Flogs a High-Mileage 2004 Jaguar XJR

Matt Farah drives an enthusiastic fan’s seldom-appreciated Jaguar flagship from the era of Ford ownership.

We feel pretty safe saying that this Jaguar owner, Kevin, might be the world’s biggest enthusiast of the Ford-era Jaguar XJR. Kevin lends his 2004 Jaguar XJR to Matt Farah for a One Take on The Smoking Tire. During the shoot, gives Matt about as thorough an explanation for his enthusiasm as you’ll ever see.

“Miss Bev,” as the 2004 XJR is known, has seen the country with 221,000 miles racked up on it. Despite that high mileage, everything on the Jag looks super clean. The exterior and interior look mint and even the engine bay comes across with minimal grime. The appearance alone is astonishing.

Most of this runs contrary to what you’d think about a 13-year-old Jaguar. The typical cycle for high-end imported luxury car seems to be follow a pattern like this: Original owner drives for a couple years. Original owner sells at reasonable price point with a newer replacement. Second owner struggles with maintenance costs. Car falls into disrepair and ends up in the junkyard around its decade mark.

However, Kevin instead found a jewel in Miss Bev. Owned by a couple who put on mostly highway miles, the Jag drives almost like new even as it approaches Earth-to-Moon mileage on the odometer. The 400(ish) horsepower of the supercharged 4.2-liter V8 seems present and Matt even enjoys a bit whine from the V8’s blower.

If you ever wanted to know about the early 2000s XJs, though, just watch the video and listen to Kevin chirp about them. From the maintenance quirks—his mechanic is making lots of firsts with the XJR because few of them are driven enough to make the maintenance intervals—to the manufacturing process, You will find some Jag-ucation.