So I sold off the XK8 a month ago and miss the pep. The X-type is slightly on the small side and for the size of the car I'm not happy with the gas mileage lately. I found an 04 XJ I'm seriously thinking about but my concerns are with the air suspension. Is it really that bad? We could really use a larger car and it'd be nice to pick up a few more mpg along with it. I have no worries under the hood, I've delt with the 4.0L it was a mechanical joy let me tell you.
Link to car: http://auto.mmshany.com/cars/NV/LasV.../17098544.html

 

Well of course the answer is - No it aint ! However, like all these things mechanical, there are some issues with it, the most common fault being gradual failure of the air compressor to charge the reservoir in a short enough time to avoid the dreaded "suspension fault" message. This is due to wear in the piston seals. Some people put up with this for some time until it really is replacement time. Jaguar should really have put more time in the program before the fault is detected and flagged-up, but there you are, they didn't.

Replacement compressors new and service-exchange are freely available on the internet, and also, (at least here in the UK) the Jaguar main agents use Jaguar service-exchange items that are around £300 each with 30 minutes swap time allocated in the service menu times.

Some people have had failures of the air springs but these are much less frequent. Trouble with these is the shock is built in, and not separately replaceable, so they are rather expensive. Again there are internet suppliers, and Arnott Industries in the US do service exchange items, but note these still have the original shock. The bushes at the bottom of the spring units carry the weight of the car, and seem to need replacing at rather short intervals. These bushes are quite cheap, but the spring unit has to come out to press out the old, and press in the new bush

My personal experience is of compressor replacement, with no further faults.

It is strange at first to hear a hiss of escaping air when parking up, but this is the system working correctly to purge the water vapour absorber in the compressor. I have now had the car 17 months, and have done around 20k miles with it. A superb distance cruiser on the autobahns of Germany.

 

270 - Like you, I was sooo concerned about buying a jaguar. I'm no specialist but I bot mine about 3-4 months ago (about 2k miles so far.) I bot an '05 VDP. I think Fraser is spot-on. I love mine more than I thot I would. Importantly, the wife & 2 kids love it too. It's big (VDP's are extended), beautiful, fast, and averages about 23mpg with me flogging up somewhat. It has some things that really bug me: cup holder is ridiculous, and my headliner is beginning to sag (common to most of them), gas door is on the passenger side (not so in England) but I REALLY love it. Having said that, I was dying to buy one in the color you're looking at, but couldn't find one. I just love that color. At that mileage, I would imagine your compressor has been changed at least once already. Also - I personally think that price is pretty high for mileage like that. As I told my wife, it is not a Camry & will require some maintenance items (just like her - looks good but pain to live with sometimes.) I'm ok with it. If you get service records to verify compressor replacement & get a great deal, I gotta tell you you'll love it.
One last thing I did NOT catch before buying: I'm fighting an issue of "driver's side vents not blowing as hot of air as passenger vents." (see my previous posts. Most everyone is telling me it's likely a clogged heater core. My mechanic reverse flushed it no no avail. It's back in today to try blowing it out with air (per suggestions on this board.) So make sure you check the headliner for sags, check the info screen for any faults, and definitely check the air temperatures coming out the dash vents.
Good luck in your decision.

 

$12K for that XJ8 is a tad rediculous.. That XJ8 is basically the bottom of the line in options..

However I would not let the air shocks scare you away from an XJ8.. I have owned 4 of them now and loved every one of them.. My current XJ8 (2006 with NAV) is for sale so I can buy an XK8 go figure.

 

yeah, 12K is more than I plan on offering. I won't be paying anymore than $9700. Have to see how the deal goes & what I find wrong with it. I don't want to deal another garage queen like our XK8.

 

Scratch that one. The interior was crap & falling apart. It did run good though. But no way would I pay more than 4000 for it. Guess I'll just be keeping the X-type.

 

i dont think they would have taken $9700, unless they stole the car from whoever they got it from. Remember, they have to make money too and if the car was fine (obv falling apart interior doesnt cut it) asking price wasnt far off.

I didnt like this one for the standard 17" wheels but when these cars get to a certain point they really dont devaluate anymore unless they are in horrible condition and/or extremely high miles. S types are the same, prices on them havent fluctuated on older ones (03 and above at least) in a while because of the demand and people like myself (and some of you guys) dont like the new body styles.

 

You never know what they'll take until yo try. It's a dealer, they're far from being fair and they'll make they're money back some how. The most likely go the car from either a trade or auction in which on this car they might have about $6000-8000 into it. Typical markup is around $4000-6000 more than they have in the car so that there's room to play with. The worst markup I've ever seen has been on the 05' XJ8 L I bought instead of this car. It started at 24,999 and we ended up at 16599 and i'm sure they still made a few thousand off of it. When I'm dealing with an actual person I work around a fair price, if I'm working with a dealer it's all about getting the lowest price. In the case of the above car, I didn't even offer anything because it was in less than desirable condition so I just walked away.

 

If I understood you right you want to steal the car if its from a dealer but not if its from a private person?

I'm a dealer and I'm fair, and there's plenty of others like me. There's also plenty of stupid ones as well lol Good and bad people in all industries.

Different dealers pricing works different ways. Myself I mark the car up a set amount and usually have one if not the best price in the southeast if not the country. I typically dont move more then $500-$1000 off the price and my cars always sell. I tell my buyers I dont have time for silly games and neither do they. If buyers want to play games I tell them to look elsewhere. They are more welcome to buy Kelley's and Edmund's car.

Your approximation of the cars value is pretty close to being right, auction it would bring about $7k-$8k or maybe more, add on top of that transportation, auction fees, any servicing it needed, detailing etc they easily could have $9k in the car.

Sounds like the dealer you bought you from was quite foolish to a) charge that high of a price on an 05 and b)to move that much off of it lol

Glad you got one youre happy with though!

 

my wife purchased her XJ8 earlier this summer

had an Air Suspension Fault ended up being the piston seal, a short tow truck ride, a shorter stay at the dealer and all is good again


plus it gets great mileage (compared to the 2 supercharged pickups)

 

That's what I gave for mine, with 91k and way more options. Keep looking and good luck.