If someone offered you crazy money to drive your car cross country what would you worry about with your car?

For me it would be hoses. The 2 under the SC are new but all the rest are probably from the factory. starter, alternator age unknown- original?
Other than that I think everything else would be fine.

How much $ required?

 

I would. Wife wouldn't; made me rent for the Christmas trips to Charlotte and Tampa.

Brand new Infiniti Q70: POS compared to my Jag.

 

I'd worry about my license being revoked in a few states lol.

 

I bought my car with 110k on it. 15k later, I drove it to Louisiana and back (I'm in NY), after an oil change before I left. Had no second thoughts about it. I will be making a longer trip in a month, out to Texas, via Ohio, Kentucky, and such. So it's half across the country and back, so I imagine that counts? And I won't have a second thought about doing it. The way I figure it, I take care of her, she takes care of me. And anything that breaks down along the way would do it here too, just might take a couple weeks longer to do it. I have a full socket and wrench set in a bag in the trunk, just in case.

 

HA HA, This being a loaded question!


WHAT country do you want to drive across ???


I live in South London, UK. I would quite happily drive across 3 countries tomorrow, with little more than checking tyre pressures, oil and water levels, and obviously a full tank of juice!


The difference being, Lands End (in Cornwall, The furthest, south westerly) to John O'Groats (The furthest north easterly) in a straight line across the map is 603 miles!


The longest direct route that I know of, is if you are walking or cycling (not allowed on motorways) is about 900-950 miles!


There is nowhere in the UK, as the crow flies (straight line) that is over 80 miles from the coast!


Americans, Australians, would do more miles than that to get to the local shopping mall and back!

 

I have to agree with King Charles, I can't imagine I would have a license after bouncing off the 155mph limiter on all of the straights the mid-west has to offer. On that note, I can't dream of a car that I would rather go sea to sea in than my XJR, performance or comfort wise. Had the chance to do it twice in "fun" cars worth mentioning, both times Boston to LA. One time in a heavily modified '02 VW GTI 337, which was epic thru the the CO rockies and Utah. Another in a 300hp@wheels '04 V70R, hence my earlier reference to the mid-west and speed limiters For the trip in the XJR I would bring a couple jugs of coolant just in case, OBD scanner, some tools, a roll of duct tape, $500 for gas, $600 if we're having fun, and hope for the best! V70R trip was 36 hours start to finish with co-driver BTW

 

I wouldn't worry about a thing. The engine is sound. The tranny works. The steering is vague. Ideal for a long drive

 

Yup! I think the metric for a long distance equivalent to what we're talking for USA, Canada and Australia would be UK to like Ukraine.

I would make Michigan to California trip in my XKR tomorrow; but my XJR needs a bit of suspension love this spring first for me to want to do that.

 

I would not hesitate for a moment in my XJR with 195,000 miles on it. I would want $1000. and my credit cards om my pocket, though.

 

Tough question. We drove our XJR on a 600 mile round trip. A week after getting home, one of those skinny coolant hoses cracked. Two weeks after that, the plastic T on the driver's side heater hose under the supercharger let go. Had to pull the blower to fix it. I'd really hate to rely on some mechanic a 1000 miles from home. With my luck, they would really screw something up.

I'm content to limit the range of my Jags to 150 miles from home. I have Hagerty premium towing, guaranteed flatbed towing, up to 150 miles per tow.

Now this is going to sound really blasphemous. For a long trip, I'd rather take the truck. It is a 2010 Ford Expedition and it is the most comfortable highway "car" I've ever had. Mileage is about the same as the Jag, it burns cheaper gas, a ridiculous amount of space and there are Ford dealers everywhere. Plus I don't care about it nearly as much, thus the idea of an "unclean" mechanic touching it just doesn't bother me.

-Mike

 

XJ8 is certainly a comfortable car for a long trip and I've gone out of state a couple of times recently, but I do worry about the age of the car more than anything. I know every time I go to the Jaguar dealer I hear "I'm sorry, that part is not available anymore." Many years ago I drove my Toyota Supra to Las Vegas for the annual Supra Owners convention and broke down along the way back. Had to stay in a hotel and wait a total of four days for a used part to arrive.

If I were going to drive cross country in the X308, I think I'd inventory to see what common failure items are both critical AND not readily available, and then carry spares. After my adventures in the Arizona desert, I drove the Supra to Toronto, Canada for the Canadian Supra Owners annual meet and carried a number of spare parts with me. Indeed I did wind up replacing a clutch slave cylinder while I was there from among the spares I'd brought along.

As I get older tho, I take fewer chances. Now I have AAA 200-mile towing and any farther than that I fly or if its for an automotive event, rent a car hauler trailer and pull it with my pickup truck, which is much newer.

 

My baby to be picked up on the 16th will get its baptism of fire doing Florida-DC-Florida and Florida-NYC-Florida within 8 weeks.

This is on a 2003 that averaged 2.5-4k miles per year under its previous owner.

We shall see.

 

I would not, because I don't trust the coolant hoses that I don't have records for as being replaced that are hard to get to. Long drives stress the cooling system when going through many parts of the country (going the i-40 route at least)

If I took the supercharger off, replaced all the hoses and intersections under there, then I would do it no problem as my upper hoses have been changed, or could be changed fairly easily.

I'd take my 83 diesel Mercedes across tonight with no worries.

 

The only failure on a trip with my MkIII was dropping an exhaust section
on a two lane highway. The owner of the house on the other side of the
highway let me pull in and use his floor jack to raise the car and gave
me a coat hangar.

Good excuse for a custom exhaust after arriving home.

Oh ... and the harmonic balancer coming unglued at the very end of
another trip. Fixed with a new crankbolt and copious amounts of
red loctite.

The XJR makes the same trip regularly. No incidents so far except
I'll need to order another of those plastic fittings at the cowl for the
windshield washer when I reach home base again.

 

Just driving across town in the UK probably stresses the suspension as much as a US road trip !
I regularly do a 250 mile each way drive without stops (about 5 hours - in the US a trip to your local store....), I've found after the way up I have to top the oil up about 1/2 pint, but after the return journey oil level fine, no loss...?

 

I would not until I get my tensioners, thermostat, and water pump upgraded; which I'm still saving up for. Until then I'm fine with driving within the town.

 

Long-distance drives are the reason I bought it. It's already been on a Michigan-Wyoming-Colorado-Missouri-Michigan loop (~4,500 miles) and several Michigan-New York round trips (~1,200 miles).

As long as I keep up on the maintenance I reckon it has as good a chance as my other cars. And if we hadn't taken it to Wyoming I never would've had a chance to unwind it a bit on those 80 mph highways.

 

Ah. I suppose one reason I don't feel the need to stretch the XJR's legs on public roads is after having her up to 130 or so at the track a few times, 80 isn't going to cut it.

Of course, that was back when the old girl was quite a bit younger and not nearly so scarce.

-Mike

 

Absolutely, I am planing to take a trip this summer from Brussels (Belgium) to Venice (Italy) and then the ferry to Greece with final destination Athens. If your car is running excellent why the fear?

 

Exactly.

If it reaches operating temperature without problems, why should it not make a good long distance? Of course going by a well maintained vehicle with no pushed back services...