I’m a veteran at classic Mercedes as well as BMW. But my dream was a XK8. Each time I speak about it to any mechanic and mention buying a higher millage XK8 they laugh at me and tell me to figure doubling the asking price with the amount of work it will take to keep it going to 200k miles. I’m aware of air shocks as well as the timing belts. Lots of little dealers asking between 7 and 9k for these beautiful cars. However will I be putting 7 to 9 into it?

I figured this was the correct place to ask this question before pulling the trigger.

It has been a long time dream to own a classic XJ8. I don’t think there is another motor car that has the characteristics of the classic XJ8. I have always wanted to own the old body style and I’m now thinking of making a purchase.

I hope I came to the correct forum. So give me the lowdown. How bad “expense” wise is the risk of purchasing a classic XJ8 between the year of 2004 and 2008 with high mileage. Somewhere between 120 and 150k.

I realize it will most likely require some work and updated maintenance. On average, how many miles do these vehicles have in them? Would this require a compete engine rebuild? The only pitfall I’m aware of is the express of replacing all 4 air shocks. Other then that, I’m walking in a tunnel with no light.

I would like to hear from the enthusiasts in what they think about a purchase of this vehicle and if it can even be considered a daily driver?

 

You can look at the threads here to see that air suspension is a recurring Jaguar problem (X350).
Strangely, I looked up Mercedes forums to see if Jaguar was the only one! Nope - same problems on some Mercedes, quite possibly same supplier.

But these threads usually only report when there's a problem, and seldom when there is not. So the "statistics" are skewed.

There's also a thread "Who has the highest mileage" or similar. Most of us have a loong way to go...300k miles or something.

For myself, coolant hoses/tanks, suspension bushes at unexpectedly low mileage (do they age rather than mileage?).
Every car bar none nowadays has plastic reservoir tanks etc, and if anyone has invented a better plastic then they're not saying.

All-in-all, I doubt there's very much difference maintenance-wise between Jaguar XJ and Mercedes S-Class.
(except...you'd be stark raving mad not to prefer the Jag!!!)

 

The air spring supplier IS the same one that supplies Jaguar and Mercedes, being Bilstein.

Timing belts are only found on the diesel engines, the others are all chains. All cars have a serpentine belt, of course. I had two X350s, one after the other, a 2003 bought in 2010 and a 2007 bought in 2016. The 2003 was more troublesome, but never let me down on the road. The 2007 needed far less attention as one would expect having had the benefit of development to cure the initial faults. . The X350 was late on sale and the project manager got the sack for it, so I suspect much testing was left to the customer to do ! There is a common problem of the heater matrix clogging up but don't worry too much about this as it is not a huge job to replace, funnily enough. Recurring work tends to be some of the suspension bushes that don't last as long as you'd expect, so you need to check whether there have been any recent replacements. These come under "durability" rather than "reliability" in my book. Each car was taken to Germany on holiday every year for a mileage of about 2900 miles with no trouble at all.
Perfectly OK as a daily driver as were my two cars, and now my XE, of course.

 

Both of mine were just basic catch up on the maintenance.
The transmission plastic pan & filter, is now a metal one, with a fresh filter, & fluid
The suspension parts both front and rear, have been the biggest expense, so far.