I have grown up like many to have a fear of the savage kitty brand. I am currently looking at a 2001 Vanden Plas with 157k miles and it is in limp mode due to MAF and possibly leaking power steering hose. As someone who has no issue wrenching on my own Autos and actually enjoy it, would this be a foolish deal for under $1500? Is my Fear justifiable or am I just a victim of Jaguar's past issues?

 

On this model your fear is well founded, the gearbox is an issue unless it's had a rebuild, do a search for 'transgo' and all is revealed.
The MAF may require just a blast of electrical contact cleaner, or the wiring is at fault without knowing the code it posted it's guessing.
Power steering hoses are another simple job to swap.
On the value side of things its bottom end, so I'd expect a bottom end car, I'm in the UK and 1500 wouldn't buy you a well looked after motor so proceed with caution.

 

Just my humble opinion;
There's nothing more expensive than a cheap Jaguar.
Even if you do your own wrenching, some of the repairs and upgrades have astronomical costs.
You are by far money ahead to buy a low miles model that has had all of the known issues addressed and has extensive maintenance records.

 

Thank you for your responses. It is no skin off my nose to let this pass. There are always other projects to spend money on.

is the fear of jaguar justified in this day and age?

 

When Ford Motor Company bought Jaguar / Land Rover in 1999 for 2.5 billion things began to improve almost immediately. Gone was the mismanagement of British Leyland and much of the quality control issues. It was very unpopular at the time, but a decision was made to discontinue the Jaguar I-6 and V-12 engine platforms for the AJ-V8. Other manufacturing techniques and (finally) superior engineering methods made the Ford-Jaguars some of the most reliable cars of their era.
The early X308's did suffer from some engineering flaws though. Nikasil cylinder liners, composite timing chain tensioners, and water pump impellers caused the new AJ-8 some problems, but upgrades are readily available. The nikasil cylinder linings aren't really an issue with modern gasoline.
Like any used luxury European car, the Jaguar has complicated systems and assemblies. Find one that was maintained by the book and has no deferred repairs. Make no mistake, these are great cars, if you find the right one.

 

I believe Ford bought Jaguar in 1989-1990.

 

Yep, my fat fingers typed 99 instead of 89. Agreement to buy 1989 and official in February 1990.

 

Then proceeded to panic, just before all the investment paid off....and sold it for a song to Tata....I bet they regret that one.

 

I can support some of the above advice from personal experience. I bought an XJR for a great price that needed work and spent the next year fixing it up. Even doing ALL the labor myself by the time I was done I had more invested in it than the "needs nothing" ones were selling for when I bought the "fixer-upper". And even then it still had issues that needed to be resolved.

Cut to a couple of years later I bought a well-maintained XJR with a notebook full of service records. I bought it for about $1,500 less than I had invested in the fixer-upper. Been driving it for over a year and it's a wonderful car. Other than changing some fluids and filters I've done nothing but wax it and drive it.

 

AGREED.

 

This is especially true with cosmetics .. the mechanical items are bad enough. Buying one and thinking you will upgrade the cosmetics is not a winning strategy.