Ladies and Gents,
It comes with great sadness to report that I will no longer be a regular contributor to this great Jaguar forum.

As most of you know my XJ8 was slowly but surely falling apart, and I could no longer keep up with the expensive repair costs (even with doing all my own labour).

Therefore I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new car. Not another Jag ( I was thinking 2007 XK convertible) but a 2015 Ford Taurus SEL with all the bells and whistles and a 5 year Wrap warranty. I really, really wanted something that I would not have to work on for the next 5 years at least.

The Jag will be going onto craigslist Dallas for probably $2000 as is. I would love to be able to part it out but don't have the parking space available. I do though have the Veffs Bluetooth Module which I will be taking out and selling here for someone that would like it at a cut down price. Watch the selling thread.

I feel quite sad about getting rid of it to be honest, the forum is a great group of adults all cherishing (or hating) their Jaguars and the amount of knowledge and information contained here is absolutely fantastic. I would love to say I would pop back every now and again, but I wouldn't as there's a whole new Ford Taurus forum waiting for my English humour and spoilt brat snobbish attitude to be sticking my teeth into ( hopefully without all the repair and maintenance issues and questions).

I absolutely hope to dear god that they don't have Mongooses for diagnosing too..

Stay Frosty people and Lang May Yer lum Reek (so says Jim...)

Regards,
Andrew Forrest AKA Trosty

 

Sad to see you go Andrew.

All the best.

John

 

Sad to see a quality contributer leave the forum.

Godspeed

By the way, I would love to have that Bluetooth device for my wife's car, can you PM me a price?

 

Very sad to see you go, but fully understand. We have all been at that point.
If you dont mind us sending you a PM from time to time if needed, that would still be a bonus for us. We would loose a great forum member, but still have your huge experience history to bail us out.
Thanks for all your help over the past years. I'll never forget your high speed trip story to New England. I still dont know how you did that many miles in that short of time.
Thanks for all the great support
Mark

 

Thanks for all your contributions Trosty.

Best wishes!

 

You should check out https://www.fordtaurus.net/forums/ I'm a member there.

 

Already there bud... hahaha and on the Taurus club forum.

No time wasting here...

 

Trosty / Andrew, sad to see you go buddy, you've bee here a few years now and a regular contributor. It's certainly a loss to the section and the forum.

These things happen though, times and circumstances, life and choices all go through this process. I appreciate where you're at and why you've made the choices you have.
You will always be welcome here, Jaguar owner of not so please feel free to drop by and say hi from time to time.

I wish you the best of luck with your new vehicle and hope all goes well for you.
Best

 

Awww Mannn! That's totally understandable though. & that Taurus looks really good tip Trosty!..

 

Best of wishes... Can you tell us what repairs/maintenance did you do on your Xj8 for future members?

 

Sorry to see you go Andrew. You've been a great contributor and helped so many along the way. Hope you enjoy your new ride and maybe you wont need that mongoose in the future. Good luck.

 

Happy trails to you. Stop on by down the road just to check in for the heckuvit!

 

Well, I haven't quite gone yet. Still have the car sat out front waiting for someone to come take it off my hands. It looks so sweet squatting on its flat front shocks.



Its so weird, I still have the urge to go out and sit in it and clean it, where as I don't with the new car. It really has played a large part of my life in the USA and subconsciously I know I am really going to miss it. Who knows, maybe one day if I find some money somewhere I may go out and get another.

 

Andrew,

Very sorry to see you go, but I hope you'll miss the forum enough to check in from time to time and continue to make contributions to help others who just can't kick their X350 habit.

All the best,

Don

 

Andrew,

Sorry to see you go but a sensible decision in the circumstances. I hope you can move the XJ8 on without too much delay or drop in asking price.

Five year warranty on a Ford Taurus - you'll be desparate to get back into a Jaguar by the end of it!

Graham

 

Andrew

Cheers chum, and thanks for all your input.

Take care

Dave

 

trosty wrote: "Therefore I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new car. Not another Jag ( I was thinking 2007 XK convertible) but a 2015 Ford Taurus SEL with all the bells and whistles and a 5 year Wrap warranty. I really, really wanted something that I would not have to work on for the next 5 years at least".


You might reconsider your decision on the Ford as all of the big three domestic car companies have been run by bean counters for decades. That Taurus might very well wind up chalking up more time in the dealer service department than anywhere else.

In my case, I finally had to ditch the Lincoln Continental that I owned as both of the head gaskets blew at once (with oil gushing out of both). I suppose that Ford couldn't have spent the extra $.50 to install some quality head gaskets on the engine. Before that even occured, I had to tape over (or ignore) one fault light after another with that car. The door window switches were crap, and the driver's side window wouldn't open/close (as the mechanism was shot). In fact, the air conditioning wouldn't work, nor was the air suspension functional. The best that I could say about the vehicle was that it handled well.

Get yourself the 2007 XK convertible.

 

It looks great from that angle. Do the tires rub?

 

Actually, I have driven it many times and miles with either the front down or the front and back down and it drives fine with no rubbing or anything ( that I am or was aware of!).

When it is like this though, you can say goodbye to all your bushings and any semblance of a comfortable ride.

It would drop mainly when the weather was sub 30f which rarely happen in Texas.

 

Er, now that would take me forever to do. Your best bet would be to do a search for every thread that I created and see what I wrote.

I did all the routine maintenance as per the schedule.
I changed the heater core.
I changed 3 shocks.
I repaired the driver door window assembly.
I changed a front door speaker
I changed the battery.
I replaced the wheel lug nuts.
I replaced the crappy jack handle to fit the new size lug nuts.
I used a 3m deglazing kit on the headlight lens.
I replaced the sat nav antenna for a new one.
I replaced all oils and filters in accordance with schedule (except for steering fluid)
I rotated all the wheels.
I stapled the interior headliner up.
I repaired,broke and repaired again the earth contact points behind the headlights.
I changed out the transmission oil, pan, bolts and sleeve,
I changed all the spark plugs (no mean feat!).
I changed out the serpentine belt and pulley.
I changed wiper blades.
I changed the grill from silver to black and added a fly catcher mesh.
I changed all 4 rotors and brake pads
I changed the high rear Brake LEDs.


What still needed to be done.

Change HID headlights and ballast ( I get the flicker and cut out constantly).
Change Headliner and moon roof fabric.
Change Shock No 4
Change AC compressor (it is starting to rumble when under extreme use now).
Change Rear Diff (seal gone and leaking oil everywhere)
Change prop shaft rubbers (they are perished)
Change every single bushing and rubber under the vehicle as they are all corroded to nothing and most joints are pretty much metal on metal.
Driver seat belt does not retract back into housing.
Needs 4 new tires of the same size. The spare is a different size to the running ones!
Need Under bonnet fire/sound insulation (although I have never had it on and had no problems with it catching fire ;-) ).
Need under body tray and front valance.


You did ask..