I searched around online for alternative XJ6's and found a couple of running ones to compare for the "hundreds of dollars" price range. They are in the early 1990's. Price jumps back up in the thousands as they get older from there. I had not considered these earlier generations previously. I do not like the way the early 90's ones look without round headlights and discounted the older-than-that ones due to age (and now price).

If I were going to buy a running Jag for thousands, I would look at 1980's models for sure (assuming I was not trading from antique to modern in the first place). When did dual airbags and ABS start? These are a buying requirement this time.

Do the ones without the sexy headlights still have the drive-train of legend? What was the production run on that?

 

Dual airbags started in 1995 with the X300; all the older ones have a glovebox where the passenger's side airbag is. Note that some 1995s actually don't have a glovebox below the passenger's side airbag, given they just shoved the airbag where the glovebox used to be and hadn't gotten around to putting a glovebox underneath it. 1994 and before sounds like they're a triple whammy of no good for you: no passenger's side airbag, no sexy headlights, and also some reliability issues with electronics and body parts. The drivetrain was okay for that generation, just not everything around it.

That being said, even the 1997 cars are 20 years old now, and by this point bad maintenance can ruin even an inherently reliable car. My XJR was a money pit of delayed maintenance when I got it, and it took a while before I could drive it without worrying about it breaking down or being annoyed by something not quite running right.

 

I'm presuming that "without sexy headlights" = the rectangular headlights. Correct?

The rectangular headlight cars are typically referred to as the "XJ40" cars, model years 1988-1994 in the USA.

A few were built with V12 engines in '93-94 but that vast majority had the straight six....3.6 liter on earlier cars and 4.0 liter on later cars. I can't remember the breakpoint. 1992 maybe? Rugged engines. ZF automatics, non-electric behind the 3.6 engines and electric behind the 4.0.

The guys in the XJ40 section will give better answers.

Cheers
DD

 

That solves that. Thanks guys. The initial overdue maintenance money pit was my experience with the XJ8 as well, and to be expected from the XJ6. The need for the second air bag limits me to the X300. Thanks!

 

1990 model year.

 

Looks like you've found your answer, but you might also find this helpful and entertaining:

Jag-lovers - The Story of the XJ line

Jaguar XJ Series, the History of (1968-2003) - Ultimatecarpage.com forums


The X300 is considered by many to be the most overall reliable of the XJ40, X300, X308 generations, and is the last of the XJ models with the Jaguar inline 6 engine (AJ16), which also was considered nearly "bulletproof".

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Does anyone know the start of ABS in the XJ6 (XJ40)?