New Jag owner here! My first ever.. About a year ago I bought a project '98 XJ8L in need of somelove but for a mere $600 cash in running a driving condition I couldn't resist. I've been basically sitting on it since, and honestly am kind of on the fence as far as whether to repair or re-sell the car, or repair and then re-sell or just keep it. From every angle I can view looks like I am going to have at least what the car is worth into it to have it back to pristine condition. That's aside from the 130k miles that are on it too

All negatives aside, the story behind this car and why I got it so cheap is kind of amusing and definately unusual circumstances.Appearently the poor car's woes started due to an approximately 30 year old previous owner's goofiness or revenge of some sort possibly. This previous owner pulled the car up into his friends lawn (for reasons unknown to me) and started spinning donuts in it, and from what I'm told he tore the guy's lawn all to hell. Obviously the guy that got the lawn job was not happy at all, so as payback he camea few days later to the Jag owner's home, opened the door on the Jag and unloaded a fire extinguisher inside!!! Talk about a nightmare to happen to your luxury car!

After that the Jag's owner let it sit in his drivewayhe says for about 2 weeks while he was out of town on business. Appearently whatever is in the fire extinguisher dust made the car's leather interior mold very rapidly, totally destroyed the carpet and headliner as well. Along with that the dust was in every little nook and cranny you could imagine. Up under the dash, inside of the shifter mechanism, inbedded in all the weatherstripping, etc etc. Talk about an absolute NIGHTMARE to try and clean out!

Anyhow along with the interior there were / are a few more things as well. The rear bumper cover is damaged from it getting backed into basically a pole at the previous owner's home, so it needs replaced, and there is a good size dent in the driver's door and the paint is fading on the roof so it needs a complete paint job too basically. If all that weren't bad enough, the guy that had it is probably over 300LB as well and while the seats were actually salvageable mold wise, the driver's side is worn out and passenger's front not much better.

Mechanically though the car is quite sound. I work as an automotive technician at a very busy shop and this guy is one of our regular customers. He literally JUST dropped almost $2000 in the car at my shop having all the maintenence done, all 4 wheels of factory jag parts for his brakes, new tires, and some other little stuff - I don't remember what all now. He's the kind of guy that seems to be a little negligent on maintenence stuff but when you finally see him with one of his cars he says "go over the whole car and fix ANYTHING you find - I'll be back in 2 weeks." I think he's a pretty busy guy for the most part.

Anyhow, he came into the shop one day and I overheard him a little while he was talking to the shop owner. What caught my attention was he was saying something to the effect of "I'm just disgusted with it! I'm done. If I could sell the damned thing for $1000 or hell even $500... I'VE JUST GOTTA GET RID OF IT NOW. Makes me sick." I stepped up and asked him what car he was talking about (he has several)? When he said "the Jag" I about jumped out of my shoes and told him "hey, if you come anywhere NEAR the point where you're gonna sell that car for $500 I'm your man RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW!!!" He then explained to me the extinguisher situation and said he had a kid that was willing to come wipe the interior down real good for $100, so he got that taken care of and the final price was $600.

Now I've just gotta decide what to do with it! I stripped most all the interior out but I've had a really tough time sourcing out interior pieces at a reasonable cost from any wrecking yards, and I really do need quite a bit. The carpet is really holding me back bad. It absolutely must be replaced and the Jaguar dealer wants around $1300 for it. Only wrecking yard I have been able to find with it wanted $1000 which I just laughed at! That was either specialized british recyling or jag heaven I don't remember which now. Nobody seems to make any aftermarket and I've had a couple shops offer to make it if I send my old carpet but they want almost $1000 too.

Glad I found the forum - might even help me find some of this stuff! If anyone has any suggestions as to what I should do with the car or where to look for reasonably priced interior (code AGD), I'm all ears!