Has anyone else noticed that only the early X300s seem to have wood trim around the door buttons? I was browsing XJ Sports for sale, and all the 96-97 cars have beige plastic around the buttons. The 94-95 cars look so much better for having a little bit of wood there.

Another thing I noticed was missing glove boxes in some of them. They just mirror the drivers side. I think it looks pretty good like that.

Also, I thought X300 was 1995, 1996 and 1997, but I've noticed a few that are 1994.

 

The early '95s didn't have a glove box but Jaguar figured out how to add one in part way thru the model year.

Model year designations vary from country to country. Some use build year, some use year sold, etc. In North America, at least, the X300s were marketed as 95-96-97 cars.

Cheers
DD

 

With regards to the wood trim around the window buttons, that mostly depends on which X300 you've got, or rather are looking for. I suppose the more base models (3.2) don't have the wood trim, while the 4.0 do. I'm not entirely certain on this, just a bit of an assumption.

 

No, that's incorrect. I see those trims in the early 3.2 models as well, and I see then missing in a 1997 4.0 Sport.

I dare say they kept them for the later VDP models though.

 

To clarify, we're talking woodgrain window switch panels, yes?

If so, I've just been looking at pictures of '96-'97 XJ6s on Ebay and Craigslist and they most certainly *do* have the woodgrain around the window switches. These are USA-market XJ6s...not VDPs or V12s.

I really think this varies from model-to-model and market-to-market. In the USA, for instance, we didn't get the "sport" or the 3.2 versions.

If we're talking about woodgrain somewhere else, I've misunderstood entirely !

Cheers
DD

 

No, Doug, I believe we're talking about the window switch wood surrounds. I know, dare I say all, of the US cars have them, and I thought I was right about the UK spec ones, but I suppose not. Maby it was an optional extra?

 

Right, the window switch surrounds.

I've been looking at pics of UK cars and, near as I can tell, the "Executives" and (some of) the "Sport" models do NOT have the woodgrain, as Mang Nux has said.

Interestingly I can find no mention of this in the parts catalogs. All of the "switchpack finishers" are woodgrain, according to the catalogs. I'm missing something, obviously.

Heh heh....funny how a little thing like this piques one's curiosity, eh ?

Cheers
DD

 

As far as I can tell, 1996 seems to be the transition year for timber switch surrounds in Australian XJR's...

When hunting around for mine, I looked at several '96 models, all with the wood except for the one I ended up buying (obviously wasn't a deal breaker, but preferable). All the 94/95's had timber, but many were missing gloveboxes.