I owned an XK8 (1998 lease) and had it for four years. Car was generally flawless with only one major issue (they called it a vacuum advance issue) but it was the vertical throttle issue (car "died" at 70 mph on route 8)....started back up and never had issue. Dropped it off in San Diego and they fixed it while I was in town. Otherwise had no issues at all.

Lease was so upside down I had to turn it in. I've always been "in the market" for another but time, circumstances and finances never matched up. I've been looking for a bit but never have found one where the price, condition and records have matched up. As some point you tired of dealing with folks who either don't realize that their little baby may be a rolling time bomb (or do know and hope you don't).

So I am biting the bullet on a 2000 XK8 convertible that I'm getting for "wholesale" from a dealer. I've put roughly 200 miles on it and had engine/transmission checked. Both seem (a scary word) rock solid. The car needs both front upper strut mounts out of the box and the control arms are very marginal.



Overall seems like a much better road then paying thousands more for a car that will still have similar issues (I have yet to find one that I can confirm has had front end service, water pump, tensioners etc done). Figure the $4,000 or so I'm saving will go along way to addressing the major issues.

One question I do have is the value of a "power train +" type warranty. I can get one that covers engine, transmission, AC, heating and some electrical for about $3750 (5 year/100,000 mile)...any thoughts?

 

Welcome to the forum,

I've yet to see an ad for an XK trumpeting the fact that tensioners etc have been dealt with. Probably they think if you don't know it's better not to mention problems.

 

I went ahead and pulled the trigger. $5500 + tax, title, tags, doc fee's etc...
so $6,037.32 out the door. Two owners, 1 accident (according to carfax), rebuilt transmission with roughly 4,000 miles on it. Engine purrs perfectly but obviously needs to have the pop topped to look for the plastic tensioners. Just over 102,000 on the odometer.

The car originally started on Ebay at 8,998. I followed up directly letting them know I was already heading to Dallas to look at another jag that weekend and offered $8,000 based on passing inspection. They called me back the next day voicing some concerns after further inspection and offering me the car for $6,995.

When I got there the manager clarified that the engine and trans checked out fine but the car had a significant "clunking sound" in the dash. As soon as I popped the hood I saw the top mount bearings for the struts were totally shot.

I put two hundred miles on the car over two days and had the trans and engine looked at twice. I also had the cars alignment inspected twice. The car is totally out of alignment (but drives surprisingly well). Both shops quoted $3,200 (parts) plus labor to replace upper and lower control arms on both sides. Took all that back to the dealership and they offered the car to me for $5,500 which I accepted after trying to whittle them down further.

 

Hi there TXtoast welcome aboard Jaguarforums, great to have you here with us.

nice intro thanks for sharing.................


Hope all goes well with your baby......tensioners, tensioners, tensioners!

Hope you enjoy the site.....

Loads going on, plenty of very friendly and helpful members as well as some excellent tech advice......all good!

In the meantime I've manually upgraded you to full forum access so you can better view the site

 

Glad to have you with us!

 

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