Jaguar XK8 - General Advice

[KenJ]

Hi all,

I'm posting this on behalf of my father. He is looking to buy a Jaguar XK8 convertible as a second car for high days and holidays. He has a budget of up to £12k.

He wants one of the first shape XK8's and as he's not interested in outright speed he doesn't want the XKR. Basically we're after any buying advice:

- What should we look out for when buying one?
- What are the common problems?
- Is rust an issue and if so, where?
- Is up to £12k a reasonable budget for what he wants?
- What are they like to own and drive?
- What are servicing and maintenance costs like?
- Is it worth paying a premium to buy from a specialist?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Jon

[anonymous-user]

£12k is a good budget for one of these, you should be able to look at the 4.2 litre cars. Don't confuse what they are advertised for and what they sell for when shopping, there are a lot of dreamers asking £1000s more than they'll ever sell for. The 4.2 gets the better and 6 speed gearbox and has all of the various maladies that the 4.0 suffers from corrected from the factory.

Lots of buyers guides out there for these and for the XJ8 of the same era - they use the same running gear. I gather rust is beginning to be a problem, I'd expect none on a £12k car but in particular areas around the transmission tunnel and footwells are known to be troublesome I believe. You'll want to get a look underneath, or get someone in the know to get a look underneath.

Do you know of any local Jaguar independents? You don't want to be going to the dealer if you can help it, they are expensive and from my experience pretty hopeless at best and outright robbers at worst.