RE: SOTW: Jaguar XJ6 3.2 Sport
Discussion
Always loved the look of those more than any other exec, perfect proportions in my eyes... I like the colour, dont mind the wheels & the coach stripe would not put me off, its even the engine I would choose hoping I could justify feeding it as a daily runner. I think the interior (dashboard) shot is inspired, as looking at that- who doesn't picture themselves cosseted in leather comfort taking in that view, ready to waft off into the distance, all the while thinking '825 quid- 825 quid, a whole live Jag for 825 quid'
Always thought they were just too expensive to run, but looking at the depreciation I have taken on my 40+ mpg 2year old boring box, I could have fueled this Jag for a good few years & how much can a £825 car depreciate? no more than £825 thats for sure. I have only one escape route available to me....reliability! yes thats it, keep chanting 'reliability' must stay focused.
I'v never considered a sotw as seriously as this one
Always thought they were just too expensive to run, but looking at the depreciation I have taken on my 40+ mpg 2year old boring box, I could have fueled this Jag for a good few years & how much can a £825 car depreciate? no more than £825 thats for sure. I have only one escape route available to me....reliability! yes thats it, keep chanting 'reliability' must stay focused.
I'v never considered a sotw as seriously as this one
Rusty-C said:
Here's a question, if you wanted to go shed on a limited budget would you go for a 3.2 XJ6 or a 95 BMW 730i (with 5-series wheels...)? I need something with character, and these two are relatively cheap to insure, but I'm scared that it'll blow up on day one. I'd be heartbroken, and more to the point, broke...
I would go Jag. It's the more special car to live with daily. The ride comfort is simply stunning. Plus, with all the specialists around, anything that goes wrong can be fixed easily and cheaply usually. (that applied to the BMW too I suppose) Both cars will take monster miles with a modicum of attention, but where you rather be sitting for the duration of those miles? Chatsworth or the Allianz Arena? varsas said:
Sadly not, this will have the 'AJ16' engine. The last cars with the XK engine was mere made in the early 90's, XJ's haven't had them since the series 3 (I think?)
Friend had one of these, really really nice. From the moment I got in it during the test drive it just felt right. Everything you want from a jaguar, and this has a lovely colour combination. I'm not a huge fan of that dash (I prefer the XJ8) but that's nit picking and everything else is great.
ETA: why is it under boring stuff? RWD + straight 6 means it's not, surely?
The 'AJ16' engines are some of the finest Jaguar have ever produced - absolutely bullet proof if looked after.Friend had one of these, really really nice. From the moment I got in it during the test drive it just felt right. Everything you want from a jaguar, and this has a lovely colour combination. I'm not a huge fan of that dash (I prefer the XJ8) but that's nit picking and everything else is great.
ETA: why is it under boring stuff? RWD + straight 6 means it's not, surely?
Edited by varsas on Friday 26th August 08:09
And, I prefer the dash in these, compared to the later x308s - they lack character, and feel too 'Ford-like' on the dials.
Superb cars, I have a few of these and the XJ40s.
Such a sinister looking car, smooth and comfortable.
Not the biggest of cars inside, but still has that nice cabin feel only a Jag XJ can deliver!
marc2 said:
Always thought they were just too expensive to run, but looking at the depreciation I have taken on my 40+ mpg 2year old boring box, I could have fueled this Jag for a good few years & how much can a £825 car depreciate? no more than £825 thats for sure.
Exactly, this logic also helped me decide that it wasn't a bad idea.
V8 TEJ said:
marc2 said:
Always thought they were just too expensive to run, but looking at the depreciation I have taken on my 40+ mpg 2year old boring box, I could have fueled this Jag for a good few years & how much can a £825 car depreciate? no more than £825 thats for sure.
Exactly, this logic also helped me decide that it wasn't a bad idea.
V8 TEJ said:
I bought it with 115'000 miles and it now has 135'000 on it's original Nikasil engine.
If you don't mind sharing, one finds lots of stories about the Nikasil problemsm, can you impart more knowledge on this as a person with genuine experience? If I go down the XJ route it will have to be an XJ8, all the Nikasil stuff has me worried slightly but as ever, the internet is full of bad stories, never good ones.ITech said:
Epic car the x300. Massively reliable, those in the know would always buy one of these, over the newer, often troublesome x308.
4.0 litre is the one to have really, but the 3.2 still has sufficient go. Only problem with these is slight rusting on rear arches if it hasn't always been garaged/waxoiled. Aside from that they will do 200k without big issues, easily if well maintained. Interior not quite as special as the earlier xj40 and personally I prefer the xj40 shape, although I know that is not the general view.
Hard to buy a better, more reliable car than a good x300 for around £1k
You know your Jags!4.0 litre is the one to have really, but the 3.2 still has sufficient go. Only problem with these is slight rusting on rear arches if it hasn't always been garaged/waxoiled. Aside from that they will do 200k without big issues, easily if well maintained. Interior not quite as special as the earlier xj40 and personally I prefer the xj40 shape, although I know that is not the general view.
Hard to buy a better, more reliable car than a good x300 for around £1k
Spot on write up - these are very reliable.
Problem is where people pick them up cheap, they forget it was still a £40k car when new, therefore needs to be maintained as such.
A few little electrical niggles here and there, but generally, as reliable as any German car out there.
I can vouch for this as I has a '95 BRG X300 3.2 Sport. Never once went wrong. Always started, never ever broke down.
Love this shape, it's as iconic as the 911 outline is.
andymadmak said:
Rusty-C said:
Here's a question, if you wanted to go shed on a limited budget would you go for a 3.2 XJ6 or a 95 BMW 730i (with 5-series wheels...)? I need something with character, and these two are relatively cheap to insure, but I'm scared that it'll blow up on day one. I'd be heartbroken, and more to the point, broke...
I would go Jag. It's the more special car to live with daily. The ride comfort is simply stunning. Plus, with all the specialists around, anything that goes wrong can be fixed easily and cheaply usually. (that applied to the BMW too I suppose) Both cars will take monster miles with a modicum of attention, but where you rather be sitting for the duration of those miles? Chatsworth or the Allianz Arena? I'm sure the 7 Series is also a strong car, but they feel less special to drive or ride in.
The main thing to look for on the X300 is rust, it is the model's only real weakness. The main problem areas are the rear arches (which can be expensive to fix but seems mainly to affect early cars) and the sill to floor join. By no means all cars are affected and there are plenty of X300s about without rust. Get one and you won't regret it, they're lovely cars.
dbdb said:
I would choose the Jag too, and for the same reasons. The X300 has proved to be an especially reliable and robust car mechanically; the AJ16 engine is very long lived indeed and the automatic transmission is the ZF 4HP22 in the 3.2 and ZF 4HP24 in the 4 litre, both very robust units. The X300 is capable of significantly more than 200,000 miles if serviced; there are plenty about which have done more than 300,000. The electrics seem to give few problems too, though nearly all have a broken clock.
I'm sure the 7 Series is also a strong car, but they feel less special to drive or ride in.
The main thing to look for on the X300 is rust, it is the model's only real weakness. The main problem areas are the rear arches (which can be expensive to fix but seems mainly to affect early cars) and the sill to floor join. By no means all cars are affected and there are plenty of X300s about without rust. Get one and you won't regret it, they're lovely cars.
Have no experience of these cars at all, I just seem to remember bar-room chatter suggesting they have a healthy appetite for suspension bushes? is this a myth or have I got my Jags muddled up?I'm sure the 7 Series is also a strong car, but they feel less special to drive or ride in.
The main thing to look for on the X300 is rust, it is the model's only real weakness. The main problem areas are the rear arches (which can be expensive to fix but seems mainly to affect early cars) and the sill to floor join. By no means all cars are affected and there are plenty of X300s about without rust. Get one and you won't regret it, they're lovely cars.
agxster said:
If I did 10k miles a year in one how much would I need to budget a year for servicing/maintenance if it was taken to a specialist in the south east?
Very tempted by these, so much more interesting then what I drive now, and if they are reliable I'm even more tempted!
David Marks (well regarded specialist in Notts) quote a 10k service at £215Very tempted by these, so much more interesting then what I drive now, and if they are reliable I'm even more tempted!
You'd probably need new tyres which if you ignore the original spec ditch finder Pirelli P6000 and bought far superior but budget(ish) Nexens would cost you about 240 quid all round
I bought a 97 X300 3.2 Sport a couple of years ago off my uncle. Metallic Black with cream leather. Absolutely love it.
It's been fantastically reliable and always starts on the first turn of the key, even after its been sitting for weeks.
Fuel economy isn't great though, about 17-18 around town and 28ish on a run. What would you expect though.
Not many bangers could pull off being a last minute wedding car.
It's been fantastically reliable and always starts on the first turn of the key, even after its been sitting for weeks.
Fuel economy isn't great though, about 17-18 around town and 28ish on a run. What would you expect though.
Not many bangers could pull off being a last minute wedding car.
RenesisEvo said:
If you don't mind sharing, one finds lots of stories about the Nikasil problemsm, can you impart more knowledge on this as a person with genuine experience? If I go down the XJ route it will have to be an XJ8, all the Nikasil stuff has me worried slightly but as ever, the internet is full of bad stories, never good ones.
No I don't mind at all :-)I read all the horror stories too but also learned that since high sulphur fuel was no longer being sold in the U.K. (a good few years ago) that the problem can now not affect a car that has survived. A nikasil lined engine is actually a good thing and it was unfortunate that the high sulphur fuels (generally combined with short journeys) destroyed a lot of engines and gave the new (then) XJ8 a bad name. BMW also suffered but seem to have handled it better than Jaguar. A nikasil engine now will cover huge mileage with no problems regarding bore wear/loss of compression. I happily use it everyday and didn't even service it for the first 11'000 miles considering a lot of owners out there do this every 5000 or so.
I think it's a common feeling that many people out there have that a nikasil engine will somehow one day just decide to give up the ghost, which just doesn't make sense. It either works or it doesn't.
Just be sure to do your homework first as with any purchase really. The car I bought had a lot of expensive work carried out by a specialist so that also told me that the car would have been a good example to warrant all the work in the first place. Most specialists will not replace chains (about a £1200 job) if the engine is boogered.
ETA: The internet is usually full of bad stories as people will only complain when something goes wrong. They will often not do this if all is going as it should. Probably because they are out there enjoying their Jaguar and not trawling the net working out what to do next! Of the thousands of these cars that were sold and are still going today, the amount of them that were affected is a small percentage.
Edited by V8 TEJ on Friday 26th August 11:43
Edited by V8 TEJ on Friday 26th August 11:43
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff