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Comments
Is this a reliable car or a nightmare to maintain?Are there any quirks with this year? Should I look for another year instead?
My ignorance in this area is appalling!
Help!
You have to expect high maintenance costs on any complex luxury car out of warranty, be it Jag, BMW or Mercedes. How could you avoid that? I think you are asking an unanswerable question (that is, what repairs and maintenance will occur to my particular car in the future?). If you want the odds, I'd say roughly that if $150-200 a month, on average with an "average" 95 Jaguar over the course of a few years, in maintenance and repairs scares or displeases you, then buy a newer car under warranty. If you get the exceptional 95 Jaguar, it would be somewhat less, if you get a troublesome one, figure on a good deal more.
How can you tell? You can't, you just play the odds by meticulous inspection prior to sale, and rigorous maintenance by a trained technician. You set aside $2,500 for the car each year and you'll mostly likely be fine and happy.
There are a couple of '95 XJRs over there too.
And like I said, all I now about the XJR is that it's a beautiful automobile...
And I guess what everyone is telling me is that there are no obvious design flaws in the car that would classify it a lemon.
Probably the worst things about the 90s jaguars that you can say is that the car is very complex and the service probably not great....this is not a wholesome combination.
With the XJ-S, hell these things are way too much fun to drive to just leave them sitting, and as Shifty says they aren't going to appreciate.
Besides, they will spend long enough sitting in the garage when they aren't running right!!!
Yes, of course there are the "drivers" and the trailer queens. What seems ironic to me is that many of the MOST valuable cars are driven and raced these days and the mass produced ones of lesser value are locked up in garages. Maybe it's because the richer owners can afford to fix the damage? Perhaps. But I agree, risk driving the car without being reckless about it. No one takes their classic car to the cemetary with them. (Yes, I have heard of people being buried in their favorite car, which strikes me as a bit contradictory to the whole idea of having restored it in the first place. Selfishness to the bitter end maybe?
What do you think about a 1995 Jag, with 75000 miles ? General problems? Maintenance ? Reviews ?
Thanks
Best bet would be the dealer or a wrecker. Perhaps the same part from other years would fit.
RE: 169--You should read all the posts in this topic for your answer.
Their website is www.coventrywest.com - but don't be surprised if they have nothing for this particular problem.
Super condition. Any special problems with this model? I know Jags have had a history of electrical grimlins, but don't know of this particicular year.
Thanks for help
The first thing to do is to read this topic, it will give you a good idea about late 80s Jaguars. You don't say whether this is a V6 or a V12, the 6 will be more reliable, and more expensive right now - I think that is probably what you are looking at - I hope to God no one is asking $9000 for an 89 12 with 84K on the clock.
Shifty is going to be able to advise you of a good price for the US (I am in Canada) but I really think that this is way to high if this is just a regular Series III sedan. Does it have any badging that might suggest that it is worth this extra money - I would hope for Sovereign at least.
Other than that, it is an 11 year old, complicated car, with quite a few miles on it. The Jaguar can be a very rewarding car to own and drive, but it can also be extremely frustrating. You need to budget for regular repairs - I believe shifty usually says about $100 - $150 per month. Remember also that parts and labor are expensive.
Have the car thoroughly checked out, bargain hard, and set up a maintenance schedule at a qualified shop as soon as possible. This is the way to buy and enjoy an older Jag. XJ6.
is that the steering wheel shakes bad and I can feel the vibration at certain times. Then it stops. I have top of line Michelin and nothnig wrong they said with suspesion. What can I do? I test drove a 2000 model and guess what? It does the same thing. i didn't pay all this money to get a car that the steering wheel shakes at will. Please someone help
"At certain times, then it stops" What are the certain times? Over 45MPH? Taking off hard from a stop? Only on Main Street? Lots of things can cause vibration-bad tires (even new, top of the line ones can be bad), tires out of balance, warped brake rotors, bad driveshaft... the list goes on and on and on.
Basically I think you need to approach older Jaguars realistically....not pessimistically, but realistically. What does that mean exactly?
For one thing, you need to factor in unavoidable maintenance costs that befit a complicated luxury car. If say the idea of an average of $150/200 a month in maintenance and repairs bothers you, then just walk away from this type of car. This is, of course, over and above insurance, fuel, etc., which will also be substantial.
What I have observed is that the bargain price of these cars attracts bargain hunters, which is great, except that bargain hunters are not used to the heavy costs of upkeep on a car...they seem to want (don't we all) Jaguar luxury at Toyota operating costs. (Hey, I just described a Lexus!)
So if you are the nervous type, this may not be for you. If you have some connections with a good jaguar man, and aren't stepping out of your budget, you might find a good V12 that you can keep up without too much major hassle. But I guarantee that you'll find, over time, that my estimates of maintenance costs will be pretty accurate.
Again, if you are a nervous type of owner that cannot tolerate occasional failure in return for enjoying the car's good points, then don't buy one. These are not Mercedes or Lexuses--they are eccentric British machinery, with all the good and bad that implies. Just plan on an occasional "flop" of the car and a tow now and then. I have had and enjoyed a number of "termpermental" foreign cars and that's why I also own an isuzu trooper to get me around while the other cars are occasionally in the shop.
majestic with 44,000. miles. The car is pristine in and out. Does this seem like a reasonable price?
They introduced a whole new Jaguar in 88 (87 in most parts of the world) and it took a while to work the bugs out. They stayed with that body style til 1994, so if you like the looks, my suggestion is buy a newer model.
Lexus may have Toyota reliability, but it also has Toyota's less than stellar styling (They're not ugly, they're just...there.) One of the things that first attracted me to Jaguars was their drop dead gorgeous looks (except maybe the XJS, which somehow ended up looking rather Toyota-esque, in a Jaguar sort of way.)
More seriously, I find myself throwing out the usual warning about the last two cars mentioned - the 89 VDP (which may not be a 6 - a lot of VDPs were still 12s at that time) and the 90 XJ-S. They both have low mileage, which needs checking. Both of these cars had tranny mounted transducers that sent electrical impulses which were translated into speed and mileage readouts. These transducers often broke, and weren't always fixed that quickly - because when they broke the car never gained any mileage. It also drove at 0 mph all the time, but people accepted that trade off. If there is a 'hole' in the mileage recorded in the service history you may have a problem.
If the servicing in the early years was done by a Jaguar shop on either of these cars, you will have a problem - they will have put Barrs Leaks in the cooling system and you now have a partially blocked rad.
88 and 89 are not the greatest years for the sedans, though ironically 88 is one of the better years for the XJ-S - marelli ignition and ABS made a huge difference. Generally speaking the Ford influence starts to be felt significantly around 92/93 so you have a small window between then and the redesign, which as rea98d said was in 94.
In the US, the Series III sedan was offered in two formats, the XJ6 and the Vanden Plas (VDP). The XJ6 was offered from 1979 to 1987 model years and the VDP was offered from 1982 to 1987 model years. The US VDP was always outfitted with the 4.2 Liter Inline Six (as was the XJ6-hence the 6). On a rare occasion, one might be able to find a Series III XJ12; a few slipped in during 1979 and some have been imported (especially from Canada) over the years. In the US, the Series III sedan was replaced by a new model (internally known as the XJ40) for model year 1988. This car was offered with the 3.6 Liter Inline Six for model years 1988-1989 and a 4.0 Liter Inline Six (same engine, larger displacement)from 1990-1994. It was also offered with the 6.0 Liter V12 in 1994. From 1988-1994, depending on the model year, US versions of the Inline six XJ40 were known as the XJ6, Sovereign, Vanden Plas, Vanden Plas Majestic or the XJ12.
Of course, the XJ40 sedan was replaced by the X300 sedan in 1995 but I think that would be straying a bit too far from the topic of this list. Others on this list would know more about the Canadian model line-up throughout the years, I would be interested to know more, myself.
I don't know of too many differences between Canada and US other than this one - I haven't seen too many 6cyl VDPs. In the case of the XJ-S (where my knowledge is strongest), I know that all North American cars were US spec. That means that despite the fact that Canadian emissions didn't require it, all imported cars had the lower 262hp, rather than the the European 299hp. One by product was that the lowered compression ratio resulted in North American cars being rated for regular gasoline when new.
The only difference that I am aware of between the Canadian and US XJ-S was the removal of the oval headlight cover in the US to reveal the two round headlights.
To the best of my knowledge Sedans were offered with V12s here right through until 1996 - the only gap being in 1993 when Jaguar didn't offer a 12 cylinder - up to 92 was the 5.3 and 94-96 was the 6.0.
In terms of the 1992 VDP, to me $11,000 still seems high, but shifty is a better bet on US pricing. The cooling system will need a thorough flush and the rad will need rodding at a minimum if the car was Jaguar serviced.
The 6 isn't as tempramental as the 12, and by 92 build quality was improving, though still not as good as it became in the next couple of years. Other than that shifty's advice will still hold - reckon on around $150 a month for maintenance costs.
You just have to read the writing on the garage wall. If you can't put away at least a couple thousand each year to keep the car on the road, don't buy these used XJ6s. And you must also expect to definitely lose money on resale. So buy low miles, bargain fiercely, and find a car with a stack of service records as big as the Manhattan phone book. If you buy a high miles car in poor shape you will lose $10K faster than you can turn the ignition key.
If the guy doesn't know these cars inside out then you have all of the previously described probelms ahead of you, and this is still a 10 year old, very complex, car with over 100,000 miles.
The mechanic is Jaguar trained. And he reports that the car owner is a "Felix Unger"--he fixes everything properly and immediately.
The mechanic said he has done the major fault corrections on the car. For example, he replaced the head gaskets with "new and improved" ones--orig's had some sort of problem. Similarly, the rear differential has been corrected.
If all is solid with this car, how much longer is its "natural" life? I accept the $1500 to $2000 annual mntc but what is the risk of much much more? Thanks again! Mike
Any problem with the year? Any significant changes in the few years after?