I maintain a register of all manual XJR6 cars on behalf of the Jaguar Enthusiast Club in the UK. I check a number of UK second hand car websites every week on the look out for these cars. Today I checked one of the major sites (Autotrader). There were no XJR6 cars for sale (auto or manual). This is the first time this has happened in all the years I've been checking this site. You know these cars are becoming rare when they are disappearing out of the second hand trade market. What is the experience in other countries?

If anyone reading this has a manual XJR6 and doesn't think their car is on my register, then I would like to hear from you.

 

Same here.

I don't check Ebay, Craigslist, AutoTrader, etc religiously but I do take a peek fairly often and XJR/6 listings have dwindled to near zero. Not that they ever glutted the market, mind you.

The normal rate of attrition (urged along, in this case, by very low market value) eventually takes a toll. We may be reaching the point where those remaining are considered "keepers" by their owners. They ARE a pretty cool car and, heck, you can only get a pittance for one anyway...so might as well keep it.

Conversely, if I wanted an XJR/8 I think I could find a good one within 48 hours after choosing from several candidates within 100 miles of home.

Cheers
DD

 

Hi Andy,
which markets were the manual XJRs sold in when new?
Do you know if they were sold in NZ?
I've never seen one here on our Trademe.co.nz site, which is almost a monopoly for secondhand cars...

 

Mine is manual, but not XJR I keep looking around if there is any manual XJ6's but even if the listing says manual, I can see clearly in the pictures that it's auto :-/
I guess manual XJR6 had stronger gearbox, or was it the same as in 3.2?

 

Almost certainly the same 290 Getrag.

 

The manual XJR6 does indead use the same Getrag 290 gearbox as fitted to all manual Jaguars since the AJ6 went to 4.0litres at 1990MY. The flywheel and clutch cover are unique to the XJR6 but many owners have done DIY conversions of auto to manual using flywheels and clutch covers from naturally aspirated cars, and they are still running.

The split by market of manual XJR6 cars was as follows:-

Austria - 7
Belgium - 12
Czechoslovakia - 8
France - 9
Germany - 21
Greece - 1
Holland - 7
Hungary - 3
Italy - 57
Luxembourg - 4
Poland - 4
Portugal - 16
Russia - 1
Spain - 2
Sweden - 3
Switzerland - 5

I've never understood why manual cars seemed so poular in italy. Presumably some tax break or pricing policy effect.

There were 268 cars made in total. The balance were UK cars though were LHD press cars.

The UK was the only official RHD market. The manual XJR was never official exported to either Australia, New Zealand, Japan or South Africa. 6 cars are know to have been personally exported from the UK, at least one of which went to Australia.

 

So, just reading between the lines, none in the US?

 

In Denmark there is 1 XJR6 (auto) for sale by a dealer, priced at £17.200 (yes, count the zeros). None by private sellers.

Luxury cars usually leave this country when they get older and this has to do with our car taxes. I bought my 1995 XJR6 at a dealer in September of 2011. Most of you, who bought at about that time, would expect a price tag of something like £3-5.000, but mine was £22.000. Yes, for a then 16 year old car. Officially we have a tax of 180%, but on used luxury cars it can for some reason get closer to 5-10 times the price of the car. The good thing is, that the cars are kept in good condition, as they are still expensive. Mine, for example, was serviced by official Jaguar dealership in Copenhagen and have a full service book.

But what do you do, when you have to sell a 15-20 year old car, that is still very expensive to keep on the road, and everyone just want a brand new econobox for half the money? Well, you try to sell the car at your showroom for a year or two, then you give up and export it to Germany. That way you get market price for the car and a return on the car tax, minus 15%.

So the car tax doesn't just mean we get fewer nice cars on the roads, it also means that when they reach a certain age, they get exported, leaving almost none behind. I have owned my XJR6 for about 18 months now and have yet to see a similar car on the roads. Kinda sad, really. The lack of these cars doesn't do much good in the repair department either, as it is almost impossible to survive for an independant, servicing the few luxury cars we do have. Read my thread on fixing a TPS issue and you will know how bad the situation really is.

Even the X308 XJR is very rare here already. Two for sale right now, one by a dealer and one by a private seller. That's all.

 

Right. No manual trans XJR6s to the USA.

Cheers
DD

 

Just 3 showing Nationally in Canada - one is off the market (I bought it!), one is in non-running condition and the third has 214,000 km. None are manual.

 

5 for sale in Australia at the moment changes from time to time
I also keep an eye out they seem to change hands pretty quickly unless they are ridiculously priced

 

Does anyone have a picture of the manual transmission itself?

 

Hello, saw this interesting thread. I live in Hong Kong and recently saw two listings ("XJR6 4.0 Supercharged X300"). One (of 1996) was quickly sold; the other (1995) has been listed for nearly a year now. Was told the car has been off the road for over six months (not a good sign, right?) but the owner claimed it was previously serviced at the dealer. Knew XJR X300 RHD is very rare so am thinking of a project to restore one and hopefully converting it to manual shift. How hard is it to find a manual gearbox and other hardware needed for the conversion? Found a US company offering conversion kit onlyto realize it is for XJS only, and was advised it was better looking for one with the original 5-speed manual. I guess none was imported into Hong Kong, nor to Australia (RHD region). Saw a post in a UK site (ClassicCarsforSale) for a whole, working XJR X300 Manual but the post was dated May 2012. As I have not got a response from the seller, I imagine this one was also long gone. My search continues....

 

The Getrag 290 gearbox was used since the 90MY XJ40 so there are quite a fe of these gearboxes about. I think the pedal box on X300 is different to XJ40, so there is a more restricted source of these parts. The UK is probably the best source for these parts because manual 3.2L X300 cars were quite common. I think only late XJ40s had the same final drive unit input flange as X300, so the choice of donor cars for a prop shaft is also limited.

 

A guy on ebay UK is trying to sell his accident damaged car with cloth interior for 1790 pounds?

 

Thanks for the heads up. Would an UK car, XJ6 3.2 manual MY1995, provide the parts (gearbox, flywheel, prop shaft, pedal box, etc.) needed for the conversion? The X300 I intend to acquire and convert is XJR, 4.0 Supercharged, 1995.

 

Thanks. Been watching, but didn't find this one, but the price plus shipment probably wouldn't make it worthwhile.

 

I've found it, the price is 1750, there are only pictures of interior, it doesn't say what sort of damage it actually suffered, and it's automatic. There's lots of listings saying the car is with manual gearbox, when you can clearly see in the pictures it isn't...

If car is drivable, you can ship it on RORO services for less than 700 GBP. If it's not, then container would set you back at least 1500 GBP. You'd have to find out about import regulations in HK, what sort of taxes and fees you'd be facing on your side.

According to what Andy said earlier, seems that box from 3.2 would work, although you'd be better off getting a custom made, or uprated aftermarket clutch.

 

QVHK,
A 3.2L manual X300 would provide you with all the parts that you would need to convert an auto XJR to manual. The flywheel and clutch cover wouldn't be the higher rated XJR6 parts, but they do fit, and all the DIY conversions that I know of have used them.

 

Thanks both. eBayer claimed the car would work if replacing the alternator belt, but also said clutch master cylinder failed, and highlighted in bold "you need to trailer it away". Bodywise it is not worth the expenses for restoration so might buy it just for parts.... It is a 3.2 XJ6 but seller never mention "X300", so I am not too sure if the parts would fit 100%.