X308 XJR - how much to spend?!

[GreenArrow]

..so having got outbid on a BMW I was viewing on Ebay earlier, I got into that addictive habit of window shopping and looked at Jag XJRs...oh, how I have always loved this cars and in a world of £20 E39 M5s and £7K Integra Rs, such a bargain!

Trouble is, the prices seem to vary a lot. For example, on Gumtree, there was one for £5K with 100K miles and another for just £2.9K with the same mileage.

Then I saw this ad......

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172137528590?_trksid=p20...

Looks like a well pampered and low mileage for year car....for five grand....but, it is a 1998 car and my "buyers guide" notes say that these can suffer Nikosail bore wear and also have the weaker timing chain tensioner!

Gumtree car....

https://www.gumtree.com/p/jaguar/4.0-jaguar-xjr-20...

(But very short MOT).

Its a right old minefield, but with these old XJRs is the adage still "buy the best you can afford, not the cheapest?"

There is also an XJR in Horndean fairly near to me for £3695, fairly cheap too,its a 1997 car...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321910509758?_trksid=p20...

Are these cars really money pits waiting to bite or can you bag a good one and run as a low mile second or third car and not get burned? I saw on a Pistonheads thread from last year that someone got one for £695?! That just sounds outrageous!

Edited by GreenArrow on Sunday 20th March 17:06

[GreenArrow]

The 370 hp xjr arrived late 1997 I think. It was in my edition of car magazine performance car of this year, Nov 1997. I can't make up my mind if that is a tiny bit of rust on that 97 car on the offside front wing.