Greetings and salutations!

I come from the distant lands of the XJS forum () where I lurk at the feet of the V12 masters while I tinker with my AJ6 convertibles.

Unfortunately, my daily driver '93 XJS has become completely knackered and is headed for the parts bin in a sudden death spiral fated to either strand me or bankrupt me. I need a replacement daily driver, and fast. I have another, much nicer XJS convertible that's currently in a minor project state, and not road worthy yet (bleeping oxy sensor! ).

My wife and I have agreed that I need something different for a daily driver, and I'm coming around to the idea of trying a car with FOUR whole passenger doors on it.

Weird, I know.

Seriously, I just turned 50, and I've never bought a sedan in my entire life of numerous sports cars, muscle cars, runabouts, and pickups (notably excepting most of the cars I've bought for the wife, of course).

So tomorrow I'm going to buy this ginormous beast barge called a 2004 XJ8 Vanden Plas I found in black for $6k cash. Wish me luck! I may be spotted lurking about these parts as the occasion warrants.

Cheers!

 

Brilliant cars, look forward to pics and to hear you thoughts on it.

 

Going from sports cars, muscle cars, runabouts, and pickups to a luxury sedan is going to change your life!LOL

 

Mere bag of shells, I just traded fully optioned (manual tranny and 18X8s were only options) ;-) 2006 Pontiac GTO toward a three option premium sound with changer and 8X18 Dynamic alloys 2004 XJ8 and there is no turning back.


Congrats and pics upon arrival.

 

Funny you should mention that. My last car was a 2004 GTO.

 

I will definitely post a nice body shot as soon as North Texas sees a nice sunny day, which should be mid-week after tomorrow's rain front comes through. However, this is a bog standard black '04 VDP with the 8-spoke 18's and the Pimp-My-Ride headrest video panels.

The interior is the best feature, and shows almost no wear at all, with only a couple of minor wear flaws. It's the exterior finish that's showing it's age. The factory materials have held up admirably to time and exposure, but the nose shows a lot of highway miles, the sides have more than it's fair share of scratches, and there is a half-*** repair for a small pop in the back bumper. This is a "30 ft show car"; the 5-foot view is just a little sad, as in "Aww, the poor dear." Tsk, tsk.

Day One Impressions: WTF, CUP HOLDERS???

Haha, just kidding. I love the funky XJS designed-in-the-70's/built-in-the-90's vibe (I really do!), but.., yeah.., CUP HOLDERS!

Yes. That's what I'm afraid of.

This is all part of my wife's ploy to get me to give up my project car habit; she's quite open about it. I usual win these sorts of psychological contests, but I have a sinking feeling she's finally gotten my number this time.

 

Here is one of the dealer's pics from the web listing; at least the first impression is proper Jag:


Just don't stand too close, hehe.

I'm training myself on various systems as I go, a little bit every day. Last night I got the door remote programmed, frex.

The first maintenance item is replacement struts for the bonnet. Ought to be an easy-peasy Rock Auto order and DIY job.

 

Yep, the shock swap is simple. It was my first task when I got my car as well.

 

Haven't had a chance to take good pictures yet, but I do have my Week One impressions:

• Big on the outside, small on the inside. (Yep, it's a Jag!)
  
  
• I love this drivetrain!
  
  
• The interior, controls, doors, seals, etc, all give the new car experience, despite 12 years of age and 148k miles on the spinner.
  
  
• Notable exception being the stereo; blown speakers makes a sad panda.
  
  
• The seat heaters don't work, but this is literally the only binary failure found so far.
  
  
• I have now owned three Jags, and none of them can spool the driver-side seat belt as well as they should (with varying degrees of inadequacy).
  
  
• I love this stubby shift knob way more than I thought I would.
  
  
• The VDP driver's seating is really soft and doesn't give much of an impression of lateral support. I feel just a little like I'm sitting on beach ball. I played with the seating controls some more this weekend, and found I had the seat higher than it really needed to be, and lowering that does seem to help a little. However, the window sill now isn't quite as elbow-friendly.
  
  
• I'm not yet entirely convinced that this sedan is an aspirational car for me, however it has whetted my appetite and I'm now much more XJR-curious than before. It's a great daily driver for me right now, it's just a question of, perhaps, XJ vs XK for my next Jag (or.., versus keeping this one and modding it up a bit).
  
  
• I'm really glad I went with the SWB 2004; I'm having some awkward parking attempts as it is and I've dinked a couple of curbs.