I never had one complaint about head room in the back of my X300-L, on the contrary if it was a group outing the "group" always wanted me to drive for obvious reasons. Grace, pace, space. 4 adults and luggage to Savannah for a long weekend was no problem. I never felt that car lacking in "practicality"

 

In the UK values of X308 are starting to go up, for good ones. We're at a stage now where the wheat is being separated from the chaff with these cars.

Many XJ8's that are left are either low mileage car's that have lived with one owner old men since new or cars that have been run into the ground. For a while the motoring press in the UK ran articles stating "You can have a Jag for Mondeo (Ford Contour) Money!" explaining how for less than £10K you could have an XJ. Many people bought them but then got a shock when they had to get something fixed. Things often got neglected and they were run into the ground. Also the ZF gearboxes were an issue too, on eBay right now there are several cars for spares repair with gearbox fault listed as reason for sale.

The XJR's in the UK are really holding their values for good ones, by good I mean ones that have been looked after or enthusiast owned from new. There are ones on the market today with £8K+ price tags, but there are also some real dogs out there. I was actually looking for an XJR for my current Jag before I settled on my XJ8, but these cars have suffered similar to the XJ8's. The people who are selling them now all state how fast they are or how they've had their fun with them, in other words they've spent their lives being spanked. Don't forget of course in the UK it costs roughly $8 for a gallon of petrol, so chances are they've been run on fumes too.

I was lucky with my XJ8 though, despite appearances. It's had 7 owners since 2002 and I paid a very low price for the car, but when I was looking at it I could see the potential. Mechanically it's sound and it's 99% rust free, the comprehensive service history was full of receipts from Jaguar or Jaguar specialists who've maintained the car. The body and interior were looking sad, but look at my renovation thread to see how I'm bringing it back to glory with little effort.

I hope in the USA the prices go up for both models as they get closer to classic status. The BMW and Mercedes cars of the same era are showing their age badly, especially the E-Class Merc, but a well looked after X308 turns heads and gets glances everywhere it goes.