Drive mine every day have a back up cars but to say they break and they will leave you stranded is like it will rain and you could get wet. It can always happen in any walk of life with any car, no matter how finicky and well maintained they are. Mine has made a great DD would have respectfully disagree with you on that one. At work we have plenty of brand new 2013 vehicles that get towed in all the time or even 5 year old "reliable" cars. When a fuel pump goes out it goes out stuff happens. Sure the pump for the Jag may cost you 300 instead of 200 but anything can breakdown anytime. Drive the crap out of them like me it's more fun that way I have had my A trip odometer on since I bought my car hahaha average MPG = 10.2 lol I drive my car it's more fun that way then taking it out on the weekend for a leisurely cruise on the country side, driving every day I get to race the punks in their mustangs lol I see what you're saying just telling you how the other half lives hahah with a big smile on my face.

 

Daniel,
I know what you mean, I bought mine cash new, figured it was going to be a $1200 a month car payment if I had to finance it. I plan on $2000 a year on service, (Trained tech, factory parts) This car is well maintained, It has left me stranded 3 times in 14 years.
I drive an old chevy S10 pickup around town and back and forth to LA, My wife now drives the XJR around 5000 miles a year, and we have another car for fun. I know it's only going to be less reliable as it gets older and will soon be a weekend dinner car.

As a daily driver they are great cars BUT you better be ready to spend money on good regular services, oil changes and a mechanic that can see the car every 3 months to tell me what is going to get fixed next before I'm stranded waiting for a tow truck.

Not preparing for the next problem is just asking for trouble.

As a side note, my car has NEVER thrown a code and reading the forum that's not everyone's experience. So I think the regular servicing is critical.

 

Yah I guess I should put a disclaimer, using them as a daily you must at least be able to preform your own services and probably wrench on the car yourself. I get to keep up on my service and put the car up on a lift and inspect it every 3K. I believe that is what makes me so confident.

 

+1 wholeheartedly agree

 

my man! redoctober! such good advice..i am soaking all of this information up! good stuff! thanks so much for the info!

 

Thank you for "backing me up". All I was trying to say is that young people (like MetalGoddess here), fall in love with the looks ("the lure") of the Jag, and IF that is their ONLY vehicle, and they can not fix and/or service it themselves, they better have a "daily beater" that can take the abuse of the freeway rock chips, shopping carts, parking lot dings, fender benders, and high mileage. They can drive the Jag when they want to feel "special", but with every passing mile they are increasing the odds in the favor of a disabling breakdown. And IF the money is an issue,......the car WILL be parked for a long time.

There is simply "no free ride". Money has to be spent either on the payments on a new one with warranty, or it will be spent on services and/or repairs. People see the beautiful car, and a disproportionaly low price, and there comes the trouble!

Drive them, "beat" them, drive them "spirited" (like the BMC), but be prepared to "pay the piper" (or better get busy learning how to do things yourself!).

 

Exactly if you don't even have the know how to know problem signs before it becomes a code you really have no reason to buy and older car without a warranty, and being able to service the car yourself is a must this way you yourself can inspect and see larger problems before they become that.

But even with that it could still let you down unexpectedly just like anything, but if you don't have the money for large repairs that could unexpectedly happen like a trans or something then forget it.

 

Now it seems we're all on the same page!

 

Glad to be of service madam

The bottom line is that these are big old premium cars & no different to any other big old premium car-they are all machines with their own unique weaknesses.

The way to have a successful 'relationship' with these cars is to learn as much as possible about them, do all your homework, learn the weak spots & what to watch for. Do preventative maintenance to lessen the chances of a 'big' failure at a later date.

Being on a forum such as this excellent one is a gateway to a gold mine of useful information-there's always someone who has seen it & done it all before & has the answers to your questions.

Plus there's quite a lively banter to liven up a dull day!

My Jags were not bought as my main cars, so I was never dependent on them for travel to work etc. I found that you could get by on your normal daily driving by using a cheap old car that was simpler & cheaper to fix-if it went 'bang' then you haven't lost much & could easily get another.

I never felt bad when driving round in an old heap as I knew the 'weekend mistress' was lurking in the driveway with the supercharger, ready to pounce when the road conditions were great for a spirited drive

The Jag was kept for those days when I wanted to go for a drive, purely for the joy of driving a great car-I'd often choose my times & road locations to maximise driving enjoyment.

The other 'daily driver' car was the one that sat in traffic jams, got covered in salt spray underneath on the winter roads, got dinged in the supermarket car park by trolleys etc & never made me feel worried by what I was doing to it!

Here in the UK one of the biggest problems is corrosion because of our hideously damp maritime climate-especially in the coastal regions, which is where I live

This is easily one of the best forums I've been on & the level of information detail on any aspect of these cars is superb-I've been spannering old cars for years now but still learn new things on this forum that I wasn't previously aware of.

The thing to be aware of with these Jags is that they do have certain well-known weaknesses. However, spending a few hundred on preventative maintenance (metal secondary tensioners & gearbox valve block overhaul on the non-supercharged models, for example) can save failures that would cost thousands to put right at a later date.

If the plastic secondary tensioners fail then the engine damage can run into the thousands-so spend a few hundred & get the metal tensioners fitted beforehand.

Same goes for the ZF gearbox on the non-supercharged models. Spend a few hundred on a gearbox valve block overhaul & you can probably avoid the full transmission failure later which could cost thousands to repair.

At the end of the day these were expensive premium cars when they were new-the cars may be a lot cheaper to buy now because of depreciation, but the spare parts are still as expensive as when new & will have risen in price with inflation...

Cars like these are always a gamble, so it's handy to have a small cheap old Diesel hatchback for your daily driving-that way you're not totally dependent on the 'exotic' car for all your transport needs.

I love my Jags & although they have never stranded me yet, I always have the backup of a daily driver car which is cheap & therefore 'expendable' if anything happened to it.

As you know you've got the Jag at home for special occasions, it's easy to drive around normally in a cheap old heap for all the rest of your daily driving-gives you something else to carry the spare Jag parts home from the breakers yard in as well

 

Yup, well said.....and you can always get a licence plate frame for your beater that reads "My other car is a Jaaaag!"

 

I'm thinking of getting a licence plate frame for the Jag which reads "My other car is a Bentley"

Mind you, I'd probably get lynched in my town if I did that-what with the UK recession & everything

 

Naaah,.....nobody is lynching the royals yet, are they?

 

Maybe not in the South-but I live in the North of England, which is a barren place where people eat mud

 

Call them. Sounds nice. Two owners, purchased in Tucson by the first owner. Never left AZ. I need to ask a friend to go and look it over. The only concern is the paint. My VDP was AZ car, and they buffed the bejesus out of it (thats why it needs paint). I really wouldn't want to paint another one.

When I lived in Scottsdale, (being as **** as I am), I was covering my Benz every morning in front of the dealership I was working at. If this one was taken care off, it will be a nice car!

 

I have yet to find an insurance company that subscribes to the logic that owning three cars is not three times the rating risk by the very simple virtue of not being able to drive more than one at a time.

 

I know-it's a huge con & the same thing applies to the UK road tax discs we have to buy every year for each car we own & use on the public road-even though you can only every drive 1 car on the road at a time

However, the Jag qualifies for relatively cheap Classic Car insurance & ancient, cheap old runabout hatchback is also relatively cheap to insure too.

In the UK fuel costs are the biggest expense due to the stupid tax levels on fuel here & in Europe. That's why my daily runabout is an old BMW Diesel which I run on cheap old cooking oil & homebrew BioDiesel, as these fuels are exempt from tax in the UK when used for personal useage.

 

Full coverage in North America can surpass the annual fuel cost if someone does not drive much.

Now ... if one's family is in the restaurant business homebrew biodiesel is plentiful and cheap. You just stay very hungry all the time because of the whiff of french fries and other goodies that follow you around.

 

All insurances are such a con, on my Jag I use Liability coverage and Comprehensive, I opted out of full coverage. I just cared about getting covered if it gets stolen or vandalized. Collision coverage was ridiculous.

 

I have had my car for 9 years. I have 113k miles on it now. I have only had such a long daily commute in the past year or so. I'm not a mechanic, but I fix simple things like broken door clips, a blown rear subwoofer, MAF sensor, and etc. I have a code reader and know enough about the car to know what preventative maintenance to do and which faults should be fixed immediately. I have a shadetree mechanic do my repairs, but you have to know what repairs need to be done even if you utilize a mechanic. I had my tensioners replaced before they made any noise as a preventative item, my transmission A drum replaced (after it failed), and my cooling system replaced after a hose blew immediately after I turned off the car (never overheated). I'm always aware of any new noise or clunk and catch things before they get worse. After I had all these trouble spots fixed (which affect most of these cars), the car became much cheaper to maintain.

I'd say these cars are reliable but not really. All luxury cars are more delicate and more expensive to maintain than a Honda. After you get these trouble spots fixed, then the car can be considered reasonably reliable considering its age and class of car. BUT, fixing these trouble spots are very expensive if you have a mechanic do them.

If you have an extremely limited budget, I'd be weary of this car, and any luxury car for that matter. If you can budget a certain amount of $ for repairs, and have the trouble spots sorted out, then I would say this car is a good daily driver. If the tensioners have not been replaced, the transmission is the original, and the cooling system is original, then I would be very concerned b/c you are gambling with failure (which can be prevented) that can exceed the cost of the car. Tensioners that fail will ruin the engine. If the cooling system fails and the car is not turned off ASAP, then the engine can be ruined (this is true with almost every gas engined car ever made however). If the transmission fails, and the car continues to be driven (instead of parked asap), then you are looking at a mandatory trans rebuild or replacement with a questionable used transmission.

I'm not a mechanic, but my knowledge of this car thanks to this forum and others have saved me a lot of $ and my car from being headed to the junkyard. You have to find a good mechanic. I had two Jag only independent mechanics try to rip me off through the years. Info from this forum helped me in that ordeal.

Overall, my car was reliable for the first 3 years I had it, then became a nightmare for the next 3 years, and then the most recent 3 years have been pretty good (for a luxury car this old aka still worse than a relatively new Honda).

 

i am definitely the third group, rescued this car from a slow death at a used lot, knowing that owning this car takes huge commitment.