Hello all. So I owned one of my dream cars, a pristine 2003 XJR in silver for three years and approximately 30,000 miles (sold it had 101k). Now those miles were not trouble-free, but certainly were not horrific in terms of reliability/repairs. I took the car in to a great indy shop here in town every 5k for a service/inspection, had any issues addressed, and took it in and/or made repairs myself when necessary.

I thought I was "over" needing to have a Jaguar, and that my BMW roadster would keep me satisfied. I was wrong, so very wrong. My question for those of you that have had both...is there a great reliability difference between the 2003 XJR and the 2005 XKR? I am aware of supercharger pumps, bushings, shocks, etc in the 2003 and I presume the 2005-2006 era cars to be about the same. Other than the obvious top mechanism/top wear, are these cars notably less reliable than the 2003? Are they more reliable with the 4.2L and six speed auto? Any input would be appreciated! I will likely sell my 2002 BMW Z3 roadster with 72k, after I find a good quality XKR convertible.

 

I think the 4.2 with 6 speed is a good choice.

A member here, Matt, is selling his ultra low miles XKR vert on the classifieds. No relationship, but I'd grab that ASAP (after due diligence).

-dsd

 

Thanks for the reply. I will check his car out.

 

Thanks for the shout out dsd - yeah.. when I was shopping for a car the 4.2 is the best as far as working out the kinks.. the 4.0 has some plastic timing parts that you have to change out since they get brittle.. I'm sure you'll read about that when you're doing research.. also the thermostat on some models is plastic so you should change that out but some have metal housings.. so yeah..



Best bet is to stick with the 03-06ish area unless you like the older front bumper style But yeah if you're interested let me know - I loved the look of those XJR's and I was looking at one before I jumped into the XKR ... the maintenance of the V12 scared me to death but sounded awesome

Anyway like I said if you're interested let know - I am.. I actually just got hired but I'm still thinking of selling I was really torn on decided to keep or not but ugh.. :'(

 

There are differences. The 98-03 X308 XJR is more homogenous over it's run than the X100 XKRs.

02 and earlier XKRs are EXTREMELY similar in a lot of ways to the X308 XJR. Owning both I've actually used parts off the other car on occasion for troubleshooting or reference. 03, the XKR switched to a 4.2L unit and a ZF 6HP26. While the ZF 5HP24 is easily one of my most hated units of transmission to ever be made, I've owned several cars with them..; the 6HP26 is so much better in every way it's not even funny. So don't be afraid of the 03+ cars having the ZF box. The 4.2L units always had the metal tensioners, so no figuring out engine build dates to find out what one they have. They're really solid cars. The 03+ sorted a lot of the XK platform maladies.

One thing you may know is that your XJR has two fuel pumps, the 03+ XKR has only one. Just another thing.