Whattttt??!?! My gosh you overpaid!!! I did all of that to my car, minus the bump-stops, plus LOTS of other suspension/steering wear/consumable-components for both front and rear (see my older threads about making my suspension "like new") for a total of about $800 parts & labor included (and I thought that was a lot!)

If it makes you feel any better, a $650 rebuilt throttle body is a great price - they are usually several hundred $$ more than that.

 

That set of figures is why I post on here, so forum users can dodge these crazy sums.

The first thing I noticed was a 'stop leak' - this can cause it's own problems and isn't a fix - what are the symptoms?
Secondly your choice of tech charges, are they main dealer prices?

You can carry out most if not all of this work yourself and all of the listed issues are covered extensively within the forum, I don't buy into the myth some guys can't wrench! But now you are a member of this forum, before any issues are addressed by the tech that charges, post on here for the answers and fixes and your wish of significant savings will be assured.

 

I wholeheartedly agree.


Americans will often slag off Jags and whine about the cost of ownership or the dependability. The prices shown up there are ludicrous and typical dealer prices. A lot can be done yourself OR if you cant or don't have the time, there are many specialists around who will charge a fraction of the price.


I think its amusing, that the least dependable and most troublesome car I've ever owned is that great steaming heap called the Cadillac Escalade- that beacon of American greatness (this includes comparison with Alfa Romeos I've owned). If I added up all the issues I've had with this and priced up GM dealer repair prices- it would make the above list pail into insignificance-pretty sure it wouldn't leave me much change from 5k. And this is a 2007 car we're talking about with alot less miles. Absolutely terrible- unrefined, piston slap, rough idle, rear main seal oil leaks etc. And yet you utter this on any forum and its sacrilege.

 

Don't mean to pile on: but the only decent price was for your tires. Some of the work was ten times what you should have paid. The shock and shock mount bill is simply criminal, even for a dealer; so is the spark plug replacement. MAF, bought on Amazon is 1/10, assumes you can install yourself.

Between this forum (the search button is your friend) and Youtube, most work is within reason. Really tricky stuff or fasteners that won't give might need a really good independent.

 

Dealer costs are going to be the most expensive -- front shocks for the R can be over $900 w/tax + labor ......my dealer is in the $130hr range. And they are cheap ... my Porsche dealer was $235 last I had to work with them. Even my independent is $115hr -- but he lets me source the parts for my odd cars.

Not everybody can wrench ...

 

I haven't run into too much in the way of expenses really... but I wrench on it myself. If I had the dealer do the wrenching, I'd have spent a small fortune on the tiniest things.

For example, I loaned the car out to a sibling and they drove it through a carwash with the antenna up. That didn't go well. The shop wanted to charge me my first-born to replace it. I grabbed a new antenna off ebay and dismantled the antenna system over the course of an hour, putting everything back together for ten bucks. No big deal.

Don't even get me started about what they wanted to charge me for fuel pumps. The quotes ranged from $1,400 to $1,800 to replace them both.

A little wrenching and I finished the job for a tiny fraction of that.

Same goes for coils and spark plugs. It's a stupid easy job and you'll spend next to nothing swapping them out... VS a disgustingly large bill if you take it down to the jag store.

Tires are a bit spendy, of course, but you have to expect that on a performance automobile. Don't go cheap on tires.

I'm spending about $1,000 per year maintaining the jag. That number includes oil changes, air filters, tires, and little things I've had to repair/swap out (I shattered a tail light and a fog light and had to buy ebay replacements). So far I've replaced:

1 water pump.
1 fuel filter.
2 fuel pumps.
1 antenna aerial.
1 fog light (stupid rock).
1 rear taillight (found a cheap used one and only spent $8 on this).
2 batteries (desert living is hell on batteries, but one of these was under full warranty and was free).
Tires.
Brakes/rotors.
Headlight bulbs.
1 headliner.
The full set of coils/spark plugs. Two coils went bad almost simultaneously, and one of the replacements I bought to install was BAD (and only failing at fire when warmed up, making things all the more annoying). This ended up giving me fits as I tried to figure out what was going on - eventually I gave up and just replaced all of them as a preventative measure.

I've got a few things I'll probably do in the next year or so. For example, I think it's getting about time I refresh the suspension (it's still pretty tight, but I want to sort it out before it starts getting loose on me).

That's been the entirety of the problems she's had. Nothing too major.

I'd say as long as you don't mind turning a wrench, keeping these things running well isn't all that unreasonable. Keeping any older vehicle will require a bit of nickel-and-dime spending, but if you account for it you'll be fine. These vehicles are cheap as dirt, and it's not really asking much to suggest that you set aside $100/month or so for a "keep her running nice" fund. That way, when something inevitably comes up, you've got a little cash set aside to cover it.

And don't be afraid to get your hands dirty on this one. She's a pretty forgiving automobile to work on and most of the wrenching you'll have to do is reasonably easy if you've got a little guidance (which you can usually find here). Plus, if you make a mistake, you made it on a car that cost you peanuts to buy... A well kept XJ8 or XJR with reasonably low miles can be had for well under ten grand these days - less than $5k in some cases, especially if you're seeking diamonds in the rough. Hell, my XJR is up at about 86k miles in relatively beautiful condition and I'd be shocked if I could get much more than 5k-6k for her on the open market. All things considered, I think the XJR is one of the best style and performance bargains on the market. The Dollars Per Horsepower is so low it fell right off the chart. That makes the pain of yearly upkeep a little easier to bear every single time you put your foot down .

On a sidenote: Anyone getting into one of these things should realize that there are other expenses to consider. For example, I'm lucky if I average 15MPG in this thing over time. Admittedly my right foot is partially to blame, but even so, 12,000 miles @ 15mpg in premium fuel = 800 gallons of gas. Even with gas being relatively cheap right now, that's a few thousand dollars for a normal year of driving, and I'd easily save over a thousand dollars per year if I were driving a more "practical" car on fuel alone.

 

I'm realizing how lucky I am, my guy/wrench/drinking buddy is $30 per hour & a nice 5th of spirits lol.

 

Given how often friends/family end up at my house begging me to help them fix a problem on their car... I should probably raise my rates from $0 to at least a nice 5th of spirits...

Serves me right for being the "car guy" in the family...

 

xjrmageddon: Even at an independent shop using OE parts the fuel pumps are a 1k + job .. add in full list for the parts and full book on the labor and it gets up there.

 

You guys are scaring me, I just purchased an 98 XJ8 today as a weekend car and 2K USD a year seems high to me even if you do commuter type miles with the car. (It was a sentimental purchase as I bought an XJ6 new in 1982 and it is still our family's favorite car after many BMWs and Mercs). Even my Mercedes ML320 CDI doesn't cost that much a year to maintain. Unless you change oil every month I don't see it. Or at least, I hope not.

 

After sorting out the typical worn out things such as brakes, tyres, all fluids etc. I'm looking at normal annual maintenance at 100...200 Euros. If something breaks that is another matter but a risk that comes with old cars despaite the brand.

 

Well, I briefly went through the maintenance and repair records of the 98 XJ8 I just bought and the previous (original) owner spent quite a bit on the car since 1998. It did include a transmission replacement in 2014 and some other costly 2K plus interventions. I will carefully add all the bills up (the previous owner kept meticulous records) to see exactly what it cost him over 20 years. My cursory review tells me between 20K and 30K.

 

Even removing the paint and body work expenses from the mix, this car cost the original owner quite a bit in repairs, but not so much in traditional maintenance.

 

Boy, that previous owner got hosed on some of those repairs!

 

Well, it's the DC area, which is very expensive for everything, and the previous owner is a very well-known (internationally) and wealthy person. He got immediate attention and quick turn-around whenever he brought the car in. Also, for brevity, I did not write down all the ancillary little stuff they did together with the big jobs.

 

Af -- wondering why the car needed two radiators? How many miles?

Most dealers don't fix anything.... they replace parts -- often charging over published list for them. That's why the transmission is so high.

My local Jaguar dealer would outsource (rebuild) .. now they do much less. The local MB dealer do longer does any except through the body shop.

Dealers are for new cars -- most are not the place for older models ... often they see so few they are not even good resources when room problems pop up.

 

Yes, he only got 22K miles out of the first replacement radiator installed in 2009, but that radiator was replaced in 2015, 6 years later. 6 years, even with low miles can corrode a radiator.

 

Here's a real world example. We bought our '02 VDP in 2010 with 82K on the clock. I do all service work. Replaced the secondary tensioners, spark plugs, and a bad MAF sensor at 100K, new brake pads at around the same time, changed transmission fluid and filter at 110K, oil changes every 6K miles, two sets of tires in seven years (there's another story behind that), octopus hose two years ago, aftermarket aluminum thermostat housing and gooseneck at about the same time, valley hoses last year. We now have 174K on the car; cost has come out to about 250 bucks per year.

As stated previously, it all depends on what you start with and how much you're willing to do yourself.

 

About 3k a year

 

Another way to look at it is divide the cost of maintenance by the 370 HP that the XJR makes. That is cheaper per horsepower than the costs to maintain a VW or an Audi.

Not sure why folks whine about Jags as if these cars are from another planet. I spend whatever is required to keep both of my cars right. Actually my XJR has the better transmission, it is the same 5 speed auto used in My Mercedes AMG. The XJS got the ZF unfortunately.