Paint colours make a big difference. To me, the dark metallics look more GT-ish. Mine is signal red which lets me pretend it's a sports car. These cars can be made to look sporty or luxurious or just plain fast, which applies to both the original ones and the facelift cars.
My pick of XJ-S is an early coupe in Greensand with full black leather and the old 5-spoke wheels.

For an XJS, a black black black convertible with the newer 5-spoke wheels.

 

philhef, little story, one day when driving on I-95 in FL. me and a friend were having a go of it!

he had a Camaro and me in my Jag(with rubber chin spoiler), and around 100mph, he was pointing down at the front of my car.

so we stopped at a roadside area, he siad my spoiler was bent down and backward.
so after thinking about it,one day i took it off for some work behind it,WHALAH, i liked how it looked.
never put it back on, and i'm satisfied with the look.

now; over heating, in cooler than TX,FL, 90-95* engine runs around 185-190*F, cruising.

but here in central TX, 100* ambient, it would some times reach 200*F,i dont like hot running engines for my TOY cars.

quick fix, was two electric fans, never gets over 185* now,in 100* days. even in traffic for 10-15min.
dont forget my car is a 1978 pre car,and they came from the factory with a questionable kooling system, at best. i modded my system, using just logic.

 

I love both styles. The first one I became aware of was a 1994 XJS V12, black. Skated past it every day in 9th grade. So when I became financially able to, that's what I looked for. I bought a 94 V12 coupe white, and loved it for the 7 years I had it. Had to sell to pay for custody battle over my oldest son (I'd do it all over again).
About 5 years later I bought an 86 v12 maroon with a locked up engine (overheated and dropped an intake valve seat) for $1500. Ordered a junkyard engine from back east and installed. Performed $3700 in cooling upgrades, love it!!
In the meantime, I have bought 5 other v12 XJS coupes (I don't care for the lines of the drop tops), three of them for $500 each.
One of them was another 94 V12 coupe, white, only 32 cars after my original. Found it online, flew to Laguardia and met the seller, drove it back to northwest NM. Now, I researched it a bit, and there were 242 v12 coupes built in 94, 30 of those were white, and maybe 20 came to the US. So now I've owned 2 of 20 cars here! Coincidence? I think not.
But in summation, I love both, but my preference is and shall remain the facelift model.

 

xjsfever, if the cars have 6.0L engines they are worth more than the rest of the car!

and 10-15yrs ago,seen them go to scrap yards for $75. and the yard would sell the rear ends for $100.bucks, and just crush the rest of the cars,V12s and all.

in some countries, any car over 10yrs old is considered for recycle

 

I actually like the look of the '93 which is in the middle. It has the old style bumpers, which I prefer, mixed with some updates of the facelift cars. I prefer the old style tail lights, though. To be honest, the only thing I really like about the facelift cars is the 6cyl engine option and the increased reliability that comes with it. I don't really like the plastic painted bumpers.