One more here...my '99 VDP with 112K and one little old lady (84 when she stopped driving) owner with a husband who absolutely babied it... I paid $5900.00 three months ago and have fixed a bulb and put in a cigar lighter fuse--the owner had it pulled when new and the lighters/ashtrays remain virgin. Paint and interior are as new.

Had a check engine light go on at 3 weeks of ownership, and it turned out to be a vac hose under the intake manifold; $1100.00 at the dealer but got a free checkup while it was there.

Ran the service records on the car and found out it had had over $7K spent on it about 6 months before she stopped driving and consigned it to the dealer I bought it from. This included upgraded tensioners, throttle body replacement and rear axle and brake work.

Took it on a 1200 mile trip last month and got 23 MPG average @ around 70-80 on the freeway in absolute comfort and peace.

Awhile back I owned a '69 Silver Shadow creampuff for five years, determined to keep it nice and 100% factory-functional. It averaged me $300.00/month maintenance for those five years, and was a joy to drive; entirely worth it if you ask me!

If the Jag (which is a better car in every way IMO and much more modern of a driver-pampering experience) averages about that, I'll consider it worthwhile, too.

Time will tell, my friends.

 

Wow. Was my post misinterpreted?

A decade ago, I owned nine older exotics, including two Citroen SMs, a Maserati Quattroporte, the Silver Shadow, and a Sunbeam Tiger.

I wrenched every one of these, and as a matter of fact, built a new distributor for the SM in my own home machine shop, which used $11.00 points instead of the crazy $300+ cartridges that Citroen sells and which often malfunction, and improving the performance in the bargain. The only thing I did not do was rear axle work and A/C work. Engine builds and swaps, brakes, electrical--I did whatever was necessary and was lucky enough to have a 1500 square foot garage and twenty years' accumulation of machine and hand tools, manuals, and experience.

As a result I had my choice of unique automobiles to drive: a different one every day. The cost to me was minor maintenance parts and approximately one Saturday a month to keep things up to date.

I say all of this because I get a vibe from your post that you think I'm some sort of wide-eyed innocent when it comes to dealing with dealers and mechanics. This is a misjudgment. I know cars very well.

So, perhaps I was not specific enough in my information...

"Not encouraging"--when a car has sat on a showroom floor for exactly a year and a day, after having been babied all its life and regularly driven, I would expect one or two things to show up in the first couple of thousand miles.

The dealer (who were super to deal with, BTW) found the leak (not "link", John, with all due respect...) immediately (I mean, OBS led them to the right cylinder bank running lean, which led to inspection of the induction elbow, which needed replacement--a $350.00 part.) A couple of other items--a vacuum pipe and a gasket--were also renewed. Unfortunately, the intake manifold needed to be removed and replaced to access the parts. That's over 5 hours' book time and this labor was over 60% of the bill.

I don't feel that I got fleeced at all. I probably could have taken it to my independent mechanic here in town--a good friend who has worked on several of my cars in the past--but he's not a Jag specialist and his shop rate is only slightly less than the dealer's. My decision here was to take it to the dealer at the time--early on in ownership--so they could do a multi-point and inform me of any areas of concern, which they did--and in the process, confirmed that the car had been maintained by the book all its life.

I care not whether or not the wealthy little old lady and her husband were screwed repeatedly by their own Jag dealer--that's their issue and my "win".

They originally had the car listed at the dealer to whom it was consigned, at a silly-higher-than-bluebook price. It's my opinion that, although they would not have gotten their price in this economy, the car (based on condition, service records, and driveability) was probably worth every penny of their asking. The fact that they lost patience after a year of consignment and had their non-car-knowledgeable son tell the (non-Jag) dealer to just get rid of it (and then cut the price to silly-low, the day before I dropped in!) is also my great fortune. Looking at the car's previous service records (with their names redacted for security reasons, of course) indicates that they were both either used to owning and maintaining complex automobiles using the dealer facilities, or were first-time Nervous-Nelly Jag owners. Either way, my benefit, too.

You know, before I started searching for a nice XJ8, I cruised this and the other major Jag forum for inside info and experiences of other owners. What I found clued me in on a lot of issues, but it also made me wide-eyed with concern that there were more problems than an owner could keep up with, several being major things that could sink the ship before it left port. So I surveyed the offerings with a list and my BS detectors turned to 11. Watch for tensioner upgades, throttle-body work, and transmission and electrical issues. The rest is not a problem and largely scattershot.

Thanks for the information I've gleaned and continue to absorb from this site--it led to this serendipitous purchase.

Now, why don't I maintain my cars myself anymore? Long story, but I've changed location in the last decade, from a place where space was cheap and houses were huge to a place with the opposite situation (although still a nice climate), and my garage is now filled with the artifacts of my latest (non-automotive) indulgence, so the cars (down to three) sit outside and are covered when not in use.

So I depend upon my own experience and a factory manual on CD ROM when it comes to upkeep, and reading up on the nuts and bolts puts knowledge in place of fear and hesitancy (a strategy highly recommend!).

Friday night I was driving home from a film, alone, after midnight, through some small towns with a brief section of freeway driving. No traffic, no rush. I left the ICE off and just savored the experience of stretching it a bit in Sport mode, listening to the engine and trans and enjoying how this two-ton low-slung sedan corners when pushed. It was sheer in-the-moment delight, and I hope for more of this--it's why I made the investment...

I'm hoping that this Jag will see 160K or more before age begins to take its toll in the guise of a transmission rebuild or replacement. That's the source of most of my "time will tell" comment. And, again, with all respect, John, I am picking up more than a little cynicism with regard to your dealings with the dealers you've come into contact with. This could be a problem with your local dealers not being trustworthy, or it could be with the relationship you've had with them was not enjoyable, due to attitude; if you walk in expecting less than respectful and intelligent treatment, this can easily telegraph to the service manager, who has a job to do and, in my experience, needs to take pride in this to feel like his own career is purposeful. Maybe these Jag and Volvo service managers are both dyed-in-the-wool car cynics...which would have sent me on a search for the Honest Car Fixers. They're out there.

Some of you folks might not interpret my OP in a positive light; I've never felt too paranoid about this or any of my other whacko automobiles, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts--ain't that the secret of life, anyway?