Newbie with no XJS. Just reading and learning. (I've already browsed through "the book") We're looking for a "classic" convertible and love everything about the XJS, well maybe except the maintenance, but I'm very mechanical/DIY.

We love a smooth ride with good seat comfort. We're moving to Virginia soon, minutes from the blue ridge parkway and are planning on many weekend trips. We were in a very bad car accident at age 19 (t-bone @ 60) and she has issues with getting comfortable in a seat. (we are both still trim) Seat warmers are a must, as well as head rests that don't tilt forward. She is comfortable in a simple 4 way power seat, but 8 way, 12 way is always better.

In regards to XJS '92-96:
It seems seat heaters and lumbar are pretty common. Do the heaters have a back heater element, or just bottom/butt elements?

Any opinions on comfort for those years? How is the comfort on the pre-face lift models? I don't know if manual seat adjust is an option. (ohh geez, they're picky, right?) We've found that power seats give a finer degree of backrest angle options than manual controls. She is not a set it and forget it passenger.

Thanks for your opinions!

 

The later XJS seats from MY88.5 on are very comfortable, we have many long trips and it is the ONLY car my wife does not get a sore back traveling in.

The pre-facelift does not have electric seat adjustment except for lumbar. Seat heaters are squab and backrest but be prepared to replace them as the squab will most likely not work.

Facelift models also had height adjustable steering column. All models have reach but the pre-facelift does not have the binnacle controls move with the steering wheel. A real PITA if you move the wheel closer as you have to take your hands off the wheel to operate the indicators.

The XJS is wonderful long range touring car.

Hope this helps.

 

I agree with warrjon. On the rare occasions my XJS will actually go a large number of miles without incident, it is a very comfortable place to be. It's maybe not a fair comparison because they are cars from different eras, but the ride on my old, tired, 20 year old XJS is better than the computer controlled air ride on my '06 SuperV8. I have a '92 with power movement, power lumbar, and heaters in the base pad and backrest. All standard on the facelift. The only thing I find is that they are a bit narrow, but you mentioned you were thin, so you should be ok :-)

I think the next step would be to go and take a nice long test drive in one......

Good luck. A properly sorted XJS is a very special thing. Not to mention rare :-)

 

The very rare occasion in my case so far

 

My '91 coupe is my daily driver, use it both for local errands and frequent long weekend trips. Even though the seat looks somewhat primitive by today's standards and only has a few manual seat adjustments, I find it to be very comfortable (I'm 6'1, 210).

Good design will do that...

 

Hadn't thought of that, thanks for the extra detail and thanks to everyone else too!

It sounds like the car we're looking for, but even on a seat comfort thread and only four posts in, I already have two comments on reliability. Is it really that bad? It sounds like 5 miles, break down, 5 miles, break down, if it starts and doesn't catch fire.

Looking at M90's posts of his engine swap, it seems like so much more work than properly sorting out the problems. Is sorting out the issues possible?

inertian: V12 or I6? As a daily driver, what are your maintenance costs per month/year if you don't mind sharing? (ball park)

My logic for an older car is, replace brakes, all fluids, hoses, grease, waterpump, plugs/wire/distributor, alternator, etc. The XJS needs lots of extras, like radiator replacement, electric fans, fuel lines, etc. After that's done, should I still expect breakdowns? Seems like it should be reliable then.

I mean, Jeremy Clarkson didn't break down in India, (I6) or James May in France (v12)

 

I don't know how to edit the previous post, but for M90's sake, I don't need spare parts yet. Just hold on to them for me.

 

I have a 93 XJS and I never liked the back support, even with the lumbar adjustment all the way out. After a long trip I would have a sore back and I am not a big person. I found at a local discount store a strap on, black mesh back supporter that I put on both seats. It made a world of difference on comfort level and best of all the price was just $2.00 each! The cheapest part I have put on the Jaguar so far.

 

@Benjamin

Unfortunately one of the problems with car forums is that all of the problems get posted, and none of the stories of 500 mile scenic drives down Route 1 get posted. This gives the perception that the car you are reading about is unreliable. The reality is with XJSes they are now old cars, the youngest available is over 15 years old. They are also Jaguars, which have a certain uniqueness to them, and they are also XJSes, which have another level of uniqueness to them.

If you really study this forum you will find multiple occurrences of the same thing happening over and over. We had about 4 threads going all at the same time about marelli failures and their resultant fires. All of these issues were preventable because they are well known and documented (I am not dinging anyone here... indeed, I was one of the people who had a cat fire from this and I would consider myself "in the know" when it comes to the XJS). Any 15 year old car will need a list of preventive stuff doing to it, then you just add the XJS specific stuff and at the end of it you will end up with a car that is probably just as reliable as any old car, but you have the advantage of it being something slightly more special than a Toyota Corolla. There are key areas of focus for the XJS. 1) Cooling, see my other thread on fan clutch alternatives........ I am just coming hopefully to the end of a 2 month period of driving myself crazy over the cooling, or lack of, on my V12. 2) Marelli rotor failures/ cat fires 3) Fuel injector hoses on prefacelift cars. 4) Stuck vacuum advance on Lucas cars. Those are the big ones...... once you sort those out (and they can all me sorted systematically, if not exactly cheaply) then you will be in a good place.

Asking V12 v's I6 usually promotes a variety of responses.... the V12 owners (like me) say "you can't beat the turbine like smoothness of the V12..... it's what I've dreamt of owning since childhood", etc, etc then you have people who enjoy their I6 cars because they offer all of the style of the XJS with arguably less ongoing issues and running costs of the V12

It all comes down to personal taste. You are obviously not buying the car as basic transport..... it's an emotional thing, ie you used the word "love" in your original posting. For this you should go with what you really want. You could end up with a reliable V12 or a dog of an I6, or the other way around. Go drive one of each...... they have quite different characters

You are doing the right thing,...... educate yourself using this forum so you know exactly what to look for, and what things you would need to do anyway even on a time warp car. And most importantly, enjoy the car. I have been lucky enough to have a lot of nice cars throughout the years, but my old, tired XJS is by far my favourite, and probably the one I'll always keep

 

These cars are actually not as bad as you might think. This is especially true of the later models as Ford made many improvements to the quality.

What the issue is with these cars is the lack of proper maintenance they received during their lives. Now you buy it and spend lots of time catching up on the maintenance and fixing things that broke but were never repaired.

When new these cars were huge money. People with money buy these cars own them for a few years then trade them in. Since these cars had huge depreciation from new when they were 3-5 years old people of lesser means bought them used. These people have to have the fancy stuff but really can't afford it. So when they brought it into the shop for work they only did what was absolutely necessary to keep it running or pass inspection. Since these cars are labor intensive and parts can be expensive most 2nd owners could not afford to maintain them properly. Eventually they end up being sold or traded in. The one of us buys it and spends countless hours catching up on everything and fixing the results of the neglect.

Do your best to find a prime example and pay the money for it. Much better than a "solid" car that needs "tlc".