An Infiniti forced himself up the rear of my beloved Jaguar Vanden Plas and squeezed the junk in my trunk. Luckily, penetration was limited to the rear end - the interior-bits had not been violated.

The trunk-lid, rear bumper and passenger-side rear fender are in bad shape, the crumple-zone in the passenger-side frame rail did its sacrificial-job admirably and the 201" LWB Jag is now a few inches under the 200-mark, all compression is in the trunk-area - all glass and interior elements are fully-intact. The plastic of the rear fuse box cracked, causing complete lights-out to all electrical-systems, but there were zero issues or engine-codes prior, no airbags went off and after the incident the car drove another 1,000 feet down the highway, off the exit ramp and to a safe place on the street to pull over - once the engine was shut down all interior lights went off too and turning the key in the ignition did nothing.

Anyone need a parts car and can pick up immediately and tow from New York City? I'm waiting on the insurance adjuster, but I'm told there is a possibility that they may not want to pick up the car due to its age (2002) and if so I will be able to keep (sell) the remains.

The car was in tip-top mechanical-shape seconds prior to the incident. I had just completed repairing just about every last thing that I could find wrong (refer to my extensive post-history on this forum, lol) - in the last 3-4 months I put $1k into replacing all front and rear suspension and steering components (i.e. tie rods, all ball joints, shocks, etc.) plus $300+ on brand new front tires (maybe 1k miles on them,) and just a few weeks ago put in a new coolant manifold and shifter cable. The VDP has a full-size spare which survived unscathed, it is on a VDP-original Jag astroid rim (matching the 4 astroid rims on the drive-wheels.) All electrical systems worked perfectly, aside from a few lightbulbs burned out behind the JGate and several buttons - and FM did not work on the radio (AM, cassette and aux-in via CD-position worked perfectly.) It was a "New York car", so there are minor dings on every body panel other than the roof.

The car also has a light-gray alcantra-suede roof liner finished in a beautiful 2-tone pattern (using the original white roofliner as the contrast color) - no idea if that can be transferred to another vehicle, but it visually set my VDP apart from all stock Jags.

6-disc changer in the trunk has been cleanly converted into an auxiliary-input by branching out standard stereo RCA-type plugs directly from the CANBUS-wire (which I had plugged into an A2DP bluetooth adapter, so the car had Bluetooth audio.) This can easily be repurposed to effortlessly add aux-in/Bluetooth to another car. It appears to have survived the accident just fine, but it was in the area of impact.

Body color is deep-gray, I think the official color is "Quartz Metallic", with all the VDP-only chrome bits
Interior is oatmeal color with the really elegant wood that has VDP-signature gold inlay, wooden rear-seat tray tables, leather-and-chrome grab handles and full-leather seats (not just "seating-surfaces" as in non-VDP cars.)

Make offers plz...

 

RIP

 

Really sorry to hear about your car, glad you are OK. I have enjoyed your posts as I have a VDP also and wondered if we might compare cars some day at some local Jag event. Hope you stay in touch on the forum

 

Good luck on the value ...

 

Pictures?

I'm saddend to hear this. You have help me out a few times and I will miss your input and insights.

What wheels are on the car?

Can you post pictures of the car?

 

VDP did not came with 18" wheels ( Asteroids) but rather 17"

 

Thanks for all the kind replies - will post photos AFTER the insurance confirms payout amount (feel like posting prior would jinx it)

Luc, in 2002 all factory-standard VDPs had the 16" asteroid rims in this ebay listing
Only the Super V8 (aka VDP S/C) used 17"

 

Very sorry to hear about your car. Being rear ended by someone fooling with their cell phone is my greatest fear.

 

Sorry to hear about the jag, seems on the forums they always get struck down right as someone's taken a lot of care to improve them.

FWIW, JTIS calls those wheels "Lunar," while the Asteroids are the 18x8 wheels found on the later XJR.

 

Too True, after all the work I'll have done on mine, I'm terrified at the idea of actually driving it in the real world!

VDPNYC: Sorry to hear about your car, as said you put a lot of effort into bringing the car back up to standard. I hope you get a fair price for it from the insurance and find a worthy replacement.

In the UK Dash-cams are becoming more and more commonplace. They are useful things to have, especially in UK cities where driving standards are far below the standard it should be. I have fitted a small discrete one in my Jag and there is also one in my daily driver.

 

If it is the 4.0 supercharged I would absolutely love the cylinder heads as my XJR"R1" was raced before I became the owner...valve seats fell out

 

This Jag's got 9 lives, lol - insurance paid out and "offered" to scrap the car "for me", but said I could keep it if I wanted it.

24 hours later I got the engine running and corrected all electrical issues that were throwing codes. 72 hours later I got it driving and on the road again - amazingly, it held perfect alignment and drove totally fine with zero noises or driving issues! Another week or so for the body work and it'll be like new (at least I'm praying for that, lol)

 

And now you know why you choose a cat in the first place, congrats!!

 

This is wonderful news, I'm pleased for you!