Hello All,

Looking for some thoughts and advice on what to do with my car given my situation.

I have a 2013 XJ 3.0 Supercharged AWD with a little under 115k. It had 104k on it when I bought it about 2 years ago. I have put a ton of work into this car since I've had it including:

-Timing Chains, tensioners, and guide rails replaced by top notch independent European auto shop
- Supercharger taken apart, cleaned, gaskets, seals, and coupler replaced
- Two fuel. injectors replaced
- Water pump replaced
- Oil Cooler gasket replaced
- Problematic coolant plumbing pipes (y-pipe, the one in the rear by firewall, etc.)
- Main battery and aux battery replaced
-Alternator and belts replaced
-Brand new tires all the way around
-Struts, upper control arms, and sway bar links replaced in the front

Basically, I want to know what you all think I can expect of this car going forward as far as reliability/longevity. I do a significant amount of driving for work (about 3-5k miles per month depending) and I want a car that can keep up. Any ideas on what other issues I might run into soon or did I catch most of them? Car runs and drives smooth and quietly with no leaks or known issues now but I just have no idea if it is wise for me to keep this thing or not. Would hate to part ways with it but it is very difficult to maintain the car where I live because there are not a lot of places that will work on it and the places that do are very costly (time and money wise). Thoughts? Thank you in advance.

 

hayesk11, now I have the 5.0L N/A motor, so things may be slightly different, but I have had minimal issues with the car over the 120K miles that I have owned it. Yes, I have replaced the water pump twice, put on 2 sets of tires, going to be doing my second brake pad replacement here shortly. Now, I put on the car about 2K miles a month. Some of what you did was basic maintenance for the car (new tires, belts, batteries). The rest is kinda the nature of this beast. But, now that you have done them, you shouldn't have worries in the future. I think you may find if you drive the car a bit more that it will have fewer issues.

Worst case, give the car 6-12 months of the hard use and see what you have. If it starts to require a lot of time/money to maintain, then move on to something else. If not, you know your answer.

 

Well you certainly keep your car in top notch condition so way to go on that!
But I see you have done what I consider a LOT of repairs?
I am only at half your mileage on my 2014 XJR but my repairs have consisted of a water pump and front plastic pipes done under warranty and then one O2 sensor failure in 56K miles.

I tend to keep and repair my cars so I think you should keep it but it's not a slam dunk decision with the history of the car?
What I see is you pay to have the work done which pushes my recommendation to get rid of the car and get something with lower miles. Whether it's a Jaguar or not is up to you. Yes I hate to say that!
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You certainly have repaired most of the problem areas typical of the X351, but I would suggest another car for your situation. Have you considered ... do you have the ability to store more than one car? Keep the Jag that you've rehabilitated for occasional use, and get another car more suitable for high mileage. Your 10-year-old, 115k Jaguar will not realize much as a trade-in or outright sale, so why not keep it, if you can?
Sure, nothing gobbles up miles of asphalt like a large luxury sedan, and there aren't any new vehicles comparable to your XJ, but a new Accord or Camry would give you many useful features unavailable on your XJ. (A lot of gimmickry and distractions, too, but that's "progress").
Since the XJ would no longer be your daily driver, you'd save a lot on insurance. Ditto the switch from premium fuel, not to mention improved fuel mileage. But the item that carries the most weight, in my opinion, is the fact that you don't have local access to Jaguar expertise. This alone should tip the scales against relying on one for high-maileage use. New cars aren't all that bad, and your Jaguar experience will now be an enjoyable treat.

 

I did most of that, minus timing chain and fuel stuff between 50-60K miles to the XF. I'm at like 66K now and I'm starting to consider my next daily too. When I bought it, the plan was to update again in 2022, but now kind of waiting to see what the market does. The X250 hasn't been quite as reliable as the old X308 (but other than eating water pumps, not terrible). X308 was a rock up until about 115K miles, but by that time it was over 15 years old. Most of what puts a car out to pasture is age more so than mileage as the organic materials deteriorate and metals corrode. I kept driving the X308 far longer than I should have and knew it was time though when the X308's alternator gave out while on my way to a critical business meeting where I was to be giving the presentation. I've been restoring old cars for 30 years and knew that while most major components can be replaced, even after the most comprehensive restoration, you're still left with a car that has far more old parts than new parts. So I bought a much newer Jaguar to replace it (tho the X351 grew too much in dimensions so I opted for the X250).

I loved the X308 a lot more than I ever thought I would and even though I bought the X250 in 2017 to replace it, I couldn't bring myself to sell the XJ8 Maybe if member of the local Jaguar club would have taken it and promised to keep it in a garage, but knowing they aren't worth hardly anything and what its likely fate would be on kegs list or faceplant marketplace, I kept it. I pulled the engine and went through it and restored all of the suspension. But no matter how many new gaskets, new bushings, etc that I've installed, its still like 99.5% over 23 years old so its probably best not to rely too much on it, just weekends now, take it to a car show once in a while. There's also stuff that gets old that you just don't even think about, but can add up. For example, I still need to replace all of the speakers as the foam surrounds have deteriorated.

But I'm definitely not buying another Jaguar for a daily driver tho because I fear we're losing the resources we need to maintain them. The Jaguar dealer network appears to be collapsing. My local dealer is closing April 1st. They told me they can't make it till Jaguar comes back with their all-electric Bentley beater and plus that's a higher level of clientele than their target market anyway. The next nearest Jaguar dealer 30 miles away is bailing out too. Because my daily driver needs to be fixed right away and don't always have time to DIY, I sometimes have had to rely on my local indy who has lost all his experienced staff to retirement and health issues. He is right now scheduling about two months out. I think for my next daily, just because of the supply chain and skilled workforce issues going on post pandemic, not to mention Jaguar's dealer network, its going make more sense to replace the XF with something more reliable to begin with and more common so that when I need repairs, my DD not out of commission for a long time. But I'm probably holding on to the X250 for another year and I don't know that I'll trade it in or sell it. I tend to have attachment issues and will probably figure out a way to hold onto it. It'll be a cool classic, the last of an era, when everyone is scooting around in electric pods.

 

It has been fairly reliable since I took care of timing chain and coolant leaking issues. I want to run it up and see what it does but I will lose so big if anything major happens (tranny fails, supercharger fails, electrical issues, etc.). Even replacing the air suspension components in the rear would be a huge deal if they go out. I think I might give it a couple months and see where it goes and ditch it if it does not work out.

 

i've paid a fortune to have this car brought up to good shape, but in its defense I only spent $5k on it when I bought it 2 years ago so I saved pretty big on the front end. The problem is this car has significantly increased my expectations of any car and most cars i can purchase will never come close to my tastes after this car.

 

I do have a 2007 Cadillac Escalade EXT that I also drive very regularly which has proven to be very reliable and has similar mileage (which is just breaking in for a GM truck). The Escalade just has abysmal fuel economy so I generally prefer the Jag though the gas savings between the two $ wise is very little. I have a loyal shop now that is invested in the Jag but they are very pricey. Of course, their work is top notch and they stand behind it. Why do the best cars always have to be gas guzzlers?

 

As always details matter and with that low price plus the cost of the repairs you have done VERY well! That low purchase price gave you plenty in reserve for the repairs!
Funny you mention gas usage because I have been surprised at the excellent mileage my XJR gets? Now it went up significantly with the tune and I can't explain that at all because I love and use the extra power all the time!

On the road I get between 27-28 MPG at 75-80 mph. In town where it's low speed and a lot of accelerating I drop to 21-22 mpg. The lowest I ever got it was at the Texas Mile where I ran 174 mph and did 9 run's to those speeds. That finally dropped it to around 16 mpg for that tank of gas.

You also found one of the keys to owning a used Jaguar and that is a trusted local independent mechanic. That is NOT an easy task!
I think you should mention them in print as we get a lot of complaints about bad repair places and not very many reports of good ones!

Hope you stay but understand it may not happen.
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My wife's 2012 XJ has just gone over 154k miles, and I've just recently refreshed almost the entire the cooling system, (sans the heater coil, pipes to the heater coil, oil cooler, transmission cooler & radiator). I plan to replace the radiator after taking care of things on my 2012 Range Rover (w/ same engine as the wife's XJ).
All the parts I removed were original and still operating, although I saw that the rear heater manifold crossover pipe was beginning to weep at a seam.
It's been great with the failure that stranded her a year or so ago, when the HPFP(s) failed.
I've also changed motor & transmission mounts (probably not needed), valve cover gaskets (certainly needed), suspension control arms, intake manifold gaskets (during cooling system refresh).

I've scheduled it to get the brake & steering fluids flushed & changed at the end of the month at the dealership. I know I could do both, and save bucks, but it's worth it to me for it to get some dealership time, especially for services that are few & far between.
It is a Jaguar, maybe the best ever built, and I respect it as such.
But it's still running well.