Daily Drivers

[Hooli]

I'm getting rather tempted by the thought of a proper Jag as a daily driver which will get used occasionally. That might make more sense if I said only car but I tend to travel by motorbike everywhere so the car will be a toy.

I fancy what looks to me as the last real Jags, this sort of thing http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jaguar-XJ12-5-3-Sovereig... but a six-pot to make fuel a bit more sensible. That example is the shape I like best, is the advert right that I'm looking for a Series three XJ?

Can that age of car take LPG & do many get converted as obviously an already done one would be better. Any other comments would be welcome even if it's 'dont'.

[Simpo Two]

Series 3 is the one, yes. But if you're only going to use it occasionally then fuel costs shouldn't be an issue, and an LPG conversion will cost ££, and also spoil a classic car...

[Hooli]

I doubt I'd bother to convert one, I was just wondering if there are many out there done as I'll be running it on a budget.

[pete5570]

The series 3 is a lovely car, but it's not the last of the "real" Jaguars. Another great daily driver would e the X300, still has the 6 pot and is a proper Jag, You could get a very tidy Sovereign for under 1500 pounds. I had one for a year and regret letting it go.

[Simpo Two]

pete5570 said:

The series 3 is a lovely car, but it's not the last of the "real" Jaguars. Another great daily driver would e the X300, still has the 6 pot and is a proper Jag, You could get a very tidy Sovereign for under 1500 pounds. I had one for a year and regret letting it go.

I *think* it was the last designed while Sir William Lyons was at the company.

Having said that, I had a 1990 XJ40 Sovereign and loved it.

[Hooli]

pete5570 said:

The series 3 is a lovely car, but it's not the last of the "real" Jaguars. Another great daily driver would e the X300, still has the 6 pot and is a proper Jag, You could get a very tidy Sovereign for under 1500 pounds. I had one for a year and regret letting it go.

I might well go that way due to costs, I was thinking of spending a similar amount on an old smoker. It's just the series three is the last Jag that looks right to me, I much prefer it to the X300.

[jas xjr]

I had a series three sov. And I loved. Spent a long time looking for a late v12 but never found one.
I have an x308 now but much prefer the series 3
Good luck

[AmitG]

Simpo Two said:

I *think* it was the last designed while Sir William Lyons was at the company.

Yep, I think the series 3 and XJC were the last cars that were either designed under him or significantly influenced by him. XJ-S was the first "post Lyons" design, and XJ40 the first post-Lyons saloon.

[jas xjr]

AmitG said:

Yep, I think the series 3 and XJC were the last cars that were either designed under him or significantly influenced by him. XJ-S was the first "post Lyons" design, and XJ40 the first post-Lyons saloon.

The xjs predates the series three unless I am very mistaken

[jagnet]

AmitG said:

Yep, I think the series 3 and XJC were the last cars that were either designed under him or significantly influenced by him. XJ-S was the first "post Lyons" design, and XJ40 the first post-Lyons saloon.

Whilst the XJ-S was launched after Sir William Lyons' retirement he still had input into it during the design phase. According to "Jaguar, The Engineering Story" by Jeff Daniels:

Jeff Daniels said:

The actual design of the XJ-S has been questioned at length, yet it was the last Jaguar into which Sir William Lyons had any significant styling input, and also the last one to profit from Malcolm Sayers' aerodynamic expertise.

The Series 3 was launched in 1979, some seven years after Sir William's retirement.

[dbdb]

jagnet said:

AmitG said:

Yep, I think the series 3 and XJC were the last cars that were either designed under him or significantly influenced by him. XJ-S was the first "post Lyons" design, and XJ40 the first post-Lyons saloon.

Whilst the XJ-S was launched after Sir William Lyons' retirement he still had input into it during the design phase. According to "Jaguar, The Engineering Story" by Jeff Daniels:

This is also true of the XJ40 - though he was retired, Sir William Lyons also had input into the XJ40 in the design phase. Here he is with one, photographed at Wappenbury. The XJ40 endured an incredible 14 year gestation.

[pete5570]

As daily drivers go, the XJ40 is ideal, as long as you can find a minter and they still turn up on Auto trader etc for under a grand, like the X300, they still have that proper Jaguar feel about them, especially in sovereign spec.

[richw_82]

A series 3 does well as a daily driver.

I'm running a 3.4 series 3 every day and its been pretty well behaved for the last year or so. I was running a series 1 before that on similar duties. The series 1 was a little less user friendly in modern traffic (but not much).

If you get an XJ6 and maintain it properly it will serve you well. The 4.2 injection cars are better on fuel than a 3.4, and have more power. The V12's can compare to the 4.2 on motorways, but suffer around town.

In truth though... if you're planning on running a series 3 every day, you're not doing it for economy anyway, you're doing it because you like the car.

[deeen]

jas xjr said:

AmitG said:

Yep, I think the series 3 and XJC were the last cars that were either designed under him or significantly influenced by him. XJ-S was the first "post Lyons" design, and XJ40 the first post-Lyons saloon.

The xjs predates the series three unless I am very mistaken

I always thought the Series 2 was the last pure Lyons design, then it was updated by an outside styling house to make the Series 3?

Happy to be corrrected if wrong!

[Jaguar steve]

deeen said:

jas xjr said:

AmitG said:

Yep, I think the series 3 and XJC were the last cars that were either designed under him or significantly influenced by him. XJ-S was the first "post Lyons" design, and XJ40 the first post-Lyons saloon.

The xjs predates the series three unless I am very mistaken

I always thought the Series 2 was the last pure Lyons design, then it was updated by an outside styling house to make the Series 3?

Happy to be corrrected if wrong!

No you're quite right. Jaguar had Pinnfarina (sp?) of Italy restyle the Series three in 1979 as a stop gap because the XJ40 was nowhere near ready for launch. With the quality improvements introduced by John Egan through the very early '80s it went on to be a best seller with over 100000 cars sold up to 1984 with 3.4 and 4.2 six cylinder engines and stayed in production as a low volume V12 only model to 1991. The XJ40 was originally available with 2.9 and 3.6 engines on launch in 1984 and the whole range was improved in 1990 with return to analouge instruments and introduction of 3.2 and 4.0 engines. Jaguar introduced a 6.0 V12 option toward the end of the model run which finished on the introduction of the X300 in 1994

[richw_82]

I read somewhere that every XJ6 had a buyer, right up to the end. If that's true, it was quite a feat as even the last few E-types were hard to sell.

[Simpo Two]

Jaguar steve said:

went on to be a best seller with over 100000 cars sold up to 1984

Blimey, is that right or did you add an extra '0'?

[mph]

pete5570 said:

The series 3 is a lovely car, but it's not the last of the "real" Jaguars. Another great daily driver would e the X300, still has the 6 pot and is a proper Jag, You could get a very tidy Sovereign for under 1500 pounds. I had one for a year and regret letting it go.

The X300 is a great car, I've owned two.

"Real" Jaguars I suppose could be defined as those in which the original design/engineering team were involved and the S3 probably was that car along with the XJS.

Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things.

For me anything that doesn't have the XK or the V12 engine doesn't qualify for "Real" status, but that's a bit tongue in cheek and I've owned and enjoyed much later cars.

For a budget daily driver I'd go for a later car.

[Jaguar steve]

Simpo Two said:

Jaguar steve said:

went on to be a best seller with over 100000 cars sold up to 1984

Blimey, is that right or did you add an extra '0'?

Yup. Jaguar went from a company on it's knees with a dire reputation for appauling build quality, reliability and industrial relations in the mid 1970's to a oversubscribed share issue on privatisation just a decade later. All due to improved build quality, inteligent and capable managment and a favourable dollar/sterling exchange rate which is crucial for exports as the US has always been the main Jaguar market.

IIRC somthing like 95000 Series 3 cars were 4.2 variants and the remainder were 3.4s.

[a8hex]

mph said:

The X300 is a great car, I've owned two.

"Real" Jaguars I suppose could be defined as those in which the original design/engineering team were involved and the S3 probably was that car along with the XJS.

Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things.

For me anything that doesn't have the XK or the V12 engine doesn't qualify for "Real" status, but that's a bit tongue in cheek and I've owned and enjoyed much later cars.

For a budget daily driver I'd go for a later car.

I'm happy to extend the term "real" to also encompass the AJ6/16 engines, but did you know, some bounder has put engines made of groups of only 4 cylinders into our cars these days. How very common. Sir William realised years before he was even truly sir rather than just Sir that groups of 4 cylinders were just not acceptable for a Jaguar. While doubling these up helps a little, it still doesn't resolve the inherent unsuitability of the format. Cylinders need to be arrayed in lines of 6 damn it!

mutter mutter mutter,
then they wonder why they have problems with their time chain tensioners!
mutter mutter mutter