I am the proud owner of a 1998 XK8. I love this car. Well I am not sure I "love" it but I like it a lot. I do think the things I like about it are common to Jag owners. I love the wood dashboard. And I love the smell of the leather. I suppose that's a short list, but those things are indeed nice. But there are many, many things about it I don't love AT ALL and I wanted to see whether I am alone and whether at the end of the day I should sell this bugger.

Number one, it is hands down the least reliable car of any car I have ever owned in 30 years of driving and owning 12 cars. I haven't even gotten to 100,000 miles!

Number two, it is also the most expensive car to maintain I have ever owned. It doesn't drive particularly well. It feels heavy and imbalanced. It feels like the weight over the front wheels is so disproportionate it might as well be filled with lead up there.

Number three, the cost of the parts is absolutely insane. $25 for a single spark plug at the Jag dealer. Why? Are they better than Bosch Platinum? $450 for a new seat belt latch. Why? Why not make it $150 for a spark plug if you are going to ask $25? Might as well. It's all just a ridiculous made up price.

Number four, the value of the car is the pits. It's a nice "looking" car (certainly not the most attractive out there), but if I wanted to sell it today I doubt I could get $4,000 for it. Why? Why don't they hold their value?

Number five, did I mention it's never been reliable despite thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars spent to maintain it? I suppose I did. But that's a very important point.

Anyway, maybe it's time I just get something Japanese. If I could find something with a wood grain dashboard and nice smelling leather seats I would seriously consider going for it. But I need your opinions first.

Any opinions are welcomed....

Thanks,
Michael

 

Welcome to the forum Michael,

I've moved your question from General Tech Help to XK8/XKR forum. Members here with the same model will be able to offer opinions.

Please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum and post some info about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see. In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

It's absolutely, positively not for you. They're more for people with the knowledge and tools to do their own repairs (or have very deep pockets). And after owning one for just 3 weeks I'm beginning to wonder the same thing myself.
Why don't they hold their value? Because everyone knows that the real cost of them is in the repairs & maintenance, not what you pay upfront to buy it. For the same reason, you can buy a $100,000+ Rolls Royce Silver Spur for a measly $10,000.
"$450 for a new seat belt latch." ?? It's my understanding that there's a lifetime warranty on seatbelt repairs.

 

Welcome to the forum. Parts and repairs can be found cheaper and the trick is to stay away from the dealer.
Try owning a Maserati BiTurbo or a Maserati/Citroen SM and then the XK8 seems more like its free. And you'll never see 100k miles on either of those cars due to the flat wallet syndrome and the fact there are many super expensive parts carefully designed not to survive the turning of a key.


Dave

 

p.s. - 'just noticed you're in Palm Beach. We should meet up and cry in our beers..

 

If I were you guys, I'd probably spend a little more time on the forum and get to know the real DIY experts here, especially for the XK8 / XKR

Its one of the best sections without doubt on this site with unbelievable info, pictorial and video how to threads.

If you do a little of your own maintenance or have a reliable tech nearby, there is info that will save you $$$ if not $$$$ here.

Good luck

 

To put it in perspective, last Friday I paid $2,300 at the dealer to sort out the problems stemming from a 'low engine coolant' error message, which led to the engine overheating. As of 2 days ago I have an intermittent 'low engine coolant' error message again. Not to mention the other problem of the car not wanting to coast. I've owned it 3 weeks.

I live in a high-rise condo so even if I had do-it-yourself knowledge, I'll never have a garage, a proper tool kit, not to mention a lift.

I hope happier times are ahead...

 

No insult intended but from your posts, this is not the car for you, sell it now before you put both your sanity and money into it.

 

Hey Bob, sorry to hear of your troubles......really hope we can help, its why we're here after all.

Sometimes its been known for certain dealers to perhaps throw parts at the car ( its been known )....at least with some digging here, sometimes you can actually narrow it down and save a lot of money that way.

Its been done.

Hope we can help in some way

 

I think Jaguars, as has been noted in this forum, are not for everybody. You need either deep pockets or the ability to DIY (with great assistance from this forum.) If you do the math on the cost of ownership, you can certainly do better cost per mile with lots of other cars. In the extreme, a Prius will deliver a hell of a lot greater economy and reliability.
I owned a Miata and it was dead reliable and fun to drive, but it had no soul.
If the roar of the exhaust and the beauty of the car don't turn you on, my best advice is to sell your Jag and get a Nissan, Toyota or Honda.
I can't measure the joy my XK8 and the nine previous Jags I've owned have given me. And I think if you don't get that unquantifiable satisfaction from yours, it's time to get something else.

 

I've owned a VDP for 6 years and now the XKR for a few months and I plan to always have a Jag in my garage!

I'm not trying to ruffle your feathers but if you don't like the look of one of the most beautiful cars ever made... Why buy it? Just saying...

Jags, BMW, Benz, Audi's are not economy cars my friend. They are high dollar luxury rides. And with premium cars come premium cost of ownership in most cases. Good luck I hope you figure it out.

Lexus make great cars and are the most reliable... Take care

 

I've owned my XK8 for just over a week, and have made lots of repairs, including the headrest fix for both seats, PS recliner, headliner and A-pillar headliner cleaning and remounting, reattaching the two center console buttons, new antenna mast, rear marker light, etc. While I've spent countless hours doing the work (which I generally enjoy, weather permitting), I'm out of pocket appx. $40. My point is, this is a great car for a DIY'er who researches this forum. Certainly, you can't perform every fix, but many you can. If you're not a DIY'er/not able to perform DIY work, this is definitely not the car for you. And by all means, please stay away from the Jag dealership. They'll salivate when they see you come along.

 

For the most part I agree. In my many years I've lost count of the cars I've owned since turning 16 back in 1963 but its' at least 1 for every year not including the 29 years I was in the car business<G> Anyway somewhere north of 35 that I've held title to. A few, a very few had real soul. Believe it or not my 65' Lemans 4spd. w/HO 326 that could make a GOT often look slow. My '69 Shelby GT350 was a wonderful road burner on a par with an awful lot of today's iron, and so on, but the two Jags I own (2004 XJ8 and 1999 XK8) are in a different class entirely. They handle superbly for their purpose with excellent road manners that instill confidence at very extra legal speeds while cocooning you in a high level of comfort and luxury. Not the raw blustery persona of a Pantera or the lightly disguised race bred V-12 of the mid-60's Ferrari's, but something quite different that the German bred Audi's and BMW's whose cold blooded Teutonic DNA can't match.

So yes some basic DIY skills will certainly save you bucks as labor rates are through the roof. (I just paid $95.00 for an LOF for cripes sake because I just didn't want to use my new steel knees to crawl around under the wife's car). But don't think these cars are fragile. There's a world of information on them both here and on other sites all over the Internet. The salvage yards are stock full of cars that in many respects have remained primarily unchanged for a number of years so most parts are easily found with a few exceptions that take a little extra work. Of course that's the fun part

 

"LOF" what part/procedure is that? I have know clue...

 

[QUOTE=LoveUnreliableOverpriced;1081213]
Number one, it is hands down the least reliable car of any car I have ever owned in 30 years of driving and owning 12 cars. I haven't even gotten to 100,000 miles!

Number two, it is also the most expensive car to maintain I have ever owned. It doesn't drive particularly well. It feels heavy and imbalanced. It feels like the weight over the front wheels is so disproportionate it might as well be filled with lead up there.

Number three, the cost of the parts is absolutely insane. $25 for a single spark plug at the Jag dealer. Why? Are they better than Bosch Platinum? $450 for a new seat belt latch. Why? Why not make it $150 for a spark plug if you are going to ask $25? Might as well. It's all just a ridiculous made up price.


Not knowing how long you've owned the car Michael I'd have to guess that based on your shock over the dealers gouging you and it's reported lack of reliability I's guess you bought it somewhat recently without doing much research first. I've driven for 51 years, have owned something over 35 cars, spent 29 years in the car business with 12 of them as a Chrysler products dealer and must admit that ever unreliable overly costly car I ever bought was one that I just wanted and didn't bother doing any research before purchasing. Put my '76 Maserati Merak at the top of that list as I dumped probably $15,000 into that piece of crap in addition to the original purchase price and considered myself lucky to get 1/3 of that back from an even bigger idiot. I just thought it was a car I need at the time.

My first Jag was a 2004 XJ8 which I bought 1 1/2 years ago for my wife to drive and I did months of research and looking before I found one that had decently low mileage and few obvious problems. I also used this forum to save me at least $1200 on just the replacement of ONE air shock through the simple expedient of buying the very same Arnott rebuilt air shock the dealer wanted to charge $1250.00 plus $250.00 labor to install for a net of $300 through Arnott after this forums 10% discount and the rebate for sending in my old blown shock and doing the work myself with the aid. Just tonight I used another members video on how to repair the vanity mirror on my '99 XK8 for the cost of a single shot of crazy glue and about 20 minutes of my time. No dealer and no $125 to $150 for a used and abused salvage yard replacement.

For a dealer to charge you $2500 for a repair they didn't make and then not stand behind it only makes me wonder how many questions you asked before and after the repair and calls into question whether or not you should continue to your ownership of such cars.

 

LOF = Lube, Oil, Filter <G><G>

In my case one oil filter and 7 qts. of full synthetic at $8.50 a qt. I would have done the job myself but my wife was taking a drive to Savannah, GA., for a weeks get together with her high school pals from a couple hundred years ago. They get together every year for several days somewhere in Georgia or North Carolina.

 

Hang around here and you'll discover that you can buy common replacement parts from any car parts store. Spark plugs for a Jag are the same price as a spark plug for a Toyota or a Chev.

 

A lift.........pure luxury!

We all like a good grumble, but maybe you can share what exactly they did for $2,300 and then maybe you can get some useful advice.
How severe was the overheating?

 

Thanks Jim. I certainly plan on giving it more than 3 weeks This is a phenomenal forum btw.

This is my 3rd Jag ('89 XJ6, '94 VDP - still own; has problems of its own To an extent, I figured that since the XK8 is solidly a FORD automobile, it would be a bit more trouble-free than my others. So far, unfortunately, that's not the case, but since there are things I LOVE about the car - looks, wood, leather, exclusivity, etc. - I'm going to be patient.
I decided to drive it tonight to a restaurant less than a mile away. I figured that it can throw all the 'low coolant' messages at me that it wants to (it did) but that in less than a mile it's not going to overheat (it didn't). On the way back home I said to the person I was with "where's the engine"? It's *that* quiet inside. That's yet another thing I love about it. It's as much about luxury (probably more so) as it is about sportiness.

So, as we say on this side of the pond (possibly yours as well), "the Jury is still out". Hope springs eternal..
-Bob

 

Can I scan the invoice and upload it?