Want a Manual and reliability? Civic is a good choice.

 

I think there may be a misunderstanding of plain English in action here. I said I would prefer hearing from former owners. I never said I absolutely wanted no comments from any current owners. Saying I would prefer hearing from former owners was a way to point out what type of comments I was looking for. Realistic comments instead of just praise. Because it's clear the car doesn't deserve only praise. It has known design flaws. To be honest, probably there isn't a car which deserves only praise. But there is certainly no shortage of delusional owners who think their car deserves only praise. Hence why I phrased my opening post the way I did. It was an attempt to keep such praise only people away. But we have had many current owners who posted solid and balanced replies pointing what they like but also the problems, which is why I never posted that I absolutely wanted no opinions from current owners. I know current owner's opinions are valuable. Especially those who have had several X100s. But I wanted the opinions of the right type of current owners. So consider my phrasing just a warning to the praise only types.

It's the same thing with any product. People get attached to their material things. I take part in other forums which have nothing to do with cars and you find the praise only individual everywhere. It's only praise, till he sells it. Being new here I don't know if it's the case here. But I would find it hard to believe there are no people like that here. Maybe not the majority, but I just wanted to send a clear message of the type of opinions I was looking for. That's all. And although it took a while for them to start coming, the balanced opinions are now flowing in and I'm thankful for that.

 

Point taken and well made. But that's the only way I would ever own a X100. Also, since the transmission is a weak point, getting rid of it might actually be a good thing. It doesn't seem to me that exchanging something more complex and less reliable for something simpler and more reliable, in this case a plain manual transmission, would make the car less reliable. It seems to me the main problem is the computer related stuff. Which means I might get some meaningless annoying warning lights and may lose a couple of the electronic nannies. But it seems some have the cars working properly, so it's possible.

Although you might indeed be right. I have not looked very deep into it yet. I want to make sure the stock car is up for it before I spend time looking into the manual conversion more deeply.

 

Like I said, I can't vouch for every Vauxhall or even every Astra generation. I can only speak on the ones I current run.

 

We use the Vaxhalls for work. But they are not what I'm looking for in my personal daily driver. They don't even make any RWD cars at the moment.

But if the maintenance being spoken here is just what's outlined in the vehicle Owner's Manual, then it should be fine. I don't think it's a service manual, right?

And that's a very good idea to read the X100 Owner's Manual. I had not thought of that. Thanks! I will try googling it and see if I can find a pdf. If not it's even worth trying to find an actual one on ebay or something. Excellent idea!

 

You will get no argument from me there, obviously. Why else would I be looking at an older car if I didn't think the X100 was more special than a tin box which gets you from A to B?
I think it's not only one of the most beautiful Jaguars since the E-type but also ones of the most beautiful cars ever. But I want to drive it. Not be constantly repairing it. This is why I'm trying to do my homework to see what I could possibly be getting into.

 

Nowhere I said I wanted something that matched the Astra. I said I would not mind something as reliable. I also acknowledged the car is simpler. Obviously there is less to go wrong. But I don't subscribe to the notion that the X100 gets a pass on being unreliable over the Astra because it was so cutting edge or something, as has been implied in the thread. Wasn't it based on an evolution of the XJS platform? It didn't get cutting edge till the F-type.

And not all performance and luxury cars are unreliable. I could mention the ones which are not and don't have a bad reputation, but it will only cause more argument. So no point. Sure there are bad apples. But that is not the same as being known as unreliable. There are also cases of early cars being bad and that reputation sticking with the car, even after the manufacturer has solved the problems. In an used car, that just means those who do their home work get a bargain by buying the reliable later years of the car for cheaper, because of misinformed opinions.

 

I'm aware that the Leyland era is responsible for Jaguars reputation, even to this day. Some still base it on that era. But the Ford era also had its faults.

It's good to hear of your good experiences. To the contrary of what many are implying, hearing that I should stay away from the X100 is really the last thing I want to hear. I want the facts so I can make up my own mind if the car is for me or not.

 

The radio station preset tip is an interesting one.

Sure. I think I mentioned as much already. Wear and tear is not the same as unreliability.

Thanks for the tip. I will google it. This is as great of a tip as the one about the Owner's Manual. Thanks.

I'm not opposed to working on my own cars. To the contrary, I actually enjoy it. Especially something as beautiful as a X100. Gives you pleasure. But there is a limit. When you have a car where you have to be constantly working on it it starts chipping away pretty quickly off the ownership pleasure. Cars were made to be driven. Not to sit in repair shops.

 

The vehicle Owner's Manual is not a 'service manual'. You can purchase the Workshop Manual as a series of PDFs from several vendors on the Internet.

In the absence of the automatic gearbox, I would be very intrigued to learn how one would get the ECM to function properly as it needs to communicate with the TCM to make the vehicle perform correctly. Perhaps that would be the place to start with this quest before spending additional time debating the reliability of the X100 in particular, or Jaguar in general.

 

That's only and barely mildly funny. But your attempt at being cute comes across more as buyer's bitterness. Sorry.

There isn't a single serious petrolhead who also cares for Jaguars who didn't wish there were a X100 with a manual transmission option. From Tiff Needell to Jeremy Clarkson to basically anybody who enjoys driving at its core. Even Jaguar knows that, hence the XKR-R project. The only reason we never got one was because Aston Martin wouldn't have it and they were both owned by Ford. It would be embarrassing for Aston to have the DB7 humiliated by the XK8 manual. It's also the reason we never got a manual X150. It was developed and released while Ford still owned both Aston and Jaguar. Ever wondered why there is a manual F-type? And even a stick shift one, albeit even if only in V6.

 

Just to be clear, I'm not debating the reliability of Jaguar in general. I know the old Leyland cars are bad. Everybody knows. And the new cars, XE, XF, XJ, F-type and F-Pace seem to be good. We probably need to wait another 10 years to really Know. But so far they don't seem to be out of the normal. Or maybe I just haven't paid enough attention to them since they are all auto boxes. The F-type not and that is both a beauty and a nice drive. I just hate they won't sell you a V8 with a manual, so I'm not buying one.

I'm only talking about the X100 and I'm not sure I'm debating as much as asking.

As for researching about the manual transmission swap being a better place to start, it's hard to say. It seems to be a case of a dog chasing its own tale. I already did some basic reading which made me think it's doable enough to prompt me to now look at the stock car's reliability.

 

If you are really serious about purchasing a RWD vehicle with a V8 and manual gearbox, I would strongly urge you to save yourself the trouble of re-engineering an X100 and purchase a Ford Mustang GT. If you are in the UK, the Mustang is now available in RHD and is a relative bargain compared to other vehicles with the performance you seek.

You will most likely say that the Mustang is too pedestrian when compared to the X100, but it seems far easier in my mind to just simply purchase a vehicle with RWD, V8 and manual gearbox. As you said, vehicles are meant to be driven, not sit in a shop undergoing a major and pricey retrofit.

 

Touching on this part of your post, you are lucky your wife requested a S-Type. I've been trying to convince mine to trade in our standard German box for a S-type and she can't understand why I want to move to a much older car. "But it's older and looks older too". It's not old honey is classic and more classy too. And as a bonus I can get a V6 with an manual too. Emptiness in her eyes...

So it's great to hear the S-types are solid. I might have one at some point.

 

Sure. You make a very good point and I have thought about that. But I'm looking for that car which I will keep probably forever, into my 50's, 60's, 70's 80's.... I just don't see me keeping a Mustang for that long. I don't even like the looks of the new Mustangs that much. I actually prefer the prior generation. But they have rigid rear axles. And you are right, the Mustang is just not special enough. The X100 is a thing of beauty and I have liked it for a long time and it's aging really well. I don't think I will ever stop liking it. Can't say the same about the current Mustang. The cheap interior, the all together unrefined nature. Not at all what I want.

The only thing I could see replacing the X100 would be something Italian. But then if I'm worried about reliability this is not exactly an improvement. Or maybe an Aston. But I may be alone here, but I think the X100 looks better than most Astons. At least the affordable ones.

 

I'm of course speaking of modern era Astons.

 

Just my opinion of the future of this post.

 

I was a former owner of a 2000 XK8. It was not all too reliable, but, let's be real, that car underwent some extraordinary circumstances. It lived its life in Puerto Rico, where the roads are bad, the sun shines bright, the rain is frequent. Did I say the roads are rough? They are very bad. Sometimes it feels like driving on the surface of the moon.

First, that car belonged to my dad. His idea of car maintenance was to change synthetic oil once every 100,000 miles. Not a good start. I don't know where he got that idea from. That car sat one year next to a beach, unused because he couldn't be arsed to get it inspected (equivalent of MOT). I was in college and did not have a car. He told me that if I could get it running, it was mine. I did get it running, and drove off with it. Bought new tires, replaced the fluids (engine oil was basically tar), among other things. Mind you, I did not work back then, so I learned mechanic skills with the XK8 in order to avoid going into bankruptcy. I changed the tensioners for the metal ones. Slowly, as my budget allowed it, I brought the car from the condition of a beater to a reliable car. I changed the valve cover gaskets, the MAFS, the intake tube which was toasted, all sorts of filters, cooling system hoses, water pump, thermostat, all of the suspension bushes and dampers, and fuel pressure regulator. Finally, when I was done with all the mechanical fixes, I gave it a new paint job because the clearcoat was peeling.

The Jag only left me stranded or in limp mode three times. One was because I broke the vacuum hoses when I removed the throttle body to change the octupus hose. I had not noticed that I broke those until the car was running rough. Second time was because I had three flat tires at once (did I mention the roads here are bad?). The third time, I had a dead battery. Despite it all, I consider that Jag to have been reliable given the circumstances, and it was easy to fix with the help of this forum, even for a novice mechanic such as myself. I never had to fix something for a second time. I sold that car and bought a Jeep Renegade because I needed something to daily drive that I could take to dental med school, where it would have garnered too much attention because we don't have assigned parking spots.

Now, my dad died, and I have inherited his '04 XKR coupe. Thank God he didn't have that car for more than a year and the previous owner was really **** retentive about that car's maintenance. So far, all I have had to do is replace the brake switch (took me about 10 minutes), and replace the coolant expansion tank because that was leaking (took me about 30 minutes). I changed and flushed all the fluids, and the car drives great, better than the XK8 I had. I plan to replace the brake pads soon, as they are a bit worn. Only problem I have with it right now is that both front rims are cracked (they are 18s") and seem to have had a bad repair. Thus, those are leaking air. (Did I mention the roads here are bad?)

All in all, as a former owner, and current owner who did not expect to have another one in his hands, I can recommend this car. I just advise that you be on top of maintenance, and that you don't wait for something to break. If you think something is nearing the time to be replaced, do it.

Now, I should go back to paying attention to the Radiology class.

 

Also, yes, I do agree that the X100 looks better than the similar vintage DB7.

 

Good luck. It is a fun ride for a large sedan and still gets admiring looks. I was feeling nostalgic and thought about getting a V8 S-type from 2004 or 2005 for when i have to turn the RX back in November. We still need an adult sized back seat occasionally and I found that the asking prices for low mileage S-Types were really attractive. I have decided to look for a low mileage 2004-2009 XJR instead. For only a few dollars more you get a full stop upgrade in size and appointments. Curb weight of the XJR is listed at 3960 lbs, almost the same as the XKR and same 390 HP motor. Friends of mine who are long-time XJ owners remain rabid fans so there must be something to it. Just waiting for the right one to surface.