Believe me I can vouch for that! I have seen this car in real life and it is a masterpiece of (a) man's devotion! Not only does it look good it sounds good and wakes up dead people. I can't wait to see the finished article!

Sean: So he talked you into the sparkles in the end then! LOL Looks good though.

 

I'm real tired of problems and I've only had the car a month. 3 weeks of that involve tranny issues. It is really discouraging. If it were not for the help of folks on this Site I would have burned the car by now.

 

I'm sorry to hear you're having a bad time with the car old bean I hope you get your issues sorted soon so you can enjoy the car

P.S. If you do decide to burn the car let us know first so we can have some parts! (Only Joking-Don't hit me )

 

I hear you man. My thermostat housing broke about 3 weeks ago. Got that replaced with the thermostat and a new water pump. Now I have 6 CEL codes that came up a few days ago! A cylinder is misfiring and now I have smoke coming from my hood as my valve cover gaskets have gotten rapidly worse in the past few days. I have only driven the car about 1/2 a mile since the misfire. Can a misfire damage the valve cover gaskets?

Thank God I can walk to class, b/c my car has been unreliable as of late.

 

I don't think it unreasonable to expect better of these cars. For a '98 my car has only 85k miles but has an issue for one of 185k. Jaguar has a bad reputation that seems they worked hard to deserve. I just hope that once I get this sorted out I'll love the car. If not, I'll be like the other side of Jag owners. Those are the never again type and I may be there soon.

 

One thing I have thought about, even though I love my car to the extreme, how many of us XJ owners would have a XJ if they were ugly inside and outside in addition to these reliability problems? Even if they still had the same ride, features, handling, and comfort, I think the resale of these cars would be even way worse than they are now. If you also eliminate the prestige of the Jaguar name, and the XJ would be a tough sell.

 

This might come to a surprise but I am no pro. I just decided to take my PowerShot and iPhone4 (HD camera) and started snapping away and playing with the settings.

 

I was a BMW man through and through long before I worked for and owned a Jaguar. I LOVED old school "Bracq" BMWs with their shark noses, turbine smooth stright six engines, "dreikugelwirbel" chamber fast burn combustion, and their semi trailing arm suspension which led to lively handling. Ergonomically masterful dashboards.They were also simple cars- easy to fix with all the engineering science physics fundamentals carried out flawlessly. However along came a Mormon by the name of Bangle and he ruined everything and made a mockery of the old school BMWs, with bland interiors and pretentious exteriors with awkward angles and weird shut lines on the back. In fairness there was some nice designs like the E39. But I was no longer interested in obtaining a modern BMW. It was finished. I still loved the engineering but I no longer desired or lusted after one. I was obviously one in a million though, as they continued to sell exceedingly well and people raved about them and even defended their looks...
Nowadays they're less risque and have gone towards the bland/boring/safe end of the spectrum.

I think some pretetious self important stylists should remind themselves that STYLE comes from within and fashion comes from with-out, or externally.
A good example of style is the X308 XJ, or the X100 XK series, a Maserati quattroporte, the Alfa Romeo 147 or 156,
Examples of mere fashion are: Renault Vel Satis, Peugeot 307, the new BMW 6 series and the E60 5 series. ALL IMHO. However its obvious that it seems to be FASHION that gets the numbers of sales

 

I have nearly the same exact opinions as this guy right here...except for Mercedes-Benz. I'm a Mercedes nut at heart.

 

Yes, Bangle is responsible for some very ugly cars. I favor the E39 though. The 7 series long wheel base cars have a lot of understated class. My Jag has class by the bucket load. It just has issues that are currently overshadowing all of that.

Edit:
I meant E38, not the E39.

 

I agree, I think this cost him his career in BMW . I have not seen any further uglier BMW models

 

++++1 !!!

As a long time BMW fan I always admired the sleek lines of the big 7-series sedans.
Not to mention all of the trend-setting technical and electrical features they offered and the way they combined luxury with a sportscar feeling. I drove various models since 1996 but the E38 (last pre-bangle shape) was my last one.
The E65 never grew on me (and will always be an ugly car for me).

But - shouldn't that be an X308 picture thread?

 

I always liked that shape 7 Series after seeing it in action in " Tomorrow Never Dies" But it was always Jaguar with me, now its in the blood. I love my X308 I really wouldn't change it for anything, I don't know of anything I'd rather have. Just looking at the lines is good-the shapes are right. I like how the inboard headlights are a little further forward than the outer ones and how the body curves around. I love the filler cap being on the rear deck so as not to ruin the body shape. I love the interior and the colours inside, I love the feel of the wooden rim wheel in my hands. I very rarely, if ever get frustrated with other traffic when in my Jag, it is such a calm and serene place to be nothing bothers me.

However what the X350 was supposed to be I don't know, and the new XJ looks a lot like the Citroen C6 from certain angles. One thing that can be said for certain about the X308, there isn't and never was anything on the road that even comes close to the beauty of these cars.

 

The New XJ is hideous IMO. The front looks nice, but the side profile has to be one of the ugliest of any new car. The rear doors look too small, and the C pillar fails at the sedan-coupe look. The whole rear end is a mess. I have been inside one. The interior is ok. Its modern, but I think the 7 series and Audi A8 have nicer interiors.

The front end is a knockoff of the Quatroporte. I'm surprised to not hear more comparisons between the two cars in the front. Both are beautiful from the front, but the Quatroportte is beautiful from all angles. That car should have been the new XJ. The Quatroporte has a bland interior that is worse than the new XJ however.

 

The front totally doesn't match the rest of the new XJ. I've only seen a few in person so I'm going to hold back on an opinion besides what I've written. I'll give it time but the front being more round while the rest is angular isn't good. Of course, with the new XJ being so radically different than past models it is given that many would be turned off by it.

 

Follow this link: Bertone B 99 concept for Jaguar leaks out ahead of Geneva — Autoblog

This is a concept of the XJ from Bertone, who isn't the best of design houses. Why the Fri* Jaguar didn't make this I don't know! It was the next logical step!

 

Give it a longer wheelbase and it would be very nice.

 

dragging this back on track..... :P

 

'99 XJR. Sadly, I'm not much of a photographer...

 

The pictures are actually very good.