Hi all, I'm cross posting this from the welcome area in the hope of accessing some specific knowledge regarding the X350 platform. Hopefully that isn't breaking any rules.

I've recently taken on a new job with a long commute that I'd rather not do in any of my current cars for various reasons.

In looking for something relatively inexpensive and comfortable to commute in I've turned my attention to the X350 XJ8's. I've found a seemingly suitable 2004 VDP that I'm interested in pursuing. It's kinda high mileage at almost 120k, and a little rough around the edges on the exterior, but it has a nice interior and drives very well.

The only poor manners I could find were a slight pull to the right and brakes that are weaker than I would expect, I think the brakes are probably the nature of the beast. Everything I tested on the car worked great with the exception of the rear sunshade. With the sunshade I can hear a faint click from the rear of the car but it doesn't extend.

While I really don't want to buy a car that's going to require a lot of expensive maintenance and repairs, I do accept that I may need to do a coil spring conversion if the air suspension goes bad.

Am I nuts for considering this? If/when I take another test drive is there anything in particular I should look for?

Next question. This is a pic of the car I'm looking at. Does the current height it's sitting at lead anyone to believe there is an immediate problem with the suspension?

Ride height looks ok. Maybe a little high, but that could be the tires. Yes, you are nuts for considering this if you dont like spending $$$ on inevitable repairs. Its a really nice car to commute in, though. If the price is right, pull that trigger. Good luck.

As a general rule, running ANY Jaguar is expensive unless you do your own maintenance. When checking a potential purchase, go through the Service History very carefully and question any gaps or irregularities.

Parts aren't cheap and trim items can often come as a shock. Factor any repair or replacement into the negotiations.

Spend some time in the vehicle with the Driver's Handbook to check every switch and control works. Some electrical issues can be a nightmare to troubleshoot.

I hope this one work out OK but if in doubt, walk away and look for another.

Graham

Thanks GGG and solerydr.

For maintenance I can do my own basic maintenance. Oil changes, brake maintenance and the like. I would even have the confidence to try to tackle the air suspension conversion on my own if it ever came to that. But any other major repairs would be something it would need to go in for.

I've done a lot of searching and reading, the only major thing I'm seeing being a common failure is the air suspension. Is there anything else that is a common failure? And are there any tell tale signs I can look for to indicate an upcoming costly repair?

As everyone else already said, 'Jaguar' and 'inexpensive' do not go together.

Air suspension
Suspension bushings (dealer prices = $500 for a single control arm, not including labor)
Throttle bodies ($900 part?)
Wipers and headlamp washers
Headliners
Headlights
Cooling system issues

If the brakes on the car you test drove were weak, that's something else to fix. The brakes on these XJs are especially good when working normally. Brake fluid should be flushed every 2 years.

If the trans fluid has never been serviced in this car, a new trans or rebuild might be on the list of things to do as well. Although advertised as 'sealed for life' it should actually be serviced every 60k miles.

mhamilton, thanks for the input are there any warning signs for the items you mentioned?

I'll obviously try to go through the service history if the dealer has it especially regarding the transmission fluid. The trans on the car didn't seem poorly behaved in any way while driving FWIW.

For the weak brakes, they were fine just driving around. I didn't notice anything 'abnormal' until getting off the freeway I decided I was going to really test them and they didn't haul the car down from speed as I would have expected. I think it could be that I'm just used to the brakes on my M3 and my Evo, but then again I could be wrong.

I bought my 05 VDP at 22K miles. It now has about 82K miles on it.

In the 4.5 years I have owned I have replaced all the stuff listed below at a cost that would have been about $12,000 if I had not purchased the extended warranty. Most of the repairs were after 50K miles.

I expect that most of these parts will wear out on any XJ once the mileage starts getting high. Note that the air suspension is not on the list. I think that tends to last longer in warm humid climates like mine.

• Battery
• Factory floor mats
• Windshield (heated)
• Brake pads & rotors
• Torque Converter (trans fluid changed too)
• Coolant tank
• Throttle body
• Rear shade
• CD changer
• Trunk lift cylinders
• Hood lift cylinders
• Wishbones
• Control arms
• Ball Joints
• Anti roll bushings
• Stabilizing link

To be honest, I would not recommend this car as ideal for regular long commutes, especially with 'inexpensive' being one of the requirements.

I just had two air shocks burst within three weeks of each other, and frankly, the car is not capable of normal driving once this fails. I replaced the first failed shock with another air shock, and when the second one failed three weeks later I was sort of 'locked' into buying another air shock as I had just replaced one. I rather wish I had done the coilover conversion from the start. My other two shocks could fail within the next year, and I will have spent more money than doing a coilover conversion. On the plus side, the Arnott shocks I replaced them with have a lifetime warranty, so at least I shouldn't have to pay to replace the same shock twice.

If a rear shock fails, the car is very uncomfortable to drive, and hitting the smallest bumps causes it to 'bottom out' and rub against the wheel well (and possibly scrape the undercarriage/muffler if you attempt to cross a speed bump).

If a front shock fails, it might sink so low that you are not able to turn the wheel all the way because the tire may rub against the wheel arch. Not cool. These cars really should have had some sort of failback mechanism that prevents the car from bottoming out in the event of a suspension failure.

Having this sort of failure in the middle of a long commute could be a nightmare, IMO.

I know all this because I just replaced one of the shocks today. Good news is, is that I was able to do it myself - but I did have to wait all weekend for the part to arrive, as it's not readily available locally unless you're willing to pay $1300 from the dealership rather than $399 for a rebuilt Arnott unit.

If you are willing to put up with with this sort of thing or do a conversion - as well as pay to maintain the thing - then go for it. I do love the car regardless, but I don't think it's necessarily ideal for the case use you describe.

In fact, I do not take my Jag for long trips. For that I have my trusty old Saab 9000 Aero. I have owned 5 Saabs over the years, and each of them has made it over 250,000 miles with very little maintenance that could be called 'expensive', certainly nothing compared to the Jag. And honestly, as a 6'4" person, I haven't sat in more comfortable cars. I find myself sort of squirming around after a while in the Jag, and the placement of the ignition key isn't ideal for the right knee if you're as tall as I. Another bonus is that it's 4-cyl turbo gets better gas milage than the Jag with excellent mid-range acceleration. That's actually another thing to consider; the XJ requires premium fuel - no 89-octane gas, so again perhaps not ideal for regular, long commutes. Where I am there's a 40-cent difference between regular and premium, so it's about a $7.20 difference per tank (assuming 18 gallon fillup), and that's ignoring MPG differences too.

So that's my vote. A nice Saab or Volvo. Not the sexiest cars on the planet, but real workhorses, built to last, and built by tall Swedes, so they're surprisingly roomy and comfortable. Usually plenty of cargo space. Practical cars.

Plus if you're in WI you might appreciate having front-wheel drive in the snow, maybe. It was an advantage for me back when I lived up North. Once, long ago, had to get an Army buddy to the airport on time for his return from holiday leave (otherwise he'd be disciplined) and my hilly town was plagued with an unexpected inch-thick sheet of ice on the roads. I had to travel around 20 miles to an airport and back. Passed dozens of rear-wheel cars stranded on the sides of the road, while I chugged along in my 1989 Saab 900 Turbo in second gear in all-weather tires, braking by mostly using the gearbox and clever pumping of the brake pedal (no anti-lock). FWD and Swedish steel. An XJ, by comparison, is built to be lightweight with an aluminum shell and is of course RWD. You might be switching to winter tires and chains and loading your trunk with sandbags if it ices over... just something else to consider.

All that said, I do love my Jag, but one of the reasons that I bought it is because I had a short 3.5-mile commute to work, so I knew I wouldn't be racking up the miles (and repair and fuel costs) very quickly. It's a beautiful car that makes me hurt with adoration every time I look at it - and the one in your pictures is very pretty itself - and I very frequently get random people telling me how beautiful it is. And I love the fact that I relatively rarely see other people driving 'my' car on the road, at least in my neck of the woods. But I must be honest and say that when someone asks for a suggestion for an 'inexpensive, long-distance commute car', I cannot honestly recommend a Jaguar XJ8 from 2004.

Sorry for being longwinded. I call it being thorough.

This is such a let down. Everything I'd read before joining this forum was that this isn't the Jaguar of old where everything broke and cost a fortune to repair. Sounds like this still may not be the best idea.

I appreciate the honest feedback from everyone. While the rational part of me says I shouldn't do this, the emotional part of me still wants to. But at least you guys warned me. Thank you for that!

I was not trying to be a buzzkill on your desire to own an XJ. In fact I highly recommend one for the superior driving experience it will give you.

I am on my 4th Jaguar now. I have the belief that these cars will always be a $15-20K expense. Either you will get a "really good deal" and pay 10K for one with another 5-10K in repairs. Or you will pay 15-20K for one that is in great, well maintained condition and has already been "expensed" by its current owner.

It is doubtful you will never find one for ~10K that needs nothing and lasts a long time. Cars like that are simply worth more than 10K in today's market.

So go buy what your heart wants. The XJs of the Ford era are truly awesome cars. You won't regret it.

Just understand that ultimately it is going to cost you $15-20K - eventually. You can pay more for a well maintained car and truly enjoy it. Or you can pay less and enjoy it whenever it is not being repaired/costing you more money.

Not a buzzkill at all. This is exactly what I was looking for.

My biggest fear is something failing on it with no warning and rendering the car undrivable. I think if I buy it I'll do the coil spring conversion right away. I can't have it collapse on me on my commute.

Final question, other than the air shocks is there anything else that can fail catastrophically without warning?

Ok, really last question. When the throttle body fails, what are the symptoms of that?

For the most part, it is true - this is not the Jaguar of old; not everything breaks down and it really isn't a fortune to repair (comparatively speaking). But don't think for a second that it's cheap to own or maintain. As an owner, I'd love to report that it's a fantastic bargain that is ideal for long highway travel with cheap maintenance (it would certainly do me a world of good if that were true). If you were asking about this car under different circumstances, I might highly recommend it - but it's absolutely not to be sought as a reliable mule to be used for regular, long-distance commuting, considering that 'inexpensive' is a requirement.

To be fair to Jaguar, this holds true for most luxury brands. You typically can't attach the 'inexpensive' qualifier to a 'long distance, comfortable commuter machine' when it's a Jaguar, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, etc. I could recommend the Jaguar even with its suspension or other woes if it were cheap to fix, but as the old saying goes - "Fast, Cheap, or Easy - Pick Two". The reliability of the Jaguar is not as bad as I or others may make it seem, but it's certainly not a cheap car to maintain.

I do like that you admit that 'while the rational part of me says I shouldn't do this, the emotional part of me still wants to'. I suspect that most of us on this forum bought our cars for largely emotional reasons. These cars are, to us, works of art; they have soul and spirit, and we're willing to put up with a relative amount of hassle. But honestly, Jaguar ownership is not readily compatible with the idea of long-distance, inexpensive commuting, especially the XJ series. Consider my advice and get a nice Volvo or something. Maybe a wagon. Haven't you secretly desired to be able to strap snow-skis to the roof, six passengers to the seats, and a bicycle to the rear hatch? Don't lie to me.

Well, I have had mine since 2010, and have completed over 40k miles, incl 2 trips to Germany on holiday. These cars are reliable, in that getting stuck by the roadside is very rare, but can suffer from what I call "unfair wear and tear". This concerns parts, especially suspension bushes, that wear out much earlier than one would expect. This is compounded by the Jaguar prices for these parts being very high. The good news is that the aftermarket suppliers are well up-to-speed now, so most of the short-life stuff is now available at a lot less cost.

US owners seem to suffer from air spring failures, but this is rare in the UK. One can get quite a few glitches coming up but generally speaking these are straightforward to fix, provided the mechanic can read the fault codes that point to the problem.

When I get time, I'll post up more info, but the thing is not to get scared by these complex cars. All European cars are complex, I'm afraid, and spares from the main agents are expensive. Think of the good side. On fuel, you are in clover in the US; it costs me about £90 to fill my petrol tank !!

My 04 XJ VDP which I've owned since new has been every bit as reliable as a Honda. Until this year, all it needed was fluid changes, an air compressor (probably just the seal), brakes, tires, a transmission pan, a battery and a couple HID light bulbs. Not bad for 8 years. This year has been costly as I had some recurring evaporative system issues, the exhaust system had to be replaced as part of a brake line recall and a couple other preemptive routine maintenance items that I took care of. The headliner has just started to drop (that's apparently cheap). Overall maintenance/repair costs are still great when averaged out over 9 years of ownership. The car has never stranded me or broken down and I still have absolute confidence in the car. No doubt the coming years will become more costly as more parts wear out. The car is still wonderful to drive for long distance road trips. It returned from a long road trip a couple months ago. It can go a long way on a single tank of gas when highway cruising.

Having said that, just because you can buy a used Jag for as little as similarly aged Japanese car, it doesn't mean the Jag will be as cheap to maintain going forward. A modern XJ is a very complex car stuffed full of a lot of very costly parts that few people understand. The repair costs relative to what the car was when new are probably no worse than any other car, but can quickly exceed what a Jag is worth second hand. You can mitigate some of these costs if you have the tools and capabilities to perform some repairs yourself and can shop around for the parts. You definitely don't want to put off repairs or routine maintenance or be taking over someone else's problem. If you don't have the appetite or the pockets for the potential repair costs, you might want to find one with a comprehensive used car warranty, or set your sights on a less complex car. For those who can afford to maintain one, a modern XJ is a wonderful car to own and drive. Just my 2 cents.

Personally I don't like the coil conversion solution. I think that it sacrifices the ride quality you get from the OE technology.

I understand that the coil conversion is also not cheap and comparable to just buying 4 Arnott air shocks. Since the Arnotts have lifetime warranty both repair options seem to be a one time cost. And now that the air compressor repair parts are available there is minimal cost to fix it as well.

The air shock system doesn't just fail without warning either. If you educate yourself about the system and know what to pay attention to you won't get stranded. Usually the systems start showing signs of minor leaks long before a complete failure. Read up on it and you will be fine.

When my throttle body failed the car acted up several times before it went completely down. The car went into "limp mode" but restarting it would get me going again. Eventually restarting did not help and it had to be fixed. But again I got plenty of warning.

The "stranded on the side of the road" scenario is rare I think.

I have only had my X350 a month

It does not need anything had a pretty good service history but judging by my previous 2 jaguars I expect it to cost something nature of the beast

If you just wanted a comfortable car to do the mileage cheaply there are other types out there

This is the first Jaguar I have owned with the air suspension and unlike others on this site that convert them to coil spring I will never do that had 2 previous jaguars with coil springs first a 91 sovereign then a 95 XJR6 the Sov rode beautifully the XJR6 horribly

In between these cars I bought a Citroen C5 diesel for my wife after driving that car with the hydraulic suspension
I was of the belief that no other car on the planet drove nicer than that I bought the C5 with 145,000 k,s on the clock and sold it with 350,000k,s on the clock did that mileage in 2 years drove it all over Australia fell in love with that suspension

Then I bought the X350 the air suspension on it is beautiful
I bought it in Sydney 1000k,s from home flew down to pick it up drove it to Melbourne then home a total of 3,800k,s in 2 weeks love that air suspension wish the Jeep Grand Cherokee I bought the wife to replace the Citroen had air suspension now I understand why all my mates like the range rovers with air suspension

Well, a quick update. I decided to expand my horizons beyond old and super cheap and my wife just negotiated the purchase of a certified 2009 XJ8 on my behalf. It's in fantastic shape and drives like a brand new car.

We had to spend a little (a lot) more to get this car but I believe it is more in line with what I am looking for. She's picking it up in about an hour, and I can't wait to start driving it.

Congratulations! I have no doubt that you will be very pleased.

Obviously, we need pics now.

Here's a couple of pics from the dealer. It's a done deal, and now I can't concentrate at work.