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New Member Area - Intro a MUSTNew to Jaguar Forums? Drop in and tell us about you, your ride and location. This is your chance to introduce yourself to the forum.
I actually joined this forum ~5 years ago, in December 2014.... at the time I was about to pull the trigger and purchase my first Jaguar, an '05 VDP.
But at the last minute, I had reservations about the car because of a fault code ("E") in the ECU, and ultimately canceled the deal...
And for a variety of reasons, purchasing one of these cars just fell off my radar for a while... ~5 years, to be exact...
Until about 8 months ago, last summer, when I happened to be making a quick run to my local Lowe's store and parked right next to a beautiful '05 XJ8-L in Onyx gray. Just as I was getting out of my car, the owner of the Jag walked up. I commented on how nice his car looked... he said "Thanks - it's actually my wife's car... and she's been thinking about selling it." He told me that she was the 2nd owner. We exchanged numbers, and to cut to the chase - she wanted $6500 for the car. It had around 110,000miles on the odo at the time. I told her that I'd give her $5000 for it, but she passed on my offer. I asked her to give me a call if she had a change of heart, and sure enough this past December she called me and said that she'd reconsidered my offer. I told her that I'd like to check the car out pretty carefully before committing to the purchase, and she graciously allowed me to take the car to my best friend's body shop, to put up on a rack and do a close inspection. The car was remarkably clean underneath, with no apparent leaks anywhere. I noted that the air ride system had already been replaced with standard shocks & coil springs. The only mechanical issue that my friend and I noted was that almost all suspension bushings were worn out / cracked. I had noticed a bit of a suspension "knock" when driving over some rough spots in the road as I was leaving the lady's neighborhood that morning... so I wasn't surprised to find that the bushings were worn out. But, everything else looked pretty good. The car now had 115,000 miles on it. She's been careful to service it regularly, and the engine oil looked like pure honey. Other known issues: one of the speakers (or maybe a sub-woofer?) is busted, the tires need to be replaced, one rear floor mat is missing (and the ones in the car are "standard" - not the famous plush wool ones...). The headlight lenses have the usual scratching / haziness that comes with >100,000 miles and need to be polished, and the rear collision sensors are not working. She'd already had the headliner replaced about a year ago, and the inside of the car essentially looks brand-spanking new. Not one blemish!
The owner mentioned to me that occasionally she'd noticed a "hard shift" between first and second gear, which only occurred sporadically. She'd had it checked out at the nearest dealership (in Shreveport, Louisiana), but was told that they couldn't find any problems; no transmission fault codes were reported. On the day I was test driving the car, it happened only once, and it wasn't extremely harsh. I would describe it as a premature shift between 1st & 2nd, definitely harder than normal, but no clunk or loud knocking type of sound was noted.
So anyway, after making note of what the car needed to be "made right" - namely, new suspension bushings and tires, I went back to the lady and told her what we'd found while looking under the car. I explained that fixing just these two issues alone was going to be rather expensive... and I then offered her $4000 for the car. Not unexpectedly, she passed on this offer, too.
Until a last week...
She called to tell me that she'd accept $4000 for the car... and so I went and picked up my very first Jaguar sedan last night!
So, now I feel I'm actually a bona fide member of this forum! And I look forward to interacting with the veteran members here, to help me get this fine automobile up to par.
Tomorrow, I'm going to get a new set of tires put on it. And then start researching my options in terms of fixing the suspension. Some have said that the suspension bushings are not available for purchase as individual parts, but instead one must buy the whole A-arm assembly... then another post I came across said that the bushings CAN be bought separately... so I need some help with this issue.
I know that this car doesn't have the original air-ride system on it... but to be honest, I'm kinda glad that I simply don't have to mess with it on this car. The prior owner DID give me all of the components of the air-ride system that were removed from the car... so I suppose that if one day I find myself extremely bored, I might look into rebuilding those components and then reinstalling the system. I would say that there's a very slim chance of me getting around to that, if I'm honest... I'm simply too busy! But if there are enough of you on this forum who think that it's a must-do, please speak up and tell me why... I'm open to being persuaded.
Ok, that's all for now. Thanks in advance to all who take time to share their thoughts / wisdom about this car.
I've attached a pic which I took of the car on the very first day I saw it last summer...
After 5 years of in-depth consideration on the purchase, I'm sure you will already be very familiar with the X350 forum so there's no need for any links from me.
If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help
Hello,
Congratulations on your new Jaguar, AND, using all those Points of Negotiation to full advantage!
Because, the Third Rule of Acquisition plainly states, "Never pay more than you have to."
Good Job!
This time it's for real!
