You hear a lot about problems simply because of the nature of car forums, people asking for advise on repairs. I have an 04 XKR with 15 k miles. It is driven a couple of times a week during the sunny dry day weather, but not far. I keep the car tethered to a Ctek tender. Fluids changed as proactive maint., a Hydraulic limiter valve installed, stored indoors where it's dry and climate controlled. No exposure to temperature extremes, rain or snow. The original owner treated it the same. To date since new .. Zero failures (except tire replacement) including a full up original 13+ year old battery.


I would suggest buying a Northern car. Heat extremes do a job on rubber bits and that seems to be where most of the problems occur.

 

That rear rattle you are hearing is likely coming from one of the rear shocks. An internal valve breaks off and rattles around inside the shock while the shock continues to perform normally. In the summer of 2014 this happened to the right rear shock in my wife's 2006 XK8. The persistent rattle in the cabin drove her nuts so we eventually took the opportunity to replace both rear shocks and shock mounts. Problem solved....