Jaguar Xj40..

[Royale80]

2 minutes ago, phil_lihp said:

It will consume every penny you have but you probably won't care because it will be magnificent.  You'll often think of selling it, mostly every time it goes wrong but as soon as you go for a drive you'll decide not to.  There is no classier way to travel.

 

I would have this bastard back tomorrow, in fact I very nearly did when it came up for sale about a year ago but I was too late.  Definitely one of the best cars I have ever owned despite being quite needy and attention seeking, @Nyphur had some joy out of this after me, that was a while back and they're not easy to find in this condition now, it had virtually no rust on it at all.

Watch out for brake issues and bulkhead rust, electrics can be troublesome on earlier models and they do not like being sat.  The engines themselves are normally very reliable, low oil pressure warnings/gauge reading zero are pretty much always sensor faults,  I was warned it might happen but still nearly had a heart attack when it did.

That’s the one I wish I had bought. That was a corker.

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[motorpunk]

Funnily enough I just photographed this and was going to post it in the lazy spotters thread. Sunroof taped up, suspension on the wonk, but it still looks damn good to me.

[HMC]

Fantastic pic. Sums up a lot about old jag saloons of a certain age.

[motorpunk]

eBay has this lovely...

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174462752819

[HMC]

^ that does look tempting, love the interior. Our seller has a big case of buyers remorse if you read the listing! It doesn’t sound like a total disaster -  seems to be being very hard on himself!

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

On 10/2/2020 at 6:20 PM, HMC said:

plus @Magnificent Rustbucket is the world authority on these fine vehicles and has long long term ownership experience to boot.

Ha ha - I'm not sure about World authority, I've just owned one for a long time! The experts on these are Rob Jenner (as mentioned by China Tom), Bryan Neish on the Jag-Lovers website (posts as Bryan N - I don't know if he still does as I visit Jag-Lovers even less often than Autoshite and he was retired when I was first using the site nigh-on 20 years ago) and David Marks.

I love my XJ40 and never tire of it even after all these years. They're old cars now and although they are robust they suffer badly from rust and many have been neglected. Buy the best one you can find. The 4 litre cars are probably the best compromise since they are faster than the 3.2 yet use hardly any more petrol because of the gearing, but the 3.2 is still reasonably quick and fast enough for most people. I would avoid the 2.9 since they have only 165bhp and are rather underpowered for a Jag and the engine is said to  suffer timing chain problems. The 3.6 is much faster but rare now and can be a little more troublesome. The V12 is wonderful, but one best left to the enthusiast in my view. They are an altogether more exotic beast and much more 'needy'.

I tried to add a photo but the site has changed since I last used it and ...well I couldn't!

[Bren]

1 hour ago, Magnificent Rustbucket said:

Ha ha - I'm not sure about World authority, I've just owned one for a long time! The experts on these are Rob Jenner (as mentioned by China Tom), Bryan Neish on the Jag-Lovers website (posts as Bryan N - I don't know if he still does as I visit Jag-Lovers even less often than Autoshite and he was retired when I was first using the site nigh-on 20 years ago) and David Marks.

I love my XJ40 and never tire of it even after all these years. They're old cars now and although they are robust they suffer badly from rust and many have been neglected. Buy the best one you can find. The 4 litre cars are probably the best compromise since they are faster than the 3.2 yet use hardly any more petrol because of the gearing, but the 3.2 is still reasonably quick and fast enough for most people. I would avoid the 2.9 since they have only 165bhp and are rather underpowered for a Jag and the engine is said to  suffer timing chain problems. The 3.6 is much faster but rare now and can be a little more troublesome. The V12 is wonderful, but one best left to the enthusiast in my view. They are an altogether more exotic beast and much more 'needy'.

I tried to add a photo but the site has changed since I last used it and ...well I couldn't!

This is autoshite. So the 2.9 is the one to go for.

[somewhatfoolish]

I can't see why the 2.9 would be particularly cheesy in the camchain dept, it's just half a V12 after all.

[HMC]

Probably an early cloth 2.9 in a non metallic colour would have to most curiosity value these days. Remarkable any have survived. Old TG I remember had Quentin Wilson getting excited about XJ40s but always said avoid cloth 2.9s like the plague. Mine was admittedly slow but not all jag buyers wanted speed I suppose.

IIRC car mechanics ran an early 3.6 and although it was less than 10 years old was rife with niggly problems (probably selected as such) things like the door handles- which on early cars are a bit different- were falling to bits. Never had that on any of my (all post 89) models.

I remember thinking the earlier digital dash looked awful but these days I’d probably quite like one; for a long time the earliest had the worst rep and looked most dated whilst they were bangers. D platers were the earliest apparently but I can only remember seeing E platers about (or something on a cheap NI cover plate that looked scruffy- presumably also an E/F model)

[DaveDorson]

I've had a couple.

 

I'd have another, if I could find a good one and had the folding at the time and a dry space to keep it in when it's not in use.

 

I've never owned a more comfortable car since, and I found the Lexus LS400 I had a short while after a bit cheap and horrible feeling in comparison, even though mechanically it was a magnificent thing.

[w00dy]

I had a 4.0 Sovereign as a student that I bought for £200 and put a fresh ticket on it for £120. Drove fantastically, looked rough. I had to eat noodles on toast to fuel it and managed to average 13.9mpg over 1500 miles. It never let me down and I think only needed a new shock bush which cured a clonking. It was properly quick and composed despite riding beautifully. Rust stops me spending actual money on one.

[dome]

28 minutes ago, DaveDorson said:

I've had a couple.

 

I'd have another, if I could find a good one and had the folding at the time and a dry space to keep it in when it's not in use.

 

I've never owned a more comfortable car since, and I found the Lexus LS400 I had a short while after a bit cheap and horrible feeling in comparison, even though mechanically it was a magnificent thing.

In most quantifiable ways the LS400 I had was a better car but there's something undeniably special about an XJ40. I hope to keep mine for a while but I always say that!