Jaguar Mk10 or 420G
Discussion
Does anybody here have any ownership experience of these? What did you love or hate about it?
I've always liked these and the yearning isn't getting any weaker, I bet they can drink for England, wallow through the curves and fill up the road like an SUV, but for that interior I could forgive almost anything. I expect it needs an unleaded head conversion perhaps and parts are scarce?
They seem to be in the £12 - 25k zone presently so not a light hearted purchase nowadays.
Anyone?
I've always liked these and the yearning isn't getting any weaker, I bet they can drink for England, wallow through the curves and fill up the road like an SUV, but for that interior I could forgive almost anything. I expect it needs an unleaded head conversion perhaps and parts are scarce?
They seem to be in the £12 - 25k zone presently so not a light hearted purchase nowadays.
Anyone?
I've owned two but a very long time ago and I haven't driven one for many years. At the time they weren't expensive, I really enjoyed them and I've always fancied another one.
They were fast and comfortable with a sense of occasion lacking from the XJ6 that followed.
The first one I was joint owner with a friend of mine as I hadn't even passed my test. We were seventeen and at college - sitting in the back seat eating our fish and chips off the picnic tables seemed surreal then and it does now !
Back in the early 1970's it was certainly something.
You wouldn't need an unleaded conversion. Body parts will be scarce but most things mechanical will be readily available.
Because of the sheer size they're very expensive to restore, so my advice would be to buy the best you can afford. Bodywork is the main thing to look at and an interior refurbishment would also be very costly.
If in doubt pay for an expert to look at it for you.
They were fast and comfortable with a sense of occasion lacking from the XJ6 that followed.
The first one I was joint owner with a friend of mine as I hadn't even passed my test. We were seventeen and at college - sitting in the back seat eating our fish and chips off the picnic tables seemed surreal then and it does now !
Back in the early 1970's it was certainly something.
You wouldn't need an unleaded conversion. Body parts will be scarce but most things mechanical will be readily available.
Because of the sheer size they're very expensive to restore, so my advice would be to buy the best you can afford. Bodywork is the main thing to look at and an interior refurbishment would also be very costly.
If in doubt pay for an expert to look at it for you.
Thankyou both. Yes, I'm sure it's wise to find the best I can rather than save a few quid on a middling scruffy example, good advice for most old cars IMO. I can just see that fish supper being scoffed on those picnic tables! 
I'm glad to hear unleaded is fine, it will cost enough to feed as it is. I'd expect around 14 mpg and that's got to hurt. I understand the 3.8 had low and high compression engines (250 or 265 bhp) the latter being rare, not so sure the 4.2 was an improvement in any way?
I'm assuming the 420G was an improved car in various ways.
I'm glad to hear unleaded is fine, it will cost enough to feed as it is. I'd expect around 14 mpg and that's got to hurt. I understand the 3.8 had low and high compression engines (250 or 265 bhp) the latter being rare, not so sure the 4.2 was an improvement in any way?
I'm assuming the 420G was an improved car in various ways.
We bought one as a bit of fun for a friends wedding about ten years ago for £3500 - it was a 1965 car in gold with the most wonderful red leather interior with only circa 50k on the clock and was a joy to drive - MOD to boot
Vast on the road, a really wide and dominant car and an Oliver Reed thirst but huge fun and the good lady wife used to take our young children then down to the supermarket and it used to overfill the parent and child parking space.
Really wished I had kept it but garage space was a challenge and will be for most I think.
Vast on the road, a really wide and dominant car and an Oliver Reed thirst but huge fun and the good lady wife used to take our young children then down to the supermarket and it used to overfill the parent and child parking space.
Really wished I had kept it but garage space was a challenge and will be for most I think.
Next door neighbour had a Mk.X (dark blue with light blue interior) when I was a child growing up, I loved going out for rides in it, the small of that Jag interior and sliding about on those vast seats is still among my great childhood memories while listening to his stories of Packard V12's during the war. The neighbour had served 15 years in the RN, and had served all through WW2 on MTB's powered by 3 of those fabulous Packard V12 marine engines.
I had one from (my) age 21 - 30. It was a one previous owner car and I paid a thousand quid for it... okay, that was a LONG time ago! 
4.2 auto, (FJU 99C) in 'Sherwood green' with a brown leather interior. It was a lovely car A friend had a 2.8 XJ6 at the same time and even though the MK X weighed as much as a small moon, it could leave the XJ for dead. It also handled better, braked better (one of the first with the uprated brakes and a proper servo) and was an altogether more special place to be.
Rust was ( and will be even more so now) a problem and the sills went on mine quite badly as did the inner rear wheel arch tubs and the bottoms of the doors. I managed to get four brand new doors from 'Unipart' when they were selling off old stock and paid £25 for each new door. New sills (cills) were available (all sections) and I spent many a happy hour welding all new stuff into it and hand making the wheel tubs as there was nothing for them available. Finally a 'proper' respray back to the original colour and she was as good as new... also spent a small fortune on rustproofing!
Mechanically I had very little bother with it and did quite a lot of miles in her over the 9 years - about 25000 if memory recalls correctly. The AED (separate small carb on the front of the other three for starting) went wrong and there were no new spares about at the time so a scrap car was robbed of the vital bits and finally, the gearbox lost first gear, but soldiered on for another 5000 miles just using 'D2' (s second and third only), there is so much torque the loss of first was no great, loss!
It did have the occasional electrical problem (dimmer switch on the floor failed - cheap so long as it was just a generic unit, expensive if you wanted the same thing in a Jaguar box!) and fuses used to get dirty but as they are behind the middle dials and flop down forward with just two thumbwheels to undo, not really much of a hardship.
It had to have a new exhaust which is VAST and has loads of silencers and bits, getting all the correct pipes (downpipes were a hassle as one of them has a bend and I kept being supplied with two straight pipes... yes I know they are bent but I'm talking about the bottom bit where it joins the rest of the system) but a lot of the parts are the same as the Daimler DS420 which stayed in production for ages and is based on the MK 10.
I loved that car to bits but finally, wife/kids/motorcycles got in the way and it got neglected. I sold it to my stepfather who had always drooled over it and he parked it in a field and left it there after all his promises of using her again, he never did.
4.2 auto, (FJU 99C) in 'Sherwood green' with a brown leather interior. It was a lovely car A friend had a 2.8 XJ6 at the same time and even though the MK X weighed as much as a small moon, it could leave the XJ for dead. It also handled better, braked better (one of the first with the uprated brakes and a proper servo) and was an altogether more special place to be.Rust was ( and will be even more so now) a problem and the sills went on mine quite badly as did the inner rear wheel arch tubs and the bottoms of the doors. I managed to get four brand new doors from 'Unipart' when they were selling off old stock and paid £25 for each new door. New sills (cills) were available (all sections) and I spent many a happy hour welding all new stuff into it and hand making the wheel tubs as there was nothing for them available. Finally a 'proper' respray back to the original colour and she was as good as new... also spent a small fortune on rustproofing!
Mechanically I had very little bother with it and did quite a lot of miles in her over the 9 years - about 25000 if memory recalls correctly. The AED (separate small carb on the front of the other three for starting) went wrong and there were no new spares about at the time so a scrap car was robbed of the vital bits and finally, the gearbox lost first gear, but soldiered on for another 5000 miles just using 'D2' (s second and third only), there is so much torque the loss of first was no great, loss!
It did have the occasional electrical problem (dimmer switch on the floor failed - cheap so long as it was just a generic unit, expensive if you wanted the same thing in a Jaguar box!) and fuses used to get dirty but as they are behind the middle dials and flop down forward with just two thumbwheels to undo, not really much of a hardship.
It had to have a new exhaust which is VAST and has loads of silencers and bits, getting all the correct pipes (downpipes were a hassle as one of them has a bend and I kept being supplied with two straight pipes... yes I know they are bent but I'm talking about the bottom bit where it joins the rest of the system) but a lot of the parts are the same as the Daimler DS420 which stayed in production for ages and is based on the MK 10.
I loved that car to bits but finally, wife/kids/motorcycles got in the way and it got neglected. I sold it to my stepfather who had always drooled over it and he parked it in a field and left it there after all his promises of using her again, he never did.
I think many of us have stories of neighbours having one of these.
I was about 7 at the time and our neighbour had one. They ran it into the ground and offered it to my dad at a very low price in the mid 70s. By then it was rotten to the core. It couldn't even be jacked up.
The hulk of that car in its day together with the fantastic interior left an impression with me to this day.
Probably the most iconic Jaguar ever built which makes the current prices still seem like bargains.
I was about 7 at the time and our neighbour had one. They ran it into the ground and offered it to my dad at a very low price in the mid 70s. By then it was rotten to the core. It couldn't even be jacked up.
The hulk of that car in its day together with the fantastic interior left an impression with me to this day.
Probably the most iconic Jaguar ever built which makes the current prices still seem like bargains.
Love these old barges, their sheer size made an impression on me as a nipper, there was nothing else on the road quite like them. A neighbour of ours used to fix all kinds of Jags on his drive for other people in the early '70s, mostly Mk2s and very shonky looking MkIXs but for a while he looked after one of his mate's MkXs, it was a glorious thing in black with a red interior and I'm sure it had the picnic tables in the back. The owner couldn't afford to run it in the end so it became our neighbour's daily driver before he too sold it on.
Brian Epstein had a very early one, when he signed The Beatles it was one of the things which impressed Lennon enough to want to sign the contract together.
Brian Epstein had a very early one, when he signed The Beatles it was one of the things which impressed Lennon enough to want to sign the contract together.
Have you seen the 'Rust to Rome' video series of the abandoned Mk10 that was dragged from a field, mechanically and structurally rebuilt (but not cosmetically so it still looked like a shed) and fitted with a Jaguar V12, then driven to Rome, very entertaining and makes you want to go do the same lol
Sigh..
I have a love for the Mk10, you'll often see me popping up in various forums, commenting therein.
My passion comes unsurprisingly, from my late dad who bought a black 4.2 auto and then ran in with total commitment till the blessed thing ran it's bearings and the rust got hold.
Like all of us, I guess, childhood memories of towing the family caravan (all 21 ft of her!
) across Europe in the early '70's and sitting on the edge of the slippery leather rear seat peering over his shoulder as an adolescent, made me somewhat myopic in those days.- who indeed needed Play station or Grand Turisomo? I covered thousand of miles before I was legally able to drive, all in the real world, something I think that I pride myself on to this day.
Back to the MK10.
I concur with all of the above , the 4.2 was a positive improvement with better torque and brakes and the 420G was merely cosmetic albeit with a crash pad on the dash and knee wells; for sure it could lift it's skirts and fly with an alacrity that surprised many and why indeed could it?it was after all a re-bodied 150's ,MK9 , E-Type (ish)
Downsides? yes..it's bulbous and looks awkward from some angles but from others, you could caress it's flanks all day long. I do think it looks better on the 15" wheels, not the original USA market designed 14" as it lifts the belly of the car up.
Fuel consumption is a challenge although as said above- who cares when its only realistically a couple of thousand mile a year? - i have a Shadow 2 and that struggles to 16mpg- you can forgive a Jaaag for anything lol!
Rust ..oh...tell me about it..but then again you are talking about a 40-50yr old car so there's nothing unusual about it, just be careful and know what you're buying into. My biggest concern would not be the body, rather the interior- now that's where the hidden cost would be at cira £5k
There's an advertisement kicking around for the 420G used in the Krays film, I think it looks tempting.
Years and years ago I was watching an old Sweeney type film where the baddies used an XJ and under the balaclava one said the immortal line (to me..anyway..) "freedom is a warm Jag!
Go indulge yourself whilst I sit in my XJR and wish I could step into a MK10..
I have a love for the Mk10, you'll often see me popping up in various forums, commenting therein.
My passion comes unsurprisingly, from my late dad who bought a black 4.2 auto and then ran in with total commitment till the blessed thing ran it's bearings and the rust got hold.
Like all of us, I guess, childhood memories of towing the family caravan (all 21 ft of her!
) across Europe in the early '70's and sitting on the edge of the slippery leather rear seat peering over his shoulder as an adolescent, made me somewhat myopic in those days.- who indeed needed Play station or Grand Turisomo? I covered thousand of miles before I was legally able to drive, all in the real world, something I think that I pride myself on to this day.Back to the MK10.
I concur with all of the above , the 4.2 was a positive improvement with better torque and brakes and the 420G was merely cosmetic albeit with a crash pad on the dash and knee wells; for sure it could lift it's skirts and fly with an alacrity that surprised many and why indeed could it?it was after all a re-bodied 150's ,MK9 , E-Type (ish)
Downsides? yes..it's bulbous and looks awkward from some angles but from others, you could caress it's flanks all day long. I do think it looks better on the 15" wheels, not the original USA market designed 14" as it lifts the belly of the car up.
Fuel consumption is a challenge although as said above- who cares when its only realistically a couple of thousand mile a year? - i have a Shadow 2 and that struggles to 16mpg- you can forgive a Jaaag for anything lol!
Rust ..oh...tell me about it..but then again you are talking about a 40-50yr old car so there's nothing unusual about it, just be careful and know what you're buying into. My biggest concern would not be the body, rather the interior- now that's where the hidden cost would be at cira £5k
There's an advertisement kicking around for the 420G used in the Krays film, I think it looks tempting.
Years and years ago I was watching an old Sweeney type film where the baddies used an XJ and under the balaclava one said the immortal line (to me..anyway..) "freedom is a warm Jag!
Go indulge yourself whilst I sit in my XJR and wish I could step into a MK10..
My dad had a Mk10/420G briefly after one of his 420’s. the problem he found was that it had very light over assisted power steering and it was easy to lose the front end. This was before the days of variable power steering. He reckoned that he had better sell the car before he got killed, so he sold it. I think it a beautiful looking car but I would upgrade the mechanics if I could.
Carsie said:
Sigh..
I have a love for the Mk10, you'll often see me popping up in various forums, commenting therein.....
Rust ..oh...tell me about it..but then again you are talking about a 40-50yr old car so there's nothing unusual about it, just be careful and know what you're buying into. My biggest concern would not be the body, rather the interior- now that's where the hidden cost would be at cira £5k ….
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Great post - there's obviously a lot of love for these - and quite rightly. I have a love for the Mk10, you'll often see me popping up in various forums, commenting therein.....
Rust ..oh...tell me about it..but then again you are talking about a 40-50yr old car so there's nothing unusual about it, just be careful and know what you're buying into. My biggest concern would not be the body, rather the interior- now that's where the hidden cost would be at cira £5k ….
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An interior would cost a lot more than £5k , I'd suggest at least double.
That would still pale into insignificance if you bought a rotten one though. The bodywork is something that can't be ignored, whereas a shabby interior can be left alone.
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