Hey Jag Forums,

I'm a new owner of an X-type and thought I'd check in with this forum in hopes that you guys can help guide me with this situation.

I got the car for $350 @ 115k miles, so obviously there has to be something wrong with it right? It had new tires and a bit of work done to it before, but I believe the owner was giving up on the car once it presented some less than desirable repairs that went beyond the normal scope. Naturally, errors codes were already present, both check engine and ABS lights flaring brightly.

Ran codes at Autozone, had more specific diagnostics run at a mechanic, and had the following done to the car.

OEM Spark Plugs
Ignition Coil x 3
Front Intake Wheel SP Sen
2 Intake Runner Seals
TPS Sensor Seal
MAF Sensor Seal
Evap Hoses Replacement
Intake Gasket
Throttle Body Gasket/Clean
Engine Detail

This came to a bill of $1,000. Unfortunately, I'm not a mechanic but this did take some haggling to get done to, judging by the amount of things that needed attention I went ahead and had it all done. Luckily, the ABS/Check engine lights are gone and the car seems to be running beautifully for the most part.

But it does not end here. Since the car has been sitting for a while, It's been brought to my attention that the brakes need work. Brake Rotors and pads are definitely needed, and unfortunately I'm being told that the calipers need to be replaced as well for the front axle. I'll have to replace those since the car is doing 2 very annoying things. 1) The car/steering wheel kind of shakes up and down from as early as 10 MPH and is very apparent when you hit 70 MPH. 2) The brakes are producing a squealing sound that is just not appealing and has me wondering just how long it will last. I've been quoted at $400 for this.

Sure the car was free, but $1,400 down I'm feeling as if I'm teetering into a danger zone given the value of the car. Can anyone provide any suggestions/comments? If I continue to go down this road will I find myself having to replace one thing after the other?

 

Yes! you will be ripped off again and again until cost of the car will exceed book value, which is about $1700 or so.
Get a Honda or Toyota. Based on my 25 years of repairing cars, Honda/Toyota with 250k miles will have as many problems as any European car with 100k miles or less.
But I love Jaguars! And Corvettes! And Jeeps! I had a Maserati once.

 

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Wow!! It's like a dailey dose now......

 

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Grow up.

 

wrong thread... ?

 

indeed, you will spend some money to resurrect it and some more to keep it running but at the end of the day you've got a good looking car which rides well (to mention a few of its positives).

the market value for them is low especially compared to original msrp and it's understandable considering its reputation and service costs (if you don't do stuff yourself) but for most people $2000 really isn't that a lot of money for a recently thoroughly serviced up car and if you treat it well it will last a long time. read up on regular expensive failures and take precautions (transfer box oil changes for example).

I wouldn't worry at all about going above the resale value because there is pretty much no car which will yield you more or even close to the same ammount of money as you paid for it. ofc there are exceptions but then you need to:

a) have a lot of money to invest in it to begin with
b) fix it up yourself to avoid savage service costs
c) don't drive it that much

and to me it sounds like you won't apply to any of those, so you will probably lose money on your x-type, just like everybody else does with their cars.

we don't buy cars to get rich, we pay to own cars as a convenience, not having to take the bicycle to buy food, go to work or visit our parents