Michael, I'm pretty sure yours is an XJ6 (not keen on the term "base" with these beautiful cars!). Badge on the boot lid (RHS) should help to confirm? If yours was a Sovereign you would have memory seats and a different boot badge, also goes for the Heritage.

In this market there were at least two types of dimple wheels, one of them was dedicated to the Sport and as far as I know, the other to the XJ6. From a distance they look very similar. As far as I'm aware the sunroof was only a factory option on any X300 model - but as always I'm happy to stand corrected.

BTW, if you fancy a Sport with a sunroof, I know where there's one going

 

I drive a 96 4.0l Sovereign and have a 97 3.2l Sovereign, as a donor car. There are naturally difference in the transmission and differential, but one oddity that I came across is in the ABS sensors.

The sensors on the 97 are short black plastic items, whereas the sensors on the 96 car are longer, steel bodied items, at least on the rear wheels. And they aren't interchangeable, due to the different lengths. Maybe this is just down to engine sizes, I don't know. Just my personal experience.

 

You are right, the ABS sensors of 95/96 is different from those of 97.


The changes which aren't stated above would be as follows;

*The front seat of the car without glove box has a pocket in front of the squab
*Until VIN722476 the front lower arm bush is the same as XJ40's, which is softer than the later model's
*In the very early models, the upper face of the door handle of the door trim is made of real leather, which was changed to ambla on later models. (Except Daimler / Vanden Plas)
*The door glass became thicker after VIN746814, I think the change was made during 1995
*After VIN746814 the front seat shape is very slightly different
*During 1995 the cam shaft profile was changed for the idle stability
*From 1997 the trunk chrome finisher became plastic

BTW, this is my opinion and no official statement was made, but as the year goes down the quality of the car also goes down.
I have seen more than 10 X300s and obviously the 1995 models produces more power than the 1996/97 models.
Plus the leather / veneer of the early models are superior than the later models.