipping page, it shows the vendor ships to NZ . Apparently Covid creating shipping problems so they give an error to ship to New Zealand. Ebay does not actually explain why the address error, it just exercises what the British call dumb insolence... no, we're not going to ship it to you, and we're not going to tell you why. Go suck eggs.

I was able to find the vendor was Wing Mirror Company Ltd (orders@thewingmirrorcompany.co.uk). The Item is called JaguarS Type-LEFT HAND ( UK Passenger Side )- 2002 to 2008, and it costs £5.99. Shipping to New Zealand was £9.99. It's slightly confusing because they have them for xj-sovereign 1995 to 2013 but not XJ (the XJ selection is for 1980-89 and 2013-2020). And they have them for 2002-2008 S-Type. I ordered the S-type.

I purchased it on 19 Feb 2021 and it arrived on 25 Feb wrapped in bubble wrap in a cardboard box - so much for trouble shipping from the UK to New Zealand. I cleaned the old mirror to ensure no dirt, peeled off the protective paper on the adhesive foam, stuck it on, and my Jag is now a normal car. First drive on the motorway and I feel safe again.

Of course, being a Jag, the mirror does have its British niggles. When I put the car in reverse, it kindly lowers the passenger side mirror, but when I go into drive it does not return it to the precise same location. It's like the mirror has a gremlin in it that figures a bit of movement is all it needs, after which he goes down to the pub for another pint. I only discover this while trying to change lanes before I miss the exit and discover the mirror is pointing to the sky to alert me to any oncoming inbound drones. This requires I fumble around to get it set right again to spot the kamikaze driver enraged by my turn signal.

 

Mine does the same occasionally and I just say to myself

that 'it forgot' however a poster on here found that he had a bad earth

causing the problem.