Best of the Bargain Basement Vol. 2
Discussion
jas xjr said:
daveofedinburgh said:
I used to think that P38s with the coil spring conversion were the ones to look out for (an oxymoron perhaps; a P38 'to look out for'?).
After joining a couple of OCs, it seems that air suspension isn't really something to be scared of given that it isn't actually that expensive to repair/ replace. Would also have to agree that they lose a huge part of their appeal without the air. No one that knows anything about them seems to want to buy a coil-converted car either. Alot of the P38 beards will tell you that coil springs are actually dangerous in high speed cornering/ evasive manoeuvres given the permanently high CoG.
Suspect that air suspension is actually the least of anyone's worries on a P38 once electrical gremlins/ cooling issues/ cracked blocks etc are considered. Heated seats never seem to work either, which is one feature I'd really want (or maybe just find one with the brown velour interior!).
Another thing I picked up on the forums was that ownership is something of a lottery. There are guys with 2001 models and FLRSH that have nothing but trouble, and really annoying people with old £1200, 200K+ mile sh*tters which just work perfectly.
Even after all of that, something in my mind tells me I'd be grand with a diesel manual P38. The only thing that stops me is that Im an utterly useless mechanic, which breaks P38 rule #1; be able to work on them at home.
Doubt that a £1K P38 is much riskier than a £3K+ one, so if someone is feeling lucky...
If you win the lottery and get a sound example, its gotta be the very best of the bargain basement bar none.
I seem to vaguely recall a friend complaining that a diesel p38 was painfully slowAfter joining a couple of OCs, it seems that air suspension isn't really something to be scared of given that it isn't actually that expensive to repair/ replace. Would also have to agree that they lose a huge part of their appeal without the air. No one that knows anything about them seems to want to buy a coil-converted car either. Alot of the P38 beards will tell you that coil springs are actually dangerous in high speed cornering/ evasive manoeuvres given the permanently high CoG.
Suspect that air suspension is actually the least of anyone's worries on a P38 once electrical gremlins/ cooling issues/ cracked blocks etc are considered. Heated seats never seem to work either, which is one feature I'd really want (or maybe just find one with the brown velour interior!).
Another thing I picked up on the forums was that ownership is something of a lottery. There are guys with 2001 models and FLRSH that have nothing but trouble, and really annoying people with old £1200, 200K+ mile sh*tters which just work perfectly.
Even after all of that, something in my mind tells me I'd be grand with a diesel manual P38. The only thing that stops me is that Im an utterly useless mechanic, which breaks P38 rule #1; be able to work on them at home.
Doubt that a £1K P38 is much riskier than a £3K+ one, so if someone is feeling lucky...
If you win the lottery and get a sound example, its gotta be the very best of the bargain basement bar none.
This popped up in my newsfeed:
[quote] So this is my Jaguar Xj6, 3.2 straight 6 automatic with 113,000 miles on the clock. By far the comfiest car I have ever had the pleasure of owning.
Full cream leather interior, electric front seats, electric windows all round, electric mirrors. All switches and electrics work as expected.
Car is weld free underneath. Rear arches are suffering slightly from surface rust and wings could with replacement but this is nothing for a 19 year old car. Some lacquer peel on roof.
Engine purrs at idle but growls when you drop a gear. Autobox has no issues at all, selects all gears fine and pulls very smoothly.
Previous owner replaced diff as it was whining (not an easy job at, 10-12hrs work costing over £600)
Almost FULL JAGUAR service history (only a couple of stamps are not jag certified garages). Has obviously been cared for throughout its life.
The private plate will stay with the car too, its valued at £500-£700 . I was going to see if Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones were interested but never got round to it!
Car is Mot'd until the end of March 2015 (advisories on last mot were fixed afterwards). I cant find anything it will fail on next time around
Car sits on a set of rare 16" Jaguar XJS wheels. These are very sought after wheels. Only set i can find for sale on ebay are up for £550 +postage and that is for a tatty repainted set of four. This car has a full, clean set of 5!
I have enjoyed driving around in this for the past couple of months and i am only selling as i really shouldn't have bought it. I have too many cars already and I need the parking space that the Jag is currently occupying back.
Looking for offers around £750 which considering the value in plate and the wheels alone makes this a bargain.
[/quote]
[quote] So this is my Jaguar Xj6, 3.2 straight 6 automatic with 113,000 miles on the clock. By far the comfiest car I have ever had the pleasure of owning.
Full cream leather interior, electric front seats, electric windows all round, electric mirrors. All switches and electrics work as expected.
Car is weld free underneath. Rear arches are suffering slightly from surface rust and wings could with replacement but this is nothing for a 19 year old car. Some lacquer peel on roof.
Engine purrs at idle but growls when you drop a gear. Autobox has no issues at all, selects all gears fine and pulls very smoothly.
Previous owner replaced diff as it was whining (not an easy job at, 10-12hrs work costing over £600)
Almost FULL JAGUAR service history (only a couple of stamps are not jag certified garages). Has obviously been cared for throughout its life.
The private plate will stay with the car too, its valued at £500-£700 . I was going to see if Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones were interested but never got round to it!
Car is Mot'd until the end of March 2015 (advisories on last mot were fixed afterwards). I cant find anything it will fail on next time around
Car sits on a set of rare 16" Jaguar XJS wheels. These are very sought after wheels. Only set i can find for sale on ebay are up for £550 +postage and that is for a tatty repainted set of four. This car has a full, clean set of 5!
I have enjoyed driving around in this for the past couple of months and i am only selling as i really shouldn't have bought it. I have too many cars already and I need the parking space that the Jag is currently occupying back.
Looking for offers around £750 which considering the value in plate and the wheels alone makes this a bargain.
[/quote]
Chongwong said:
This popped up in my newsfeed:
[quote] So this is my Jaguar Xj6, 3.2 straight 6 automatic with 113,000 miles on the clock. By far the comfiest car I have ever had the pleasure of owning.
Full cream leather interior, electric front seats, electric windows all round, electric mirrors. All switches and electrics work as expected.
Car is weld free underneath. Rear arches are suffering slightly from surface rust and wings could with replacement but this is nothing for a 19 year old car. Some lacquer peel on roof.
Engine purrs at idle but growls when you drop a gear. Autobox has no issues at all, selects all gears fine and pulls very smoothly.
Previous owner replaced diff as it was whining (not an easy job at, 10-12hrs work costing over £600)
Almost FULL JAGUAR service history (only a couple of stamps are not jag certified garages). Has obviously been cared for throughout its life.
The private plate will stay with the car too, its valued at £500-£700 . I was going to see if Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones were interested but never got round to it!
Car is Mot'd until the end of March 2015 (advisories on last mot were fixed afterwards). I cant find anything it will fail on next time around
Car sits on a set of rare 16" Jaguar XJS wheels. These are very sought after wheels. Only set i can find for sale on ebay are up for £550 +postage and that is for a tatty repainted set of four. This car has a full, clean set of 5!
I have enjoyed driving around in this for the past couple of months and i am only selling as i really shouldn't have bought it. I have too many cars already and I need the parking space that the Jag is currently occupying back.
Looking for offers around £750 which considering the value in plate and the wheels alone makes this a bargain.
[quote] So this is my Jaguar Xj6, 3.2 straight 6 automatic with 113,000 miles on the clock. By far the comfiest car I have ever had the pleasure of owning.
Full cream leather interior, electric front seats, electric windows all round, electric mirrors. All switches and electrics work as expected.
Car is weld free underneath. Rear arches are suffering slightly from surface rust and wings could with replacement but this is nothing for a 19 year old car. Some lacquer peel on roof.
Engine purrs at idle but growls when you drop a gear. Autobox has no issues at all, selects all gears fine and pulls very smoothly.
Previous owner replaced diff as it was whining (not an easy job at, 10-12hrs work costing over £600)
Almost FULL JAGUAR service history (only a couple of stamps are not jag certified garages). Has obviously been cared for throughout its life.
The private plate will stay with the car too, its valued at £500-£700 . I was going to see if Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones were interested but never got round to it!
Car is Mot'd until the end of March 2015 (advisories on last mot were fixed afterwards). I cant find anything it will fail on next time around
Car sits on a set of rare 16" Jaguar XJS wheels. These are very sought after wheels. Only set i can find for sale on ebay are up for £550 +postage and that is for a tatty repainted set of four. This car has a full, clean set of 5!
I have enjoyed driving around in this for the past couple of months and i am only selling as i really shouldn't have bought it. I have too many cars already and I need the parking space that the Jag is currently occupying back.
Looking for offers around £750 which considering the value in plate and the wheels alone makes this a bargain.
dme123 said:
He was right, it's a 2.5 litre VM engine as used in some Vauxhall Fronteras, Rover 800s and Jeeps of a certain age. I think it had all of 130 or so rampaging horses when it was new, which is not a lot for a car the size or a P38. A friend once told me that in P38 circles the DSE is thought to stand for "Dirty, Slow and Expensive". That said even the 4.6 is not really a quick car, even by the standards of the day. 220bhp or something isn't it?
Not quite. The VM 4-pot was used in the RRC, but the P38 used a BMW 2.5 six, as fitted to the E34/E36 TD's. The BMW lump chucks out 130bhp, the VM was considerably less powerful. The BMW lump is a smooth engine, especially for an old IDI lump, but very underpowered for the P38.SWTH said:
dme123 said:
He was right, it's a 2.5 litre VM engine as used in some Vauxhall Fronteras, Rover 800s and Jeeps of a certain age. I think it had all of 130 or so rampaging horses when it was new, which is not a lot for a car the size or a P38. A friend once told me that in P38 circles the DSE is thought to stand for "Dirty, Slow and Expensive". That said even the 4.6 is not really a quick car, even by the standards of the day. 220bhp or something isn't it?
Not quite. The VM 4-pot was used in the RRC, but the P38 used a BMW 2.5 six, as fitted to the E34/E36 TD's. The BMW lump chucks out 130bhp, the VM was considerably less powerful. The BMW lump is a smooth engine, especially for an old IDI lump, but very underpowered for the P38.
tty old Rover 800 I had with one. It's easy to forget that not that long ago your engine choice in a RR was a nice big thirsty V8 or a hopelessly undersized and weedy diesel - the launch RRS had less than 200bhp from the 2.7d and until 2005 the L322 had all of 177bhp to offer. You really would have had to be a proper skinflint to want the diesel.dooosuk said:
Matt Clay said:
Where in the country is that?
Chongwong said:
Sorry don't know the guy, it just popped up on a group called 'Aberdeenshire cars & Vehicles for Sale'
If i had the cash it'd be gone by now :P
If i had the cash it'd be gone by now :P
Matt Clay said:
dooosuk said:
Matt Clay said:
Where in the country is that?
Chongwong said:
Sorry don't know the guy, it just popped up on a group called 'Aberdeenshire cars & Vehicles for Sale'
If i had the cash it'd be gone by now :P
If i had the cash it'd be gone by now :P
Hoofy said:
Exterior needs a good clean and I think the autobox can give issues but a one owner car in a nice colour combination is always a positive thing! dme123 said:
80quattro said:
I used to have a XJ6 3.2 Sport. Rubbish on fuel even when driving very gently, handling was dire. E39 5 series a far better buy !
If the handling was dire then there was something wrong with it. Fair enough they roll more than you might expect but you can take the most astonishing liberties with them and make very rapid and smooth progress even on piss poor roads. Rear dampers wear out sooner than you might expect though, and there are a lot of bushes to get tired and baggy. I imagine with knackered suspension it could be quite... interesting.Lifetime average of my X300 4.0 was just over 20MPG and it never, ever bettered 25MPG even on a 55MPH economy run. The 3.2 straight six is a bit weedy so you really want the 4.0.
Don't be silly, a fiver (M5 excepted) can't hold a candle to a properly sorted XJ, mine was the XJR with CATS admittedly, but you could really throw it around country lanes at higher speeds than you'd think possible for such a big car. Most of the review websites praise the XJs handling.
The XJ is great if you like old fashioned classic car looks (I do), the BMW is fine if you want just a normal looking saloon. I accept I may be in a minority though as the new Jaguars look aluminium and plastic inside like most new cars today. Is this really what new car buyers want or is it what the manufacturers think we want and give us because it is light and cheaper?
I got early 20's mixed driving part motorway part urban with a supercharged V8, my S type V8 4.0 would do high 20's on a motorway run at 60-70. You would expect the smaller engined car to better this but it is a heavy body to lug around I suppose.
These are expensive cars new so don't expect servicing and fuel costs to be Focus prices and all is well. That's not to say you can't run them on the cheap if you can service them yourself.
Lot of s
t sprouted on PH recently, don't remember it being this bad years ago 
BorkFactor said:
Hoofy said:
Exterior needs a good clean and I think the autobox can give issues but a one owner car in a nice colour combination is always a positive thing! The auto gearboxes can give trouble if they have not had the oil changed, Jaguar say it is a sealed for life box but this is not strictly speaking true. You can (and are well advised to) change the oil, at some recommend 70K. Have seen a lot of boxes with trouble around the 120-130k mark. Both of mine were done, it drove smoother once they had been and never had any trouble with the boxes. Some say it is not needed, you pay your money and take your choice!
JagXJR said:
BorkFactor said:
Hoofy said:
Exterior needs a good clean and I think the autobox can give issues but a one owner car in a nice colour combination is always a positive thing! The auto gearboxes can give trouble if they have not had the oil changed, Jaguar say it is a sealed for life box but this is not strictly speaking true. You can (and are well advised to) change the oil, at some recommend 70K. Have seen a lot of boxes with trouble around the 120-130k mark. Both of mine were done, it drove smoother once they had been and never had any trouble with the boxes. Some say it is not needed, you pay your money and take your choice!
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