This is my first post to this board and I sure am hoping that I can get some help.

I have spent the past week since acquiring this vehicle trying to figure out what I have here and have had only marginal success.

I came across this car mainly by accident and it just seemed very unusual to me.

I'm pretty sure this car is not supposed to be in the US. It does not have a US VIN number, though it has been registered here since at least 1977 in different states, mainly Arizona and Kentucky.

The VIN is:
SAJJDALW4CC411882

And from the jaguar heritage trust site: http://www.jdht.com/html/Trust/my_ja...fs/XJS%203.pdf
this tells me that 5th character agrees with all of the badging on the car that is is a Jaguar Sovereign V12. But the sequence number 411882 would seem to indicate a 1984 or maybe 1985.

Now, the confusing part for me. Figuring out how it got here, what year it is and what to do next.

The title says it's an 82. The only problem is that there was no Jaguar Sovereign V12 until 1983, when only 421 were made according to http://www.jag-lovers.org/xjlovers/s3prodn.html
so it could be one of the first cars made, but I suspect that the title was doctored in some way to get it into the arriving country when it was imported. The sellers thought it was imported through South America and it has a tag that says it was imported by Young Motors. That tag also has a suspicious place where it looks like the mfg, month/year were scratched off intentionally. But the VIN numbers on the firewall and dash match and were not messed with.

This is one of the few sites that talks specifically about the existence of series iii V12 cars.
http://www.jag-lovers.org/xjlovers/xjbuyersguide.html

And this is where I found that this car has all of the options that it should have including the pepperpot wheels and electric front seat height adjuster, rear seat headrests, cruise control and things.
http://www.jaguarxj.info/JAGUAR%20XJ%20SERIES%20III.htm

The rear emblems say Jaguar on the left and Sovereign with a V12 under it on the right. But the emblems are not square like some of the 1985 cars I've seen, they are the emblems that are cut out around the letters, like the older style.

Of course it has the V12 and the car has not been started in 6 years. I was able to actually not only get it running but also driving this past weekend. That was pretty exciting needless to say.

It has 89,225 miles on it.

The condition of the car is overall very good, but far from perfect. No rips or tears in the seats, door panels nearly perfect, wood on the dash cracked, clearcoat on the wheels beat up a bit, a small rust spot on the LF fender and small spots around the front and rear window area, but otherwise pretty clean. It's white and the paint on the roof has cracked some, but it's not too bad. I have lots of pictures if that would help.

One more thing that is strange. All of these cars were supposed to have the trip computer, which it does, but it is in the glove box. It is wired up and works. It has the clock in the center of the dash where the trip computer was supposed to have gone. That works as well.

I may be forgetting some details, but that is the long and the short of it.

With the complexity/cost and nature of this car, I doubt I will end up keeping it, but I am trying to figure out where to go next.

I realize that I can apply for a certificate from jdht, but have not done that yet. I figured I would ask you guys first.

 

The car is pre 1984 because you have a clock on the center console, and from 1984 on that is where the trip computer went. My guess is someone fitted an aftermarket trip computer

I find it strange that the car has been registered here since 1977 but could have been made 3-6 years after that...

Jaguar did build the sovereign around that time so my guess is that the car was originally a sovereign, but someone swapped the 6-cly engine for a 12-cyl

Some pictures would definitely help. Because it could be a series 2 rather than a series 3. Little things to look for in determining if if is a series 2 or 3 would be things like the bumpers. If the bumpers are entirely chrome then its a series 2 bumper; the series 3's had chrome tops but the face was rubber

 

"411882" puts it squarely in 1985 model year range. When it was brought to the USA someone picked up the "C" in the VIN as 1982 model year....which would work on a USA VIN...but not on the original Jaguar VIN.

I'm wagering it's a German market car grey-marketed into the USA

I can't explain the trip computer in the glovebox but many non-USA cars has a clock instead of the trip computer, located where the trip computer would go.

Cheers
DD

 

It's not a Series II.

Series III vins started with 300001.

The bit about being here since '77 is some sort of goof.

Cheers
DD

 

I made a big goof in posting that it has been here since 1977. What I meant to say is that it was in arizona at 77,000miles, when it had the brake booster worked on by a shop there in 1998 according to a tag. So it's been in the states since then anyway.

I looked at all the pages on this site and it meets all criteria (lamps, mirrors, taillights, interior) for being a series iii and it does have rubber on the bumpers.

And I really don't think it was an engine swap, since the D in the VIN indicates a sovereign v12 and the engine does not look tampered with in any way.

Doug, I think you are right on the money with the 1985, and I never thought of that being the reason that it was mislabeled as a 1982.

So, assuming it is a 1985 V12 Sovereign, how would I go about finding out how many there are or how many are left anyway and maybe trying to go about a value on it?

I would love to post up some pics. Does this board have any image hosting?

 

Also, I have found two of these 85's to date.
This one has the same color as mine and the same trunklid badges. In Australia.
http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/...ort_Int32|1||p

This 1985 has different trunklid badges. In the Netherlands with the same tool kit as mine.
http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/105203/index.html

 

Value? Hard to say. Jaguar fans know it as one of the premium models but most of the world doesn't know about them. Being in the USA is a plus as a future buyer won't have to worry about import regs and duties.

If it's in exceptional shape it could be worth a fair bit to the right buyer....I dunno....$10k-15k? Purely guessing on my part. That's what I'd be willing to pay for an exceptional example.

If it's in average or poor condition I don't think it's worth much if any more than a standard XJ6 of similar age and condition.

Cheers
DD

 

My wife found an XJ12 down here in San Antonio, but I passed on it since it sounded like an expensive project. It was a while ago, but I think he was asking around $3500. Is it possible that some of these cars simply came from Canada, where they were sold through 1992/3? The jaglovers site has some good free e-books, one of them is called Jagcare III, and has a lot of good photos and info about Gregory Andrachuk's Canadian market XJ12.

 

Quite a few Ser III V12s have come from Canada but I think those would be "VDPs", not Sovereigns....although I can't swear to that The which-model-was-sold-in-which country can get confusing :-)

Jagcare III will explain it.

Cheers
DD

 

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that any XJ12 that came though Canada were badged as either a VDP or a Daimler Double Six.

I think that all of the Jaguar Sovereign V12 vehicles were made only for the UK, Europe and Australia. And I'm guessing that the LHD models like mine would have only been for the European market.

This chart shows many different variations, but I think that's right.
http://www.jag-lovers.org/xjlovers/s3prodn.html

Does that sound right?

 

The clock was standard in some markets with the t/c optional. In other markets USA for one) or different trim levels the t/c was standard isse. It isn't directly related to the engine.

Cheers
DD

 

Yeah, that sounds about right...but I don't think the DD6 (or any other Daimler badged version) was ever sold in Candada.

Cheers
DD