Jaguar S-Type | Shed of the Week
An S-Type is a Shed staple; a cheap and nice S-Type is a somewhat rarer find, however...
How do you know it's Spring? For Shed, it's when the various motors in his yard start getting plastered in brightly coloured bird poo as the flea-ridden feathered-up fly-boys discharge their first reconstituted fruits of the season.
By this definition today's spangly looking sub-£1,500 Jaguar is thankfully not full of the dubious joys of Spring. It's very clean. There is a crack in the rear bumper and a few insignificant blemishes on the front bumper, but apart from that Shed is at a loss to work out why this 119,000-mile S-Type from 2003 is priced at just £900. The wheels alone are probably worth more than that, presuming that the letters 'BBS' mean that they really are BBS items rather than hot out of the lockup of Billy's Bargain Spokes.
Maybe the vendor knows something about this car that we don't. Vendors usually do. In the private sales corner of the used car world the something they know is usually why the vending is happening, but unless there's something truly catastrophic lurking beneath the bonnet leaper of this one it seems like (sorry) a lot of car for the money.
Shed likes the 2.7 twin-turbo diesel S-Types as much as he dislikes the 3.0 petrol S-Types, which are prone to lurking catastrophe in the bottom end department, but this is a 200 Sport with the Ford 2.5 V6 motor, which means (a) it's not a 3.0 and (b) it's not a 3.0.
Actually, there is a (c) with this car, namely the seller's honest admission that the engine management light, or message probably, is on. After wasting many years trying to work out why this should be a problem on cars that are otherwise running perfectly well, Shed has come to the zenlike conclusion that it must be the EML itself that's broken, not the engine management system. At least that's what he tells any villagers who bring their cars into his place for 'diagnosis', which in his case is looking thoughtfully at the engine bay for a few minutes while stroking his chin and occasionally waggling a plug lead. He tells them not to worry about it, or if they do worry about it then just to put some gaffer tape over the offending message. The old dears in the village are always very pleased to receive this advice because Shed only charges them a flat fee of £48 plus VAT for it, or £65 plus VAT if they want him to apply some actual tape.
There are some actual problems that rear up on these S-Types, many of them electrical - windows, seats, door locks, alarms, that sort of thing. This car was registered in April 2003, which means it should have had the recall work done on a couple of really very minor issues that arose in 2004, viz the auto box going into reverse when you'd selected forwards please, and the electronic parking brake that would randomly self-apply for some tyre-squealing excitement that was guaranteed to get your pacemaker jolting. Eeeh, them were the days, proper life-threatening faults, not like your namby-pamby 'glove box might open' recall issues of today.
A corroded but not seriously weakened rear subframe was listed as an advisory on last September's MOT pass, which was granted after the dangerously excessive corrosion on the front body structure had been sorted out, so let's put that down as a (d) on the list. Other than that, nothing worth mentioning bar a couple of busted suspension dust covers. Worth getting them fixed if only to avoid more expensive work down the road.
Often the worst real-life problems that S-Type owners had in the day was dealing with Jaguar. They had the same high expectations as owners of any other Jaguar, but not every dealer shared the view that they were as good as XJ owners and as a consequence they sometimes behaved quite badly, while charging for work at the full Jaguar rate of course.
On the positive side the cabins on these later S-Types in particular were lovely, with excellent ventilation that would efficiently disperse noxious old-boy fumes and gases. Despite being the poor relation in the range the 190hp 2.5 V6 was a nice enough engine that gave you 0-60 in a relaxed 9.9sec with the 6-speed auto, or 8.6sec with the rarer 5-speed manual. It could also easily return mpg figures in the low thirties on a run, whatever 'on a run' means. As far as Shed is concerned every car journey is a run, but then he a miserable and cantankerous old pedant.
Unfortunately this period of jags arnt that good now if it was a grand for twin turbo Diesel well to Me it would be far more appealing but when this was made the2.7D TT engine wasn't in production,so I'm not remotely interested in someone else's crap.
I remember driving an E39 523 SE at the same time I owned mine and being rather surprised at how inherently awesome it most certainly was not in comparison. It felt very heavy, soggy and sluggish compared to the X202 S-Type.
X200 (1999-2001) is a different story - those were crap.
That engine is no powerhouse but it is a decent smooth lump with enough useful shove. I had a manual X-Type with the same 2.5 engine in my early 20s (it was the fastest thing I could insure, I’m no farage-ist
) that was a long time ago but I have fond memories of it, might be a bit underwhelming in a heavier S-Type with a slusher though. We have an Alfa GT which is nimble, easy on the eye, quick (not fast) and does 49mpg, plus a Skoda Octavia which is a 17 year old workhorse, with no complications, has 190K on the clock and does 50mpg.
Why do I find this car attractive? Is it because it harks back to the ultimate 60's getaway vehicle, watching Morse on the telly?
In truth, at the back of my mind, I know that if I bought one of these, I would have a few days, weeks or maybe months of pleasure, then it would go wrong.
Buying a brand new Jag is still a big risk now(build quality/reliability wise), so I reckon that you'd have to be properly brave to go in for this.
Just something very iffy image wise with them, and I am not all that bothered by such matters, I drive a noisy Fiesta ffs but these are all leapers and general naffness. I would feel like I was nipping out for a Daily Mail every time I used it.
I had from new a "first model" 4.0 V8 SE for abut 3 years, problem free car. Then I got a "second model" 4.2 V8 SE a far better car and kept it for 10 years, 130,000 miles. I was very lucky: it was a Jaguar main dealer demo car, 700 miles, that they wanted rid of because the "third model" had been announced. List as loaded was £39,500, I paid cash £27,500 which was a great price for me. I did have gearbox issues with this car but all d/w under warranty without problems.
Followed these with an XF 5.0 V8 SE n/a, 380bhp, very nice rare motor.
R.
And those do look like the original alloys.
From memory, there were a few issues with his car, but fairly minor.
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