i owned a 1999 vanden plas and it broke and broke and broke for some reason i want another one but looking at 2004 i found one with 70k miles on it,,, for 11k? good?? are these models better then the 2003-earlyer? thanks

 

The last of the steel-bodied XJs (X308) had a number of problems when they replaced the X300 series which had the 6 cylinder engine, (and some V12s) with the V8. These problems or issues have been discussed to death on the relevant forum. The last couple of years of production saw virtually all the issues dealt with by Jaguar.

The X350s did not have the issues the X308s had, but introduced a few of their own, namely paintwork problems with the aluminium body. These manifest themselves as bubbling out from an edge or seam on the body. There is no clear explanation, but contamination of the panels from the pressing process is one culprit. So far the problem has been cosmetic in nature, but depending on where the corrosion appears, can be cheap or expensive to put right. In general, this issue does not appear until the car is a few years old and approaching the end of the paintwork and body corrosion warranty. There is certainly no issue at all with body strength on the lines of the old Jaguar rust bucket bodies, the corrosion is very minor, but being so visible spoils the appearance of the car.

Although nobody at Jaguar will put their hand up and say, "Sorry guys, we mucked up on this one", paintwork rectification has been done under the warranty, but once the car leaves the dealership network, and is not under a Jaguar-backed warranty, essentially you are on your own; the factory will not help you with the cost, (at least they would not help me).

It is clear to me that Jaguar were not fully up to speed on painting aluminium in the early years of production. I have had to rectify two small areas of corrosion on my own 2003 XJ6. One of these areas is the leading edge of the bootlid, where the original screen seal had a lip that rubbed on the back of this edge everytime the boot lid was opened, rubbing away the paint and letting corrosion form which then crept round onto the exterior surface. The other was at the bottom of the D post where is crept out of the recess for the screen, necessitating removal of the rear screen and its seal to rectify it. The bodyshop very neatly trimmed off the rubber lip when replacing the screen seal, so I don't expect anymore problems with the bootlid.

As regards mechanical parts, there have been a few gearbox problems, I understand, but this is not regarded as a huge issue. There was a TSB to address this quite early on. There was also a recall to remove some sound insulation underneath the car that could retain water and rot-out the rear brake pipes.

The real nuisance bit for most owners is the short service life of the bushes in the rear suspension arms, and the bottoms of the spring/damper units, These latter take the full weight of the car, (albeit a light aluminium car in this case). The bushes for these are cheap and replaceable easily, but the suspension arm bushes are not supplied separately by Jaguar, only the full arm at huge cost, (as in £425 each !!). Now an aftermarket firm has arranged production and is supplying the bushes separately but they are not cheap at around £55 each, but cheaper than the whole arm !
Also the full arm assembly is available on the internet at lower cost than a Jaguar Main Agent will charge. These arms are also used on the S-Type, and I assume on the Ford cars that have the same suspension, a Lincoln model, I think, so maybe that is where the cheaper arms come from. These supposedly unserviceable aluminium suspension arms are also used on other up-market cars, my Rover 75 had similar, but the arms were not too expensive. That is what rankles with me, the short service life then a mindboggling price to replace. I have not yet had to replace a bush, but no doubt will have to at some point.

So far I have done 8000 miles in my car without problems at all, starting with 30k on the car at purchase. It runs beautifully, and has just been serviced at the main agent in Wilmslow, near Manchester, who reported no issues on inspection, other than fron tyre wear approaching the limits

 

Given that many of us 2004 XJ8 owners have had similar problems (air suspension faults, minor gearbox issues, etc.) I would suggest you look for an 05 or later. Seems to be less complaints from those folks. Perhaps Jaguar worked out some of the "production gremlins" after the first model year.

 

Needless to say in my last post I forgot all about the air suspension issues, but was reminded on them tonight, when, on starting the car to go to a restaurant, almost immediately I got "Air suspension fault" on the message display on the dash. Now the last time I used the car had been last Saturday when we went to Rugby and back, a round trip of about 190 miles. So what had happened in between ? Nothing at all, except I had been out in my little hobby car, an MG Midget, so maybe my thoroughbred was getting a bit jealous !