Wednesday 27th March 2013

Jaguar XKR: You Know You Want To

A supercharged Jaguar cabrio for five grand seems too good to pass up

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Our buying guide on the X100 Jaguar XK revealed plenty of love among the PH collective for Jag’s first V8-powered GT. While it’s never been the sharpest driving tool in the box, the X100 has a firm fanbase that appreciates its plush interior, grunty V8 powerplant and svelte looks – well, with the possible exception of a slightly lumpy behind. And endowed with a supercharger, in XKR form, the X100 becomes a seriously quick, and very appealing, proposition.

XKR droptop still looks the part

Which is why this ad caught our eye. It’s for an early XKR convertible, finished in an agreeable colour combination of British Racing Green over Oatmeal leather. It’s a trad look, undeniably, but a handsome one, and it neatly disguises the rather useful 375hp grunt of the 4.0-litre V8 lurking under the bonnet. That was enough to see it to 60mph in 5.1 seconds and on top an electronically-governed maximum of 155mph back in the day. And it’s going for an exceedingly reasonable £5,000.

That’s really not a lot of money considering the next-cheapest is just shy of £8,000. There are a couple of good reasons for the bargain price, though, chief of which is mileage. While below the 10,000-per-year average – just – it’s still the highest-mileage XK in our classifieds at the time of writing, with 138,000 on the clock. That, together with the presence of a Parrot Bluetooth kit, suggest much of that figure has been racked up by stress-free motorway cruising. In other words, the legginess might not be too great an issue, but it is worth considering.

'Classic' interior in Oatmeal works with BRG

The other reason for that price could be its location. The car’s in County Clare, which is the other side of Ireland, and while that’s no problem if you’re based over that way, it is a bit of a hassle if you’re here in the UK. The car was originally a UK car, but has since been exported, so you’ll have the additional hassle of returning it to British plates if you do want to bring it back.

There’s no mention of history – not uncommon, but it’s worth making sure that it has the documentation you’d wish for before making the trip. It has, however, had the timing chain and tensioners replaced, with the latter upgraded to the steel items you want and need for any sort of peace of mind with this engine. That suggests the owner’s taken care over it, though the fact that it needed head gaskets in the first place, and the recent radiator replacement, should sound a note of caution, as together they could suggest an overheating issue.

Perfect for summer fun? Maybe...

But with those caveats aside, the pictures suggest a clean, straight example with a few desirable options, like the Harman Kardon audio upgrade, the ‘Classic’ interior package that gave lighter wood and dash plastics, the split wood/leather steering wheel rim, and cruise control. And at this price, even setting a couple of grand aside for any potential borkage, it still represents a huge saving over the going rate. Sensible buying advice? Not really. But it’s about as close as you’ll get from us…

Not your cup of tea? Fancy something a bit more focussed? Stay tuned to PH for news on a very special new Jaguar that's just been unveiled in New York which should scratch that itch, coming imminently...

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JAGUAR XKR
Price: £5,000
Why you should: It's a supercharged soft top with class and character for peanuts!
Why you shouldn't: It's done some miles, it's a long way away, and a question mark remains over its cooling system

See the original ad here.

[pSyCoSiS]

What a machine!

Supercharged growl for so little money.

However, I would prefer the off-white leather with the black wood trim

[Irish]

Shannon Airport is in Clare so a short hop on a RyanAir flight. Irish cars tend to not have much in the way of service. Everyone, knows someone who may not be a main dealer or specialist. The Irish NCT (MOT) is much stricter than over here - cover more and you have to go to designated test centres who are incentivised to find fault and can't fix on site!

Edited by Irish on Tuesday 26th March 15:37

[Itsallicanafford]

...coupe for me, if only they did a manual, one of these stripped and caged on the track would look fantastic...

[tomoleeds]

ne thing to bear in mind,in Ireland do hpi checks still not cover accident damage,ie a insurance write off.
I sold a porche Boxster ,4 years old to a guy in Ireland that was damaged repaired, cat c, he told me when its registered on Irish plates it would go up in value,as the Irish hpi check only covers finance

[MissChief]

Itsallicanafford said:

...coupe for me, if only they did a manual, one of these stripped and caged on the track would look fantastic...

Personally I would think doing that to something like this would be sacrilege. Always liked these as well.

[Contigo]

Nice motor but just a bit dated now. They haven't aged particularly well have they?

[monthefish]

Didn't you (PH) try to convince us to buy an X100 a week or so ago?

Contigo said:

Nice motor but just a bit dated now. They haven't aged particularly well have they?

I think they've aged fantastically well.

[Scrof]

monthefish said:

Didn't you (PH) try to convince us to buy an X100 a week or so ago?

Yep. And you didn't, did you? So we had to try again...

[monthefish]

[Irish]

tomoleeds said:

ne thing to bear in mind,in Ireland do hpi checks still not cover accident damage,ie a insurance write off.
I sold a porche Boxster ,4 years old to a guy in Ireland that was damaged repaired, cat c, he told me when its registered on Irish plates it would go up in value,as the Irish hpi check only covers finance

Nope, Irish car check cover Irish and UK write-offs.

[JayEll]

lot of car for the money, that can't be argued.
aged well? IMO they started off ugly, and they're still ugly now

[Contigo]

JayEll said:

lot of car for the money, that can't be argued.
aged well? IMO they started off ugly, and they're still ugly now

There is that!

[k-ink]

As per the other threads, the XK / XKR sit in no mans land. Far too long and heavy to be a sporting drive. Yet far too small inside to be any more use than an MX5. I'm 5'11" and the front seats actually touch the rear seats, leaving zero room. Ideally they should have made it 2.5 foot shorter, therefore saving half a ton, making it better looking and sold it as a sportier car. Or made it spacious enough inside to fit a human in the back. As it stands it is neither one thng nor another. Good looking ornament though.

[monthefish]

JayEll said:

aged well? IMO they started off ugly, and they're still ugly now

As opposed to an X3 and X1 you mean?

[rtz62]

Agree with k-ink
It's like an inverse TARDIS; big on the outside, teeny-weeny interior - how DO they manage to do that?

[IanMorewood]

Good job I havent got £5k in the bank right now or that may well have been bought, and given my recent increase in millage thats probably not a good idea either going for 3 times more engine.

[carinaman]

I hope CAR don't mind. I don't have a scanner.

But MissChief's post reminded me of this article from CAR Magazine June 1998. The photo shows a green leather streering wheel that looks so good to me. The article mentions soft limiters that may show 170MPH or some such.

I'm not sure I've got over the one that was parked in the business park en route to work in the time as it appeared to have so much fresh air under the wheels. It was like I could have stopped, got out of my car and limbo danced under it. The curve of the cills seems to give the impression that it was very high up on the wheels. Possibly useful if you bump up kerbs or used rutted lanes.

I was more sorely tempted by a silver XK Coupe showing about 146K with LPG for £3495. The leather seats looked great.

[Christian85]

monthefish said:

JayEll said:

aged well? IMO they started off ugly, and they're still ugly now

As opposed to an X3 and X1 you mean?

Great shout. I wouldn't be talking about fugly cars if I owned both mentioned above..

[JayEll]

Christian85 said:

Great shout. I wouldn't be talking about fugly cars if I owned both mentioned above..

i did say "IMO" .. each to their own. and yes, i think the X3 "IMO" is a much better looking machine. however, i'm not buying the X3 for looks, but because the wife wants it and it's practical. if i were buying a GT, it wouldn't be the old XK

[carinaman]

Alex wrote 'While it’s never been the sharpest driving tool in the box, the X100 has a firm fanbase that appreciates its plush interior, grunty V8 powerplant and svelte looks – well, with the possible exception of a slightly lumpy behind.'

A bit like Garlick's TT thread? All those features and wantness for so little?