1990 Jaguar XJ12 S3 - 1800 mile car purchase from Canada
Discussion
I’ve been really enjoying my 1994 XJ81 (XJ40 body style) Jaguar XJ12 of late, but it still needs a few odds and ends. Mainly paint work as it appears to have once received a blow over and the clear has started to fail. Something that’s very common in Texas where the sun will burn any cheap quality paint job. I wanted to figure out if it was worth fixing the paint and bodywork or start with a new canvas so I scoured the Craigslist, an online classifieds site in the US, I thought I would look around and see what other XJ12s are selling for.
There weren’t that many in the US expanded my search to Canada. There were no XJ81 XJ12’a there either, but I did find a good looking 1990 Series 3 XJ12. The Series 3 XJ12 is somewhat a special car because it was only sold for a very short while in the USA (maybe 1979 and 1980), in pre-HE form.
I owned one for a short period of time, it was a grewsome parts car / rat graveyard. I robbed the fuel injection parts for my 75 XJ12C that was converted to run 100% on propane and which I wanted to convert back. That was probably the only series 3 XJ12 that I’ve ever seen.
For any who don’t know the story about the XJ12 Series 3, they were introduced in 1979 and continued in production to 1992, alongside the XJ40 model that was introduced in 1987, because there was still a demand or the V12 Jaguar and the XJ40 was purposely designed by Jaguar to not accept a V configuration engine. The company at the time of design was owned by British Leyland and the management wanted to use the Rover V8. The Jaguar engineers were having none of that and it was not until 1993, under Ford ownership that Jaguar was able to redesign the XJ40 platform to accept the V12, which by then was punched out to 6 liters and mated to a GM 4l80E 4 speed transmission.
I kept finding myself looking at this car so I decided to reach out to the owner and ask about it. He seemed like the typical Craigslist seller who was tired of timewasters and just asked me to come and look at it. I’ve been in his position many times and knew that if I was going to explain to him that I lived in another country, and I was going to ask him to do some work, like take pictures and answer questions. I should be serious about it. So I got serious.
We went back and forth for a couple of months as I was somewhat hamstrung by the Covid restrictions, but I kept messaging him every couple of weeks letting him know where my head was at. Finally, the restrictions lifted and as it happened, I had an upcoming trip to Seattle to visit a customer so I started to look at what it would take to import a car. I now own this car but I can’t say that I know for sure that I have the process down. More of that will come later. First thing is first. Get to Canada.
The process was somewhat nerve wracking, you had to be fully vaccinated and have a Covid test no more than 72 hours before arriving, and stick all that information in a very clunky app.
Seattle is about a 2-hour drive from the border, obviously I could not rent a car so I had to find a bus that would go up there. I gave myself plenty of time when I booked the ticket as I was due to land at 5PM and the last bus leaves at 7:30 to Blaine. My idea was to walk across the border with a suitcase and a backpack…. Yes, walk across the order.
Of course I got to the airport and the flight was delayed, they could not organize a cabin crew member so they were waiting for another to show up. If I missed this bus, it would have been a disaster. I had booked the hotel in Canada and if I missed the bus, I would have nowhere to sleep and my 72-hour Covid test would time out. Fortunately, I was able to get to the bus 5 minutes before the bus left and made it to the border station at about 11:45PM. The border guys looked at me funny but let me pass to the Canadian side and when I got there, I had about 15-minute chat with the Canadian border patrol officer who was about as nice as can be. He let through after I showed him all the paperwork and I caught an Uber to the hotel and picked up the car in the morning.
It's metallic blue with blue leather interior and in overall pretty nice shape, with very minor rust starting to show at the end caps of the rear sills.
I'm still not sure how easily I will be able to get it across the border. I will find out tomorrow. My goal is to drive it to Tacoma Washington and find a transporter to pick it up and take it to Dallas before Friday which is when I leave. I don't want to drive it the whole 1800 miles to Texas because I've only done 60KM and it's already conked out twice on me, but that's pretty good going for a Jag. I think it was old / low fuel so i filled up both tanks shortly after taking these pictures and added some Marvel mystery oil to the engine and the fuel system to help lubricate and clean the internals (it mysteriously does this).
I'll be updating shortly with a video and more pictures, once (if) I get across the border and back to stateside, and will provide details on my impression of the car, now that I own it.
There weren’t that many in the US expanded my search to Canada. There were no XJ81 XJ12’a there either, but I did find a good looking 1990 Series 3 XJ12. The Series 3 XJ12 is somewhat a special car because it was only sold for a very short while in the USA (maybe 1979 and 1980), in pre-HE form.
I owned one for a short period of time, it was a grewsome parts car / rat graveyard. I robbed the fuel injection parts for my 75 XJ12C that was converted to run 100% on propane and which I wanted to convert back. That was probably the only series 3 XJ12 that I’ve ever seen.
For any who don’t know the story about the XJ12 Series 3, they were introduced in 1979 and continued in production to 1992, alongside the XJ40 model that was introduced in 1987, because there was still a demand or the V12 Jaguar and the XJ40 was purposely designed by Jaguar to not accept a V configuration engine. The company at the time of design was owned by British Leyland and the management wanted to use the Rover V8. The Jaguar engineers were having none of that and it was not until 1993, under Ford ownership that Jaguar was able to redesign the XJ40 platform to accept the V12, which by then was punched out to 6 liters and mated to a GM 4l80E 4 speed transmission.
I kept finding myself looking at this car so I decided to reach out to the owner and ask about it. He seemed like the typical Craigslist seller who was tired of timewasters and just asked me to come and look at it. I’ve been in his position many times and knew that if I was going to explain to him that I lived in another country, and I was going to ask him to do some work, like take pictures and answer questions. I should be serious about it. So I got serious.
We went back and forth for a couple of months as I was somewhat hamstrung by the Covid restrictions, but I kept messaging him every couple of weeks letting him know where my head was at. Finally, the restrictions lifted and as it happened, I had an upcoming trip to Seattle to visit a customer so I started to look at what it would take to import a car. I now own this car but I can’t say that I know for sure that I have the process down. More of that will come later. First thing is first. Get to Canada.
The process was somewhat nerve wracking, you had to be fully vaccinated and have a Covid test no more than 72 hours before arriving, and stick all that information in a very clunky app.
Seattle is about a 2-hour drive from the border, obviously I could not rent a car so I had to find a bus that would go up there. I gave myself plenty of time when I booked the ticket as I was due to land at 5PM and the last bus leaves at 7:30 to Blaine. My idea was to walk across the border with a suitcase and a backpack…. Yes, walk across the order.
Of course I got to the airport and the flight was delayed, they could not organize a cabin crew member so they were waiting for another to show up. If I missed this bus, it would have been a disaster. I had booked the hotel in Canada and if I missed the bus, I would have nowhere to sleep and my 72-hour Covid test would time out. Fortunately, I was able to get to the bus 5 minutes before the bus left and made it to the border station at about 11:45PM. The border guys looked at me funny but let me pass to the Canadian side and when I got there, I had about 15-minute chat with the Canadian border patrol officer who was about as nice as can be. He let through after I showed him all the paperwork and I caught an Uber to the hotel and picked up the car in the morning.
It's metallic blue with blue leather interior and in overall pretty nice shape, with very minor rust starting to show at the end caps of the rear sills.
I'm still not sure how easily I will be able to get it across the border. I will find out tomorrow. My goal is to drive it to Tacoma Washington and find a transporter to pick it up and take it to Dallas before Friday which is when I leave. I don't want to drive it the whole 1800 miles to Texas because I've only done 60KM and it's already conked out twice on me, but that's pretty good going for a Jag. I think it was old / low fuel so i filled up both tanks shortly after taking these pictures and added some Marvel mystery oil to the engine and the fuel system to help lubricate and clean the internals (it mysteriously does this).
I'll be updating shortly with a video and more pictures, once (if) I get across the border and back to stateside, and will provide details on my impression of the car, now that I own it.
Edited by alabbasi on Tuesday 17th August 05:07
Out of interest where did you pick the car up? I type this as a Brit probably sitting within an hour drive of wherever you happen to be right now.
There are all sorts of interesting vehicles here in the lower mainland (or metro vancouver area), much more so than I'm used to back home. Or maybe I just find most old British cars to be as dull as dishwater (obviously this is an old British car too but I happen to like jags).
There are all sorts of interesting vehicles here in the lower mainland (or metro vancouver area), much more so than I'm used to back home. Or maybe I just find most old British cars to be as dull as dishwater (obviously this is an old British car too but I happen to like jags).
Edited by samj2014 on Tuesday 17th August 07:20
I came in through Surrey border and picked the car up at Port Moody.
Here's a quick video blog of the journey so far: https://youtu.be/33rcArsxjLo
The next and most critical update will be the border crossing.
Here's a quick video blog of the journey so far: https://youtu.be/33rcArsxjLo
The next and most critical update will be the border crossing.
alabbasi said:
I came in through Surrey border and picked the car up at Port Moody.
Here's a quick video blog of the journey so far: https://youtu.be/33rcArsxjLo
The next and most critical update will be the border crossing.
Nice, I'm just across the water in North Vancouver. Good luck with the border crossing! I'm sure it'll be fine, more tricky might be registering it in the states.Here's a quick video blog of the journey so far: https://youtu.be/33rcArsxjLo
The next and most critical update will be the border crossing.
r129sl said:
What a great adventure, do keep the updates coming. If you were more confident in the car, I would definitely be encouraging you to drive it back to Texas.
If it was a Mercedes, I would! But making a 1800 mile shake down drive is probably not that wise and it's likely more cost effective to ship it. Fuel is super expensive on both sides of the border.Edited by alabbasi on Tuesday 17th August 07:41
So I made it on the 200 odd mile trip from Surrey BC to Tacoma WA. Aside from the fact that every gauge on the cluster is about as honest about the information they give as Arthur Daily, everything went reasonably well.
I got through the border easily enough and paid customs. The customs officer I guess didn’t believe what I paid for my car so he decided to tax me for 2.5x the amount, citing a car that sold in Germany for that much. I did not argue with him, and It’s not a big deal as the taxes were only 2-3% so it still came to a few hundred dollars, and I was in and out in about 30 minutes which was more important to me.
The car behaved itself well, only stumbling once which I suspect was because it was running low on fuel. Luckily, I hit the tank switch and was able to continue my way. The temp gauge then completely stopped working and stared reading zero. That had me concerned as that can happen when there’s no coolant in the system. But after a while, I was not too bothered given that I wasn’t seeing any steam from the engine.
I got to the hotel which is the Holiday Inn at Tacoma mall, which is in a well sketchy area, then booted my PC up and posted the transport to get it shipped to Dallas/Ft Worth. If it gets picked up by Friday. I should be in business.
Washington is a beautiful state. I did stop along the way at a lake along the way and take some pictures. The first one is of a drug store chain in Canada that I found amusing.
I got through the border easily enough and paid customs. The customs officer I guess didn’t believe what I paid for my car so he decided to tax me for 2.5x the amount, citing a car that sold in Germany for that much. I did not argue with him, and It’s not a big deal as the taxes were only 2-3% so it still came to a few hundred dollars, and I was in and out in about 30 minutes which was more important to me.
The car behaved itself well, only stumbling once which I suspect was because it was running low on fuel. Luckily, I hit the tank switch and was able to continue my way. The temp gauge then completely stopped working and stared reading zero. That had me concerned as that can happen when there’s no coolant in the system. But after a while, I was not too bothered given that I wasn’t seeing any steam from the engine.
I got to the hotel which is the Holiday Inn at Tacoma mall, which is in a well sketchy area, then booted my PC up and posted the transport to get it shipped to Dallas/Ft Worth. If it gets picked up by Friday. I should be in business.
Washington is a beautiful state. I did stop along the way at a lake along the way and take some pictures. The first one is of a drug store chain in Canada that I found amusing.
Edited by alabbasi on Wednesday 18th August 02:49
Here's a quick video of the trip, I was able to book a truck that will pick up the car today and deliver to DFW in 5-7 days. All considering, things went well.
https://youtu.be/XQVxmQ5rrKo
https://youtu.be/XQVxmQ5rrKo
Edited by alabbasi on Wednesday 18th August 23:04
The XJ12 arrived last week and i'm shaking it down, I have the following that need to be addressed.
1) Slight miss at idle once the engine warms - Not noticeable when going down the road. I can hear the injectors by putting a long screwdriver to each injectors but they could be dirty. I have an injector cleaning setup and the hoses need replacing so this is something that I'll expect to be doing before too long.
2) A/C not working - System holds a charge but there is no power to the compressor clutch. I can jump the compressor and verify that it works. Both A/C fuses are good
3) Fresh air door for center vents is closed and does not open
4) blower motor sometimes works, sometimes doesn't
5) Fuel gauge and temp gauge are super erratic
I'm most interested in the HVAC right now as the lives in Texas. It makes it hard to enjoy the car right now in the Texas heat.
Here's a video:
https://youtu.be/pvm6mhOZ2kw
1) Slight miss at idle once the engine warms - Not noticeable when going down the road. I can hear the injectors by putting a long screwdriver to each injectors but they could be dirty. I have an injector cleaning setup and the hoses need replacing so this is something that I'll expect to be doing before too long.
2) A/C not working - System holds a charge but there is no power to the compressor clutch. I can jump the compressor and verify that it works. Both A/C fuses are good
3) Fresh air door for center vents is closed and does not open
4) blower motor sometimes works, sometimes doesn't
5) Fuel gauge and temp gauge are super erratic
I'm most interested in the HVAC right now as the lives in Texas. It makes it hard to enjoy the car right now in the Texas heat.
Here's a video:
https://youtu.be/pvm6mhOZ2kw
Edited by alabbasi on Monday 30th August 16:52
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