Where the vehicle lived / lives determines 90% of your answer. My wife's 2006 XK8 started life in Beverly Hills, California and then moved to Hilton Head, South Carolina in 2008. We purchased the car and had it shipped to us here in central North Carolina in February 2012. Like yours, the underside remains completely rust-free. I attribute that to a series of moderate climates and never being driven on salted roads. We get our share of snow every winter but the XK8 stays safely at home until the roads are clear and dry again....

 

Bring it over to England () - you'll soon get all the rust you can handle.

My XJ6 Series I & II were seriously rusting on the wheel arches and sills in less than five years. It was the same for earlier Jaguar models and most other British manufactured vehicles in the 1960's to 1980's.

Jaguar design has improved (by eliminating many of the rust traps) and rust proofing/painting techniques advanced massively in the Ford ownership era. This still doesn't eliminate rusting in this country but it definitely delays it. Jaguars from coastal areas where the atmosphere is salty suffer more rapidly.

If your 2002 XKR is completely rust free then either the Oklahoma climate is very kind to metal or it has been unusually pampered.

Graham

 

Living in a tropical island, I am deathly afraid of putting the Jag on jack stands and doing a rust search. I am likely to find it everywhere.

 

As Graham noted, coastal areas are particularly hard on cars due to the salt air. I bought a new Honda 450CL motorcycle in Japan in 1970 and brought it back to the US. Initially, it spent time near the water in Bremerton, Washington, parked while I was at sea. No issues with rust or corrosion appeared. When my ship returned to San Diego, and the bike spent weeks parked on North Island, where the water (and the air) were saltier, it didn't take long for rust and corrosion to begin. I suspect Daniel is correct about Puerto Rico coastal areas.
Here in the Midwest US, roads are routinely salted after a snow storm and that causes rust under the car where the salted road crap can collect.

 

my 2004 is rust free. It is garaged at the first sign of salt in fall and is not taken out until a couple of good heavy rains wash the salt from the roads in spring. I had it on a ramp before I bought it and this was the reason I bought it. Mechanical stuff does not scare me at all but rust is a death sentence

 

I know my Jaguars are all rust free. The thing is that in Michigan, cars die quickly because of the salt and snow. We don't typically drive sports and gt cars we like in the winter because of this. Since we don't drive during the salt time, and the air is not salty and humid like a coastal area can be, they don't really rust.

I had an eighties Corvette that was always babied weather wise. At 20 years old, even tiny little fittings and stamped bits in the underbody were like brand new. Stuff that you expect to have rust on a three year old car was minty and clean on a twenty year old car.

 

 

I do have the surface rust on the exhaust manifolds, but I can live with that.

The car was in southern California from 2002 to 2014. Then in quick succession from 2014 - 2017, South Dakota, New Jersey, and Iowa, which is where I bought it in January of this year. So yes, the Southern California climate was good to the car.

Z.

 

I've read more than once that Britain's largest post-war export during that period was rust

A coastal environment may be an issue (inescapable here), but in my experience it's nowhere near as destructive as road salt. Manufacturing processes have greatly improved since then - and they needed to - but the UK's penchant for dumping vast quantities on the roads is difficult to mitigate. It's not quite like SoCal here admiitedly but, providing that one avoids the floaters*, it's not really a concern.

* Vehicles left on a slipway without regard for the 40' tidal range.

@Z - my rear boxes bear a Novermber 1997 date, which I do find impressive as I've always considered exhaust systems to be wear items.

 

My '97 was first sold in Arizona, moved to Washington state, then Utah for the past 18 years. I purchased it in 2011. I haven't detected any body rust. I don't drive it in the winter at all because of the salted roads. I consider myself lucky not to have to deal with rusted body panels.

 

Florida cars don't have rust.

 

^^ Some of them do, especially if they were hurricane flood victims....

 

For the first 9 years of my XKRs life it lived in the middle of the UK, Derby to be precise, which is around an hour or two's drive from the nearest coast. I had a full AA test carried out in it before I bought. It came back completely clean as far as rust was concerned, helped no doubt by it's location and that it only has 25k on the clock which I was told were mainly summer Sunday drives to the nearby countryside. Last 6 years it's been down in North Devon, which for the unwashed, is God's country right on the coast!

Do i believe in fate? Well, here goes... At every service and/or MOT I always get my mechanic to check for any signs of that awful car cancer, and up until now (here goes the fate thing...) it's received a clean bill of health. I dont drive anywhere near where sand might be on the roads or in the air, although the latter is almost impossible here. I try not to drive in the wet, but I'm not too **** about that. I certainly don't drive on roads where there is the slightest hint that salt is still around - many days of rain has to come first, which isn't to long here in the UK. I do give it a weekly wash, and after any wet drives are experienced in winter, I will hose down as much of the undercarriage as I can, on the premise fresh water is better than road water of any kind.

So, I think not having any rust on a 15+ year old car is a combination of effort and good fortune!