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Why did you buy your jag? What do you love most about it? What do you dislike the most?
When I was little my grandpa had a Mark 2 that he restored. I have alot of memories of being picked up from school, taken to soccer practice and many others in that car. I think that's where my love for jags came from. I also appreciate the heritage and everything else about them.
After quite a while and owning a handful of cars over the years I ended up buying my first jag (STR). I love the retro style of the car as well as the performance and luxury of the car. In a way it reminds me of my grandpa and the memories of his car. I remember when it first came out back in the day and I thought it was the buisness! The style is timeless and still looks amazing. I'm really glad to own one of these.
The one thing I dislike is the cost associated with owning the car (jaguar tax). These cars seems to be somewhat unreliable in certain areas and repairs as well as parts can add up relatively fast. I'd love to see a rebirth of this model down the road with a bit of better reliability. I also wish there was a bigger aftermarket for these cars.
06 str, April 2017......like the zip and zoom the best with room to get more....,and the interior with beautiful wood and perfect leather....dislike the cost of insurance and headlight aiming with hid units
Last edited by scottjh9; Oct 30, 2019 at 06:22 PM.
Reason: Addition
I purchased the XJ40 after spending several years working on them in the motor trade.
When that was written off my wife wanted me to get a smaller car. I wanted better performance.
Add to this the lower price the STR's were selling for at the time and it became an obvious choice.
It took me some time to find a 05-facelift example I wanted, both local enough to view and at the right price.
I got a very good price in the end as the car had a couple of faults that were easily fixed. Compared to the prices today it was a real bargain!
For me it was the styling and the "old school" interior. I have always wanted a MK2, or an original S-type/series, but as a "daily driver" they make little sense. I researched the S-type for a while and decided that I wanted an X202, with the original exterior styling, but with the revised/updated engine management system and a much nicer interior. I was eventually able to find a relatively low mileage example which was also equipped with the "premium package" and a moon-roof. The zircon blue paint color sealed the deal.
We had a MK-VII-M and then a MK-IX in the family when I was a lad, so the Jaguar ownership seeds were planted long ago; then watching much too many episodes of "Morse" just served to bring the latent desires into fruition...
I purchased our 2005 S-Type 3.0 in December 2008 primarily for my wife's long solo trips to and from Tampa to visit her elderly parents. I was looking for a comfortable RWD highway cruiser luxury sedan with reasonable gas mileage that I could grab for pennies on the dollar due to the depreciation as well as the severe economic recession at that time. To this day, that was the best deal I ever made on a vehicle purchase. My wife drove it for a little over three years and when we purchased her 2006 XK8 in February 2012, her S-Type was handed down to me as my daily driver. Purchased it just off a three-year Florida lease at 18,000 miles and sold it at 106,000 miles in May 2018 after owning it for 9.5 years. While needing more maintenance and repairs than I was accustomed to, it served us well during our ownership. It now serves as the daily driver of a female college student in South Carolina, purchased from me by her dad with full disclosure that Jaguars are susceptible to needing more repair attention than he may be accustomed to as well. My understanding is that his daughter loves her car and I know that forum member "joycesjag" (Rick, who also owns a 2005 S-Type 3.0) helps to take good care of it....
I bought my Jaguar XK8 convertible 5 years ago this month. I bought it as a summer toy. After driving that in the summer I really hated to get back in the Chrysler minivan in the winter. I found my 2008 Stype, black with a cream interior and black piping and couldn't resist. As it has the same powertrain as my 2004 XK8 I felt confident that I could look after it. I hate to say it this way but it is my winter beater. Have had it 3 years, just turned over 205,000 km. on our 3700 km trip to Myrtle Beach and she ran great. I love the classic look and the leaper on the front. Summer car and winter beater.
My Jaguar connection goes back a long way. In around 1954 my Dad purchased a pre-war SS Jaguar 2.5 litre sports saloon, probably a 1936 (It must have been very cheap, he was an impoverished teacher at the time!). As a very young boy I fell in love with it immediately, the long sleek look, the spare wheel mounted on the running board/wing, wood and leather inside, I was so proud of it. Unfortunately my Mum, all of 4'11" couldn't drive it even with the help of several cushions, she couldn't see over the steering wheel! Sadly it had to go, replaced by a more mundane pre-war Wolseley The Wolseley had some interesting features including built in hydraulic jacks which made wheel changing easy. For some unknown reason I never got round to buying a Jag though I drove a number of models, looking after a friend's early XJ6 in the 70s while he was out of the country for three months, driving and taking my niece to her wedding in my brother in law's Mk2,, I even, as a teeenager, drove an E Type belonging to a friend of my father, as a reward for fitting new points, condenser and plugs to the car. I came very close in 2000 when I decided to move into the 'executive' car class from my MGF which was great fun but impractical, test driving an early S Type and an even earlier XJ40. I loved both cars but felt the XJ40 was a little big and thirsty, though the S was a strong contender. However in the end, my money went on a low mileage Mercedes E240. That was replaced by a Merc C270CDI (diesel) as I was doing bigger mileages at the time, then followed two Merc ML320's. After nearly four years of the second ML, about two and a half years ago, my wife was having back problems and found it extremely difficult to climb into and out of the ML, so it had to go. I looked at a number of used cars, but found myself more and more attracted to the S Type. As I work from home, when I'm not travelling out of the country on business, I now do less than 5000 miles a year, mainly local running and to various airports and back, and as my employers fund my motoring, I decided the V8 4.2 was the one I wanted after driving both the V8 and the 3.0 l (diesel was never an option). Having done a considerable amount of research online and on forums such as this, the first decent one to come up was a 2003 MY (facelift) in pristine condition with just over 100k miles, good service history, etc. It was also a lot less money than I was prepared to spend so I figured even if it only lasted me a year, it would still be a cheap year's motoring, and I bought it. It has proved to be a total delight and has turned out to be the best car I have ever owned by quite some distance. The first two years cost me almost nothing, front hub bearing replaced, initial service and change of all fluids (except the transmission which had been done about 6k miles previously) then second and third year service, a new battery, replacing seized wiper mechanism and front brake hoses. At MOT this year, corrosion was found on the brake piping generally, so I had my tame mechanic strip of the covers, check the sills and repair and treat some minor corrosion, replace all the brake piping with Kunifer, and new rear tie bars and antiroll bar links (a couple of the boots were damaged, which is an MOT failure, but in view of the low cost of the assemblies, it was a no brainer to fit new ones. The two rear silencers were holed, so I had them replaced at the same time with two new ones that came via the services of ebay, from a German company at a very reasonable price..
All in all, I'm delighted to now own an S Type, I love the comfort, the performance, even the sound of that lovely V8 and am now, after many, many years of throwing money down the drain on cars, consider the total cost of motoring per annum. For the S Type, including purchasing the car in the first place, this has been less than, for example, the first years cost of leasing a Ford Focus (3 year personal lease, deposit and first year's payments, and at the end of three years I'd have very little equity in the car). I also now look at the cost of repairs, such as I have had this year, as an investment in keeping the car viable for some years to come. Even if it was written off tomorrow, though god forbid it won't be, I'd still consider it great value for the past two and a half years' motoring, and I'd be out looking for another (though I would also consider an XF V8 though I don't like the styling quite as much.
The only thing I regret is mine came with Satnav. I'd much rather have had the non Satnav version so I could fit a modern double din radio with all mod cons, the Satnav is so out of date now it is not a lot of use, and in fact I use a Tomtom most of the time, and the touchscreen, while looking nice, does not add a lot to the driving experience.
We purchased my wifes S Type "joycesjag" 10 years ago similiar to Jon89's story. Height of the market crash, bang for the buck etc.. We were in the market for a new to us vehicle. Joyce was looking at Mercs, Caddies and the like. All the same faces.
I do not have issues with purchasing eBay vehicles. One day as I was searching around not even thinking Jaguar because they are a rich mans marquee! I stumbled across the retro post face lift S Type at reasonable pricing. I showed Joyce what I had found and she loved it, still does to this day. While everyone else at the time were paying $18 to $22,000.00. I found ours in Tampa with no reserve. It was offered a couple weeks no bidders. Last night of bidding I sniped a price of $12,600.00 and won it in the last seconds.
At first we had our problems but after a couple months of ironning out the imperfections, hence a lot of my DIY's. Its been a great vehicle which I hope to hand down to our eldest daughter here, where it will live out its day as a high school cruiser. Incidentally, my daughters friends that are boys are very jealous that Brookes first car is going to be a Jaguar and not a handed down minivan.... Hahaha
Jon89's S Type is down at University in the loving hands of Maggie. She absolutley loves her "MagJag"! It has been behaving quite nicely and still looks as good as when Jon sold it to my friend. Well except for the Jaguar badge that has been fitted in place of her leaper. The leaper was removed temporarily while the vehicle sits around campus and is napping comfortably in Maggies glovebox. She actually prefers the badge, she says it "modernizes and accents" the vehicle.
Fantastic car for not much money - I too bought during the credit crunch.
agree...bang for the buck is incredible...i bought mine for 6700.00 as a ready to drive car.....have about 8500.00 total in it now including nice tires and it is immaculate...was offered 9000.00 about 3 months ago,but have no desire to sell....now if someone went goofy and offered 11000.00 or more, then i could replace it like for like or find a super v8 and start over....i am always looking on car sites and they are out there, but getting more rare in great condition
I had a 1963 Mk2 3.8 with manual gearbox and overdrive so I liked the retro styling of the X200. The one I bought needed engine work as the no 5 cylinder had a worn gudgeon pin and first generation timing chain tensioners among other common issues. The ride and handling are quite nice for a car her size and she still gets compliments from admirers.
Always loved Jags! As a kid the HS dropouts got Corvettes, and I thought the XKE was MUCH cooler. I am retired now and although I am not much of a car guy, a neighbor had an’03 V 8 supercharged car for 7 k. Thought I could afford that but a friend’s mechanic talked me out of it because of maintenance costs. I then looked around and found an ‘05 3.0 with low mileage nearby and bought it for 6,500! I have put a few bucks into it, mostly the 1 k for new headlights, but I love to drive the vehicle.
Originally, I got it for the look of the car, especially for the money. I chose the Goldilocks model with a NA V8. I didn't realise what good cars they are until I've had it for a while. I'll probably drive mine to the ground, especially since good ones are so hard to find. On my car description it says my car has 58,000 miles, not anymore. I've put 30,000 miles on it since then.
Last edited by Catmobile; Nov 4, 2019 at 04:43 PM.
I bought....repeat BOUGHT this 02 from my wife, who purchased it off a lease. She got tired of it, and wanted a new Audi. Since I had blood, sweat and monetary equity in it, I just gave her book value for it 5 years ago. My daily driver ever since. When she first got it, I was already looking for late 90’s XJs, and eventually XK8s.
Whenever there’s a Jaguar meet, or any British Motorcar show, mine is the only S-Type that shows up. Even after 18 years of life, she still shows up well, and a great example of the model.
I bought....repeat BOUGHT this 02 from my wife, who purchased it off a lease. She got tired of it, and wanted a new Audi. Since I had blood, sweat and monetary equity in it, I just gave her book value for it 5 years ago. My daily driver ever since. When she first got it, I was already looking for late 90’s XJs, and eventually XK8s.
Whenever there’s a Jaguar meet, or any British Motorcar show, mine is the only S-Type that shows up. Even after 18 years of life, she still shows up well, and a great example of the model.
You, my friend, sound like you have a car and a marriage that will stand the test of time...great story and continued success
Dad had a MKIV when i was born, maybe that was the start of it all??
ME:
Owned the original 3.4 S type, after a few other models.
Then went Series 6cyl and 12,, XJS, X300, XJR, then the X200 X 2.
Reasons:
Looks cool.
Access, OLD age and joint issues, that stupid sill hump got too painful dragging the leg over to get in and out of all the earlier cars.
Silver one (8/2001) is "hers", and at 134000kms, still solid,
Black one (9/2000) was mine, and got ran over by an errant Landcruiser in 2018, SAD day.
NEVER had issues with any of them, the Black did 90k kms in 4 years.
Now a 2010 X Type LE 2.1V6 Front Wheel Drive is mine, Black of course, and although I originally detested them (had one as a drive car when employed at Jaguar), its pretty damn good.
As most of us say, I should have kept some of the departed on my Sig, but foresight was not top of my to do list.
NO ONE touches my Jags, "if I cannot fix it, it aint broken" has worked well for a very long time.
One thing I neglected to include is that I want to keep this S-Type long enough to put vintage plates on. And pull up next to MK2s at car shows. The last 4 meets, I wound up parking next to E-Types that get all of the attention.
When I was looking (eleven years ago) for a fairly new car I would've loved one of the premium mid sized German, US or Japanese offerings but every man and his dog was (and still is) driving one...
So not much exclusivity there for me. Couldn't (at the time) bring myself to spend the dollars on a used (and much older) Bentley. So an S-Type was an obvious choice.
Wasn't looking for an STR but a one owner 24,000 mile example with a light colour interior came up and I just had to part with probably twice the money you blokes pay in the USA and UK.
Bought it interstate on-line (from a large Rolls Aston Jaguar retailer), sight unseen.
It was a good price at the time and I have since come to realise that despite the newer blown engines offering a lot more, 400 horses is enough for any man (or woman).
The old man that first owned it before me had ticked the NAV, front cup holders and metallic paint boxes but not much else. I have since done 47,000 miles and have changed the cassette deck to a Jaguar CD player, added the Jaguar Apple connectivity, Jaguar S-Type rear entertainment system and front and rear Jaguar mud flaps. In the process of fitting the premium sound amp with higher quality drivers than the premium Jaguar offerings with splits in the front. Also have a Jaguar rear electronic sun blind to retrofit; more about this in another future post.
Other than the lower hydra mount bushes failing at around the 26,000 mile mark (likely from all the speed humps in the inner cities of this crazy country) and the ZF 6 speed having around $1,000 worth of work done, the cost of maintaining this car has been absolutely no different from other modern cars I have had and still have; my (X7) C5 Citroen is a magnificent riding, silent and refined machine and the 4 ride height settings on the hydro pneumatic suspension are more than just a novelty but it just doesn't give me the same level of excitement.
The earliest S-Type's are around 20 years old now and they have to be gaining some 'classic' appeal now. Prices across the range are excellent buying right now in any country I would think especially the more collectible STR.
Found one in the local classifieds if anyone is interested!
Why did you buy your jag?
