My 20 year old son had a Mustang, but the fuel and insurance costs were killing him. He sold it and started looking at older Miatas. My wife was not pleased, since he works at a job that has him on the freeway through the winter, and the thought of him in the Miata surrounded by big rigs wasn't sitting well with her.

Long story short, I gave him the XJ8. The fuel mileage is better than the Mustang, the insurance will be less since it's older and slower, and he won't put collision on it.

We rest easy knowing he's in a safe car, and he's happy to get a free car, and a Jag at that.

 

Nice one Rob.......

he's a lucky boy

 

Rob....I think handing the car over to your son is a great way of passing along the Jaguar tradition . It certainly will be a different experience from the car he was driving. One cautionary note however. You mentioned that he would forgo the collision coverage on the insurance. I know the insurance can mount up particularly for younger drivers. I made that decision on my 85 xj6 some years ago and my car was side swiped at a gas station by an ice cream truck.

Interestingly enough the car was not even moving at the time . As I found out later in many cases if you do not carry the collision your insurance company will not fight for you if even if you are in the right at least inthe state of New Jersey. Because I only had liability the best deal I could get was one half the cost of collision repairs needed for damage done to my car. The ice cream truck tried to squeeze between me and a parallel gas pump . His truck was high and the Jag low(to his right) he did not even know I was there.
Robert

 

Robert- thanks for your advice. Insurance here works a bit differently I think. I haven't had collision on the XJ8 myself, because both my kids learned to drive on it, and it would be quite expensive.
I am all for good insurance coverage, but I picked up that car for a steal, and by now with 250,000 km on it, the market value is very low, and hard to justify collision, at least for a young man with a less than stellar accident record.

Similarly, my old Passat had no collision either, since it pains me to pay for extra coverage on a car with little or no resale value, and anyway, I'm comfortable with my own driving.

My XJR on the other hand is fully insured.

 

I hear ya man....250,thats about 115,000 usa miles if my math is correct. knowing these cars its really not a lot of mileage for a car well maintained and not abused..but i get your point on the value...I am trying to sell a xj8 base with approximately 115,ooo miles. The car is very clean and runs just as well as my 2000 xj long.

have had some dealers look at it......first thing they try to knock the car down on is the milage. the point is to the general public, it sounds like a lot of miles and trouble down the road which equates to "hard to sell".

 

It's actually 155,000 miles and counting.