My reasoning about mileage when purchasing is as follows.
Will you use it as secondary or FUN transportation and not put a ton of miles on it? Buy high mileage.
Will you drive the hell out of it and get 15k miles per year? Buy the lowest mileage you can.

 

That's always been a tricky one to answer for me. In this case the car will be, in the short term, my only car and thus technically a "daily driver". However, I work from home and only go out in the car a couple of times a week for shopping, visiting etc.

If I had to rely on the car to get to work every day, I probably wouldn't even consider this car. That's a point I've been reminding myself of while trying to decide how to proceed.

 

202,000 miles on my 2010 XKR with the original supercharger, and still a pleasure to drive everyday. So long as maintenance can be documented (Oil changes on a regular basis), I think you would have very little issues. As Cee Jay said, you will occasionally experience stuck fuel injectors, it's happened to me twice, and the water pumps have always been suspect (4 times), but otherwise it's been the most reliable automobile I' ve ever owned in 55 years of driving. And it's not been a babied car, been tracked dozens of times over the years. The other thing is that you need to maintain a fully charged battery at all times or you'll get annoying warning symbols all over the place. You'll enjoy this car immensely even with that mileage.

 

In all fairness TBerg has the vast experience of long term ownership which gives him a HUGE advantage with a high mileage XKR. That experience is priceless which will be lacking for any purchase for the OP. This should not be taken lightly. Repairs without the experience of how to approach the fix can be overwhelming both financially and emotionally. I’d think long and hard at approaching a high mileage supercharged Jag knowing fully what you may be undertaking. Using any high mileage XKR to get to work would be the “ deal breaker” right there. Good luck with your decision regardless.

 

Good thoughts - thanks.

And you're absolutely right; no, I do not have experience of long term ownership of an XKR, nor do I have the mechanic skills that many on this forum have. Mind you, in my colourful 45 year driving career I have somehow managed to muddle through owning a Daimler Double Six Coupe, a Series II XJ12, two Series III XJ12s, two XJS V12 coupes and an XJS V12 convertible, an XK40 4.0, an XJ40 XJR, an X308 4.0, an S-type 3.0 and an X350 4.2 and as far as I recall only been stranded at the roadside three times over those four decades.

If I do buy this XKR - and it looks like I'm stupid enough to - I know I'll be taking on an intimidating if not overwhelming responsibility for an amateur driveway mechanic. It'll be the most complicated and demanding car I've ever owned. Unfortunately, I'm also stupid enough to find that idea kind of exciting...

You're also right about using an old XKR to get to work. It would be a "deal breaker" for me too and I wouldn't even think of it.

 

Well, judging from my own, albeit limited, experience you are set to make one of the best decisions of your life - as far as driving is concerned.

 

A very experienced American Los Angeles based Jaguar dealership based shop foreman says that the 2010-2015 (American based CY) is the best Jaguar ever produced. That coupled with Tberg's experience is a pretty good recommendation.

 

What about the direct injection issues Ralph?

 

I myself have never had any direct injection issues.

 

Thanks for that. When I first decided my next car should be an XK I did a lot of research and found that the 'new' XK seemed to be an exceptional car, and that the later 5.0 ones were the best of the best.

 

Ive owned a couple of 4.2 XJRs in the past. Then 2 years ago i bought a XJR 5.0. I owned it for 1 year and sold it. in my experiance and researching they are not as reliable as the 4.2s. Thy have week point with injectors and worse timing chains. They use an alluminium tensioners on a steel chains. Just google JLR timing chains.
Earlier this year i bought a 2007 4.2 XKR with 60k miles, full jaguar history with a folder full of invoices. Neadless to say im very happy with this Jag. 4.2S are bullet proof. Week point is the valley hose, mine was done by the previous owner at Jaguar.

 

Knock on wood. I have never had any serious issues with my 4.2 XKRs.
And the guys at my local dealership (whom I trust in light of >>10 years excellent experience) also say the XK/XKRs (notably zhe 4.2s according to them, but not much less so the 5.0s for sure) are by far the best / most relaible Jags ever built.
Btw, that’s one of the reasons why I think JLR marketing didn’t do a particularly good job selling them, ultimately leaving us with no successor.

 

Since I haven't owned a 5.0 direct injection engined car yet, I'll obviously bow to people's much better knowledge of this injector issue. But I can't help thinking this reminds me of many years ago when I had an XJS V12 with the 'Marelli' distributor system. A lot of people were going on about this being an unreliable fault-prone system with a failure mode that could cause a major fire. People were saying "don't go near one of these cars, it'll burn to the ground beside the road". There were even people talking about starting a class action suit. The thing was, the number of cars that actually suffered that fault was very small compared to the total number of Marelli V12s that were produced and the vast majority of owners (who did not post on forums) had no problems at all. There were high-end Jag repair shop types chiming to say they hadn't seen the problem. I've done the research and found multiple online reports from people with stuck injector problems and yes, it looks nasty and expensive. But I can't help wondering what percentage these represent out of all the thousands of 5.0 engines in XKs, XJs and XFs out there.

 

I was answering from experience.

 

Just to close out this thread, thanks everyone for all your comments and advice - really helpful. I put a deposit on the car and if my business schedule doesn't change I'll be going up to see the car on Saturday. After inspecting it, test driving it, and negotiating the heck out of the price, if the car feels good to me I'll be driving it home on Saturday afternoon.

If it blows up, catches fire or falls apart on the M25 I will report back. Otherwise, no doubt there'll be many more threads to come from me as I get to grips with this car.

 

Justin - Good hunting and Good Luck!!

 

Do let us know whether you manage to negotiate any discount.

My experience is that 10 years ago you could walk into a car dealer with a cheque book and a wad of cash and get thousands off the sticker price. In recent years the most I've been able to negotiate is a couple of hundred. Times seem to have changed!

Richard

 

Hi! Did you ever get this resolved? Interested to hear the culprit.

Hope the Jag is up and running again

 

I don't think everyone is aware that the 2009 in the UK is the 2010 5.0 litre in the US. Few have mentioned the timing chain issues of the 5.0. $2 or 3k preventive replacement or dead engine if not caught soon enough. Jaguar was sued for this. Personally, and this is my opinion, I wouldn't touch a 5.0 with a 20 foot pole. Had a 2013 Special Edition, White and Truffle, prettiest car I ever had and the best performing by far. But, since there had been no resolution by Jaguar and I couldn't know if mine had the updated tensioners, I sold it. Maybe it was a mistake. There is a blue 2013 Special Edition(Portfolio) on ebay, exact colors in and out as my 09 SV8 Portfolio, the perfect matched set, but I wouldn't touch it. That said, I've been wrong plenty of times before. My poison is the 04-09US versions, 4.2 Supercharged only.