A posting on the www.bringatrailer.com site today got me thinking. I check out this site almost daily for interesting cars on the market.

There is an 80s vintage diesel Mercedes on the site today. These were simple, overengineered, understressed cars that can be driven forever with decent maintenance.

So, my question is --- Could a 2006 XK8 which currently has almost 60,000 miles on it and has had great maintenance be expected to provide reliable daily driver service for another 20 years or more? There are a lot of old Jags still on the road. But those cars were made in different times. Although many of them were not so reliable to start with, they were relatively simple with no sophisticated electronics (just as well - the simple stuff didn't work out so hot). You could make them pretty reliable. Get parts and service them.

My 2006 has been bulletproof reliable. In my opinion, except for early e-types and the XK-120, it is the most beautiful Jaguar ever built. I can see myself driving it and not wanting another daily driver for a long, long time.

Will all the electrics work over the long haul? Will there be mechanics who can fix anything on the car? Parts availability?

Or will expensive, hard to fix, no parts available, nobody knows how stuff works force me to junk it and get another car?

I have never considered any other of my cars to be a long term daily driver. Maybe this is the one.

Oh, let's assume I drive 10,000 miles per year, so over the next 20 years I would put another 200,000 miles on the car for a total of 260,000 miles.

What do you say?

Thanks!!

Jack

 

I sure hope so. It is my daily driver now and I have no intention of letting it go anytime soon. The electrical system will certainly be an issue due to complexity, but think that can be overcome with upgrades and general maintenance.

A rock solid motor, once a few issues have been addressed, and generally good mechanicals equals a car that should go the distance. There are already several guys on the site that have 150k+ miles.

250K? It is a rare breed that makes it to that level. They die from reasons other than the car expiring. Cost vs. ROI usually wins after a while for most owners unless it is a very exclusive (read expensive) car. But then the owner has stopped driving it except for the annual trip across the Pebble Beach lawn. Most SSK Mercedes left are still drivable, but when was the last time you saw one on the road?

 

Absolutely. How much it will cost you depends on a little bit of luck, how hard you drive and if you're performing regular maintenance. Of course, things wear. Eventually you'll probably need to rebuild the tranny. May need to replace bushings, shocks, tires, etc... These motors have shown to last a very long time with regular maintenance.

Mine will be my daily driver for life. I drive it pretty hard sometimes. I expect I'll need to redo a few things later down the road, but I don't see why I wouldn't be able to keep driving it for the next 20+ years.

I don't think you can expect it to be completely trouble free over that kind of lifespan, but using it for a daily driver shouldn't be a problem. There are a number of people here who have 200k+.

 

My '01 has been a rock-solid daily driver for 6+ years now. About 85k miles; 60k of those are mine.

That said, the idea of such a car being a good candidate for 250k miles seems to me pretty remote. There just is not the level of over-design that would be needed in this or that system, this or that component.

It could be kept alive with enough attention, but at what cost?

Just my $.02.

 

Yeah, I guess that is my concern. But even if repair and maintenance costs are a little high down the road, I would probably accept that. The cost of the alternative (buying another car) would have to be considered.

Right now - no concerns. It is all good. In fact I have a Jaguar warrantee good til mid 2014. I guess that is my next go/no go point.

Thank you,

Jack

 

Every part on the car is replaceable, or rebuildable. If you're shooting for 250,000 miles (and why not?), components will eventually fail...but likely they'll fail one at a time and you'll be able to address them. New engine and gearbox options are available when you want them. There were 90,000 of these cars made over a ten year period...the breakers will keep the parts bins full for a good while.

If you really love your car, like I do, you'll see it through. Even with plenty of replacing and rebuilding, the car you cross that 250,000 line with will still have the same magic for you.

 

As you mentioned in your original post, the electrics are the likely weakness to cause future difficulties. It's good to see that build quality of the bodywork has improved to the extent that few suffer the corrosion issues that were so common in 1970's Jaguars.

The first XK8's are now fifteen years old and many are still daily drivers. The huge popularity of this model on the forum shows no sign of diminishing. If anything it is probably growing.

Parts availability is driven by demand or willingness to pay. The number of these vehicles produced and the loyal following makes me optimistic that support for the more difficult and expensive electrical items will become more widely available in future in the aftermarket as Jaguar ceases to supply.

However being realistic, the repairs and maintenance costs to run an XK8 as a daily driver for the next two decades will be considerable and impractical for the majority. I can see many surviving but as pampered weekend cars.

Graham

 

As long as you are good at DIY and / or have a spare ride, then yes.
These are higher maintenance cars and more go wrong with them than basic cars - don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. I believe there are three reasons for this. First, these cars were loaded for their day, so there is more to go wrong - true of any type of luxury car. Second, low production cars get less testing and less samples of failures. Jag made about 70,000 XK8 / XKR's total over 10 years. This includes LHD / RHD, convertible / coupe, naturally aspirated / supercharged and 4.0 / 4.2 models. Big car manufacturers produce this amount of a car model in the first year they introduce a car. In many cases, Jag didn't know what needed to be redesigned better until they were making their new 2007 XK, and those they did know about were taken into account in the 2003 refresh, yearly update, or a part upgrade. Third, these cars first priority are not long term reliability. They cater to a market type that will hopefully replace their Jag with another Jag near the end of their warranty period.
Now that I've said that, let me say:
For most everyone on this forum, they love their XK's. Those who DIY, especially love them because they are cheap for us to maintain; along with the pride of being the one keeping our XK's running. Throw in their good looks, power, rarity, and attention they get as well. Their drive trains are solid (engines, transmissions, final drives). Most of their parts are easy to get cheaply and new. The rest can be gotten used easily. Also, I don't believe I've ever had anything go wrong with my XK that other people haven't that isn't addressed somewhere on this forum.
So, it will run; but you will have to maintain it somewhat vigorously. It's no Hyundai (my backup car because I have an XKR). All I do to the boring, reliable, Hyundai is oil changes; and it is bulletproof. Then again, the Hyundai is no XKR. There is a reason I drive my XKR with 120K miles 90% of the time over my boring yet flawlessly designed Hyundai. Also it never strands me and will give early warning with a CEL, message, or small leak / fluid smell as to the attention it will need.

 

I concur with Graham. At some point the cost of maintaining my wife's 2006 XK8 as her daily driver will cause me to sell it. However, she loves this car more than any vehicle she's ever had in 40-plus years of driving and for her sake, I hope her XK8 remains relatively affordable for us for at least five to seven more years. She's always done about 25,000 miles per year in her daily drivers, so we'll see what happens in the years to come....

I predict that the electronics, the plastics, the ridiculous cost of decent tires, and the ZF transmission will all combine to eventually cause me to have to tell her that her XK8 must be retired. I doubt if we'll keep it as a toy. By that time, vastly-improved fuel economy and new-generation technology will have finally convinced me that our beloved V8 engines (including my trusty 1999 Dodge Ram pickup) must be put out to pasture. If the cost of fuel in the U.S. catches up to the cost of fuel in the U.K., I envision that pasture time will arrive in our garage even sooner....

 

Funny actually... I haven't done any DIY on this car. Even let the dealer change the oil - first car where I haven't done it myself. I don't think DIY is an option for me with this car. I am letting the dealer do maintenance. I have a warrantee til mid 2014 and they can do it til then. I know a couple of good independents after that. The 2007s an newer are probably better cars. But they look fat to me. I want what I have. I am willing to pay reasonable $ to keep it perfect. Should be cheaper than buying another car. Should be. If the costs get ridiculous I could dumpt it and by a newer one. But I don't want to.

Spare ride... my spare ride is a Superformance Shelby 427 Cobra. Like I said... funny.

Thanks,

Jack

 

Thanks for all the replies. I think these cars represent a high water mark for Jaguar. Drop dead gorgeous. The Ford influence really helped reliability. Maybe the F type will be great too. We will see.

I paid close to the top of the market for mine ($26,000 for a perfect 2006 Victory Edition XK8 with Select Edition Warrantee in 2010). But let's get real here... Someone paid around 90 large for the car new four years earlier. I guess I could sell it and put in a few bucks and get a 2007+ model. Objectively they must be better. But it would be a sad day. Ours are the best looking Jags since the e-type.

Jack

 

Old information. The 2003+ Jaguars are rated near the top for reliability. Proper maintenance is key for longevity with any car.

My XK8 is my daily driver and I intend to keep it that way. It has been dead-solid reliable, even with two cross-country tours under its belt.

 

Well, it looks like the DIY comments are covered. That's how I expect to get mine to 250k miles. It could be a while, now that I'm not putting 600 miles a week on it. Daily driver and two backups (2-1/2 if you count the wife's car).
Mike

 

my daily driver is a 1992 911, 223k miles and going strong. I think the quality of the Porsche exceeds my XK8, but I intend to keep the XK8 going until I die.

agree with Bill's comments.

I'll spend the money to do repairs because there are no other cars that appeal to me.

 

I can't believe it has come to this, but to my current eye our XKs are even prettier than the E-types.

Back in the day, nothing looked better to me than an E-type. Somehow now it looks a little bulbous and sort of unbalanced ... too much of the mass of the car in front of the driver. Picky, yes; it's just my gut reaction now. (The stuff surrounding you while in the driver's seat of an E-type remain my favorite ever.}

From that era, the Healey 3000's looks seem to me to have held up the best. It still looks perfectly balanced and timeless.

All of this purely subjective, as is anything visual I suppose.

 

Please continue sharing tips for using non-Jaguar parts that keep XK's on the road affordably. For example, the how-to to rebuild the front shock tower affordably. Collectible specimens must remain pure, but I still love my cars after enough miles and a bit of repaint and there's no use being a slave to authenticity. I share BlkCat's desire to keep driving my XK8 forever. Frustrated by complexity, last month I also took a hard look at '70s & '80s Mercedes for the simplicity/ longevity aspect. But the test drive ended my interest in the half-million mile MBZ and renewed by determination to care for my XK8s.

 

I think that if you enjoy a car and are willing to put the time & money into it , you should be able to drive it for as long as you want.

 

Yeah, when I saw the 80s vintage diesel Mercedes on Bringatrailor.com it got me thinking. Sure you could drive them forever. But who wants to? No fun.

Durable... I am sure that after this world blows up and we are all gone, the cockroaches will be sitting on those Mercedes seats.

Jack

 

How long a car lives in terms of miles depends, in part, on how you drive it. Summer weekends only will take forever to accumulate miles whereas 600 miles a week will get you to 200K faster, of course. The metric for electronics and plastics is years-of-use and to some degree the climate. These two metrics conspire to give us everything from worn out cars with relatively low miles to high mileage cars that are in great shape.

I think the car holds up better with regular use. My light duty 2000 XK8 was full of problems when I got it at 40,000 miles. Now at 85,000 miles it is a reliable daily driver. That said, it IS going on 13 years old so I expect failures of some sort.

I have 200,000 miles on my '93 Chevy truck with a 350 V8 and no real sign of slowing up. I've only replaced things that have worn out, nothing has broken, really. The engine is tired, for sure, but runs fine and still gets the same mileage as it did when new.

 

Recently my XK8 sat too long and developed a throttle position sensor problem (common solution is to clean the connector), but after driving the problem is gone. I suspect the vibrations of driving provide a sort of micro-scrubbing of electrical contacts that keeps them healthy.

As much as I like low mileage, I know I'll be happier if I keep the car exercised on the road to keep it healthy.