I've noticed some cars have dashes that match the interior colour, while some have black ones. I thought it was maybe a year/model thing, but I've seen photos of a car the same year and colour as mine, but with a colour-coded beige dash, while mine's black (black plastic/vinyl).
Are the colour ones a higher grade, like leather, or is there some other reason for the difference?

(I am personally glad I have a black dash--a beige one would reflect terribly in the windscreen. Though it would be nice if it were leather....)

 

They were all black until the facelift cars, if not late facelifts. It was a trim choice I guess.

 

Hm. Mine's a facelift, but a '92, but I've seen early facelifts with coloured dashes. I wonder if they carried on using the old black stock, and then simply switched over....

 

Mines one of the first facelifts and has colour coded doeskin dash.

 

I think the doeskin dash is brilliant, adds lots of light in the interior. I'd consider adding on to my car when I restore it. The gauge surround looks to be a similar shape, do they simply bolt in?

I agree leather would be a nice touch, but its hard to fault whatever materials Jaguar used, since the XJS doesn't seem to suffer from cracked dashes very often.

 

Just be mindful of reflections against the windshield....which is often why black is used.

Cheers

DD

 

In 1992 when production of the Daimler DS420 came to an end

Jaguar decided to use this surplus highly skilled workforce to personalize the Jaguar XJ40

Which was later extended to the XJS up until 1992 and called the 'Insignia' Range, where as there was no set design

If you had the money, then you could have it Bespoke Trimmed to your Specifications, including hand stitched dashboards, in hides and veneers of your choice

There were only 57 made (some say 67) but Vin Numbers did not run consecutively

So if you have an XJS with a non standard trim and an Insignia Badge on the Front Wing/Fender

Then forget asking Santa for another pair of socks and ask if he knows where you can go and buy your own private island

 

Yep. One of the many reasons so many interiors (at least below the window line) are black inside. Any other colour would be contraproductive... It is also a reason why rallye cars have matte black bonnets!

 

When driving into the setting sun in an XJS, you're likely to (temporarily) wish for a matte black bonnet too. Or at least dash sunvisors....

 

I assume the dashes are identical in all but colour and perhaps materials. The colour-coordinated ones do look nice, giving that little extra luxury touch, but the reflections would probably drive me nuts. Does anyone with a coloured one (especially a light one like doeskin) have this issue?

I'm sure I've read several reviews that refer to a leather dash (that aren't of the Celebration model), but I wouldn't be surprised if the reviewer just noticed a sort of leather look and assumed that everything inside the car was leather.

I use a dash cleaner thing to try and keep it in good nick, but one problem over here in Japan at least is that every... single... dash cleaning supply is marketed as "High Gloss! Get that shiny dash!". No no no. I want a matte dash that won't reflect in the windscreen, thanks.... This is also the country where they advertise products to "Get rid of that leather smell!" however....

This is the car that set me wondering. The colour's the same as mine, and judging by the door handles it's the same year, or near enough. Yet it has the coloured dash.

 

Okay, having done a check of all my photos of XJSes, covering hundreds of vehicles, I have found that only two (one with glove box, one with airbag) facelifts have black dashes (not counting cars with black or charcoal interiors in the first place, of course). As Greg noted, all the pre-facelifts are black.

I did find two photos which suggests reflections are pretty bad with lighter dashes:

 

No problem whatso ever with dash reflection...