My 2004 XJ8 has 191K miles and the ZF6 HP26 transmission died recently. I towed it to a transmission shop in LA as soon as the fault light came on and the transmission locked in third gear. Upon opening up the case and oil pan nearly everything needs to be rebuilt (I don't have the list of parts). The shop owner quoted me $6000 plus tax on the parts and he is willing to not charge me the sales tax ($450-500). He orders only ZF parts from the ZF warehouse on the East Coast or perhaps Germany. He does not buy or install cheaper non-ZF parts. He has been in business for 47 years. He charged me $995 to open up the case and inspect the damage and itemize what needs to be ordered (seems fair). He will apply the $995 towards repairing the transmission (seems fair). He says my Jag has the original transmission.

I have owned the car since 165K miles. I LOVE THIS CAR! I have invested thousands of dollars into over the last 2.5 years. I have not owned a car that needed a rebuilt transmission since I was 16 years old and it was a Subaru 4x4 wagon and I took it to AAMCO ($2500 if I remember correctly).

Finally, I use the J SHIFT all the time. I love manually shifting my 2004 XJ8! I used to own a brand new 1999 XJR and I manually shifted it all the time! I never had a problem with that transmission.

So my questions are:

1) Is this shop owner quoting me too much at $6000 + sales tax?

2) Should I buy a rebuilt ZF6 HP26 off another shop's warehouse shelf and swap with my transmission and pray the computer codes match with my engine?

3) How do you guarantee a rebuilt ZF from anybody's warehouse or Ebay is rebuilt with authentic ZF parts and fluid?

4) Do I tow the car to another local transmission shop and pray to save $1000-2000?

Thank you for any advice.

Tim Spear