I have never owned a Jaguar but am interested in an '02 XJ8. I will go look at it this week but in the mean time does anyone have advice on what I should be looking for? The car has 92,000 miles and appears well kept with a clean Carfax. It can be found here:

2002 Jaguar XJ8 Midlothian, Virginia | CarLotz

Any help would be appreciated.

 

The FAQ sticky above has an exhaustive list of things to check when buying a Jaguar. The '02 model year had fixed most of the chronic issues with early cars save the major one. Plastic cam chain tensioners were used and reliably failed up to August of '01 when Jaguar began using metal body tensioners. My '02 was built in June and had the plastic version. Check the manufacture date on the driver 'B' pillar. September of '01 or later and you are OK on that point.

. . . and welcome to the forum and, hopefully, Jaguar ownership!

 

Looks pretty nice from the pics. The cupholder isn't broken, the wood looks nice in the pictures, and the leather, especially the driver's seat look good. Agree with TP on the tensioners, but that isn't a bad job. Unusual that it has all heated seats and the premium audio. I didn't think the "regular" XJ8s had the contrasting piping on the seats either, but I could be wrong. Nice car.

 

Thank you. The manufacture date is 10/01. Does that ensure the metal body tensioners? Thanks for the help.

 

It doesn't 'ensure' but there is a very good possibility that you have the metal ones. The August date is at the engine plant, not final assembly, and Jaguar did not make a special deal about the flow of engines into production. They considered the engines equivalent.

 

I have an 03 xj8 base model, not sport,,,I have owned it 2.5 yrs and really enjoy it. Look out for an antifreeze smell, the plastic tank can develop leaks and some other coolant tank is also not the best design I understand, but was fixed for apporx. 300-400. I just had to have the wiring harness to the throttle body replaced to. I got the car with 40k miles and now it has 62k miles. Its incredible ride. But I baby the car. Occas. you get phatom dashboard lights but just check on the net, and usually the warnings are just errant. The gas mileage is just ok for a big car but be prepared for $60 dollar tankloads....goodluck