Hello all,

Well, a few weeks ago, I was driving my crappy Toyota Matrix, leaving my lab when what should happen, but a 16 year old girl decided that she didn't need to actually check for cars before pulling into the road. Needless to say, a crash occurred, writing off my car. Fortunately everyone was ok, she was a little shaken up since she had only had her license for 4 months prior and hadn't been driving long. So, what to do now. I had begun the search for a 06 or 09 XJ SV8 portfolio, but didn't have any money saved yet so that was out of the question. I was looking at other econo boxes but then found what I was looking for, another Jag.

The car: 2005 Jaguar XJ Super V8, Black/Tan with 243,000km. Now, I bet some of you are just about to punch the screen yelling "Why would you buy that! Way too many miles", but don't despair, I'm not new to these cars and know when to run and when to buy. I think.

Lets start with the BAD:
1) No heat on drivers side, probably the heater core, possibly the aux pump. Either way, easy fix and I knew this going in.
2) Needs new parking brake pads. No biggie, already have them on the way.
3) The adaptive cruise doesn't work. This might be a bigger issue. Is it the battery, sensor, alignment, the radar unit itself? I'm waiting on my mongoose and SDD to see what's what.

And that's all the bad. Everything else is absolutely amazing. Other than the usually scuffs and the odd loose trim clip you would expect on a 10 year old car with 150,000 miles on it its almost perfect. The interior is stunningly perfect, not even any wear on the drivers bolter or seat. Apparently, the owner was a little old man who just drove a lot and religiously maintained it at the Jag dealer. I don't have the full service history, but based on what I see it looks to have all new air shocks, expansion tanks, hoses, belts, etc.. The engine bay looks better than most 50,000 mile cars I saw (and no, it hadn't been cleaned. I got the car as it was traded in on a new XJ). Now, to top it all off, this car cost me the grand total of $6000 CDN. That's right, only 6K. So, even putting a grand or so into it I'm still ahead if you ask me. Now, the car was in Toronto, so I drove it back to Winnipeg (2100km), a good shakedown of the car. The thing drove and rode as smooth as silk, great power delivery without any unexpected noises. And to top it all off, 30mpg!

All in all, this was only $2000 more than what I got for my Matrix, and boy was it worth it. I'm just waiting for all the muck and dirt to clear up here before I give it a good detail and clean and fix any little niggles to make it good as new. Two Jags, isn't life great.

 

WinterJag,

Congratulations on your nice Super V8, and a nice color combination too! Please share some photos when you get the chance.

Cheers,

Don

 

Congratulations----you are really lucky I was in Florida for the winter!!!

 

I'll get some pics up when it stops being a giant mud puddle here. Right now everyone has a brown and white car from all the mud and salt. Shouldn't be to long though then I can clean it up nice and good!
Ya Sixrotors, guess I was the lucky one! The next one can be yours.

 

At 150k miles, it's about 2/3rd through its economic life, but if you're prepared to keep up the repair and maintenance it can go on a whole lot longer. There are many cars into the 200k+ region.

 

Yes, please post pictures of your new Super V8!