My daughter spotted a 2004 x-type 3.0 with 90K on it for $2000. Car's in nice shape. While it's within her budget for her car, the cost of maintenance and/or repairs scares dad's wallet


Any feedback is appreciated

 

Any problem areas I should specifically look for?

 

fishhog, the first question that I would be asking (and you can look this up yourself) is whether it is an early 2004 or a later 2004. In March 2004, Jaguar made a few upgrades to the X-Type and as a result, the 2004 model year is a little quirky. Not to say that it is bad, you just need to know which one you have so you know what parts to get. If you open up the driver's door and look at the sticker in the bottom right corner, you should see a line that says "BLD DATE". Next to it will be a 4 digit number. This is the month and year that it was built. Do not be surprised if it says something like 11/03 (Nov 2003). Jaguar released some 2004's early.

The big difference came in the transfer case. The earlier cars have a viscous coupling in the transfer case, where the later cars have an open differential style transfer case. Where the issue comes is if the later 2004 car did not come with DSC (Dynamic Stability Control, a black button on the center console just below the gear lever), the car is essentially a 1 wheel drive car. What I mean by this is when the weather turns nasty, as soon as one wheel looses traction, all the power is going to go to that wheel. With the earlier cars, you would have a front and rear wheel that would spin (ie, AWD). If the car has DSC, then the computer will automatically apply the brake to maintain traction on all 4 tires.

I know the kind of weather that you get periodically as I lived in Bremerton for 12 years.

Being a teenager, you may want to give her a fair warning: Any x-type is known for having a weak transfer case. She drives normally, the car will last longer than her license. She drives the car like she stole it, she can plan on spending another $3000 on a new transfer case. That should keep her lead foot in check. For you, odds are, the transfer case should be fairly bullet proof by this point in the car's life. But, it is always good to keep the fear in the child when it comes to driving.

As for maintenance, if you stick around here, we can help you get through most of the repairs for essentially the same cost as any other car out there. We know what can be obtained from other vehicles (specifically the Volvo S40, Mazda 3, and the Ford Fusion (aka, Ford Mondeo)). There will be a few parts that will have to be gotten from Jaguar. But, again, with the help of this group, we can tell you where to get them for the best price possible.

Based on the age of the car, here is a list of things that I would pay particular attention to when assessing the car:

-whirring sound/rocks getting shot around in the drive train or front part of the car. This is a sign that the transfer case is about to go and unless you are ready to drop a transfer case into the car, it will be better to pass on this particular car.
-excessive wear on the rear tires at the inside edge of the tires: This is a sign that the rear end has excessive play in either the top control arm and/or the lower/forward control arm (both pieces are part of the rear suspension). If you have any mechanical ability, these are easy to replace components and you can use this to talk the person down in the price
-e-brake lever is really easy to pull up and hits the travel stop: This is a sign that one of your rear calipers is frozen and the e-brake is not engaging. The fix is replacing the caliper (easy job, just like on any other car). Kinda like I would take the car for a drive and as soon as you stop, get out and check the temperature of the rear brakes. If one tire is much hotter than the other, another sign that there is a frozen caliper.
-CEL light on: this is normally caused by a vacuum leak. We know what the vacuum leaks are and the fixes for the 3 most likely causes are fairly cheap and easy to do. This would be another thing I would use to talk the price down because "now you need to take it to the shop to be fixed before it will pass inspection......". You can fix the problem for around $50 if you fix all 3 things.
-Vibration from under the car in the 50ish MPH range: this is the carrier bearing in the rear driveshaft moving around some due to excessive play. Normally a good greasing and this problem goes away for a few years.
-steering wheel vibration in the 50-70 mph range: this can be caused by many things. The most likely things are either the car is not in alignment (as noted by excessive wear on the inside edge of the front tires) or by having 1 or more bent rims. The rims on this car are made from aluminum and they can bend fairly easy. You can see if it is a bent rim by rotating the tires front to rear and seeing if the vibration changes.
-headlights aimed either directly in front of the car or up to the sky: as the car has gotten older, we have found that the plastic support posts for the headlight insides becomes dry and brittle. So, a good pothole can be enough to jar the internals and cause the headlight to flop around inside the headlight housing. The repair is not that expensive (about $40 in parts), but you do need to remove the headlight assembly from the car and bake the headlight housings so you can remove the clear cover on the front to access the internals. Again, not hard, but can be intimidating.

We have posts here on how to fix all of the problems that I have noted. I know this is a long list of potentials, but the beauty is that this list is not any different than most cars that you are going to be looking at. We are just up front as to what you may run into. But, we also will help you do just about anything to the car as long as you have some mechanical ability. We can also get you the owners manual and service manuals (digitally and for free) for the car should you get it.

If you have any more questions, let me know. I had an X-TYpe for 7 years. So, I know the quirks that the car has.

 

I almost prefer to buy used so you know what you got.
But $2K for and early 04 is not bad, low miles also(did it sit?)
I paid $2k for mine from just a impound picture online.
Still driving it, no big issues so far, normal maintain stuff.
Had a seatbelt latch go bad, headliner sags now, door cards coming loose, tho it is 2 years older and double the miles.

If I was buying another???
Certainly a long test drive including highway, I would bring along a cheapo code reader at least and a code list to check that. Check for steering wheel being straight. Make sure the trunk opens. Know the window/sunroof reset trick to make sure they work right. I always check under the hood for signs of work that has been done, broken wire straps, jy part numbers on things, missing bolts, rigged things. It is a real good sign of what you are getting, if it looks right chances are it is, if it looks wrong....

 

I say Go for it....I'm a only a 2 month long owner of an 03 X-Type with a lil' less mileage than the one you mention...Mine is a 2.5 petro/gas powered beauty....
After doing an OBSESSIVE amount of research and reading well over 500 owner reviews on both sides of the pond, I can attest that these as very well made,WITH FEW COMPLAINTS, long lasting kitty cats..I see many on the road with 200k miles on them...
My X drives like a dream,gets 27 mpg@ 85-90 mph on highway and about 19-20 in tow, LOVE how well it sticks to the road,nice pick up/acceleration,love the AWD...sunroof,power everything..Lotsa tutorials here an Youtube to "doit " Yourself fixes...
I recharged my A/C unit in 5 minutes myself,super simple,while undee the hood noticed quite a few familiar parts that are in my Ford Escape engine bay...Other than being a lil bit tight in the rear seat for 6 footers on a long haul,the fold down seats are great...Really have no issues and feel very secure and confident in this car ,lol, you may find yourself wanting to poach her Jag from here from time to time...
I MUST Have AWD AS i live in upstate NY an am all over New England lots in winter, so I also checked out the AUDI A4 Quattro an Benz C Class 4 matics and BMW X drive 3 series.
I went with the JAGUAR X-Type everyone has those cars here in the states and The Jags reliability is far Superior and you can get far more car in the Jag than the others For less Ca$h. AND Its a Jag....Simply love to just stare at it..like a fool! its so darn sexy!
Follow the suggestions above as well as also make sure turning from left to right from stop to stop while driving slow to listen for crunching,clunking ,clicking and tightness. If thats all good you should also have a nice feel of the road not disconnected..And its cheap for me to insure $74 a month Full Coverage 1 YaY!
All in ALL If all checks out I'd be all over that deal...I HAPPILY paid twice ($4100 ,and would have paid more) than the $2000 you are speaking of, but mine was provided to me with all maintenance records & only had 56k miles on it 2 months ago. 1 owner an clean carfax...Don,t forget to get one of those or cheaper similar car report..
I Have a 14 yr old daughter and will happily have her drive this Pretty Kitty in 2 yrs for safety, reliability and AWD... So ....Do It...Do it....Do It.....