I have a 1995 Jaguar XJS convertible. This car has the 6 cylinder motor and is bright red in color. It has approximately 65000 miles and all the various features that a car of his caliber comes with. It has one noticeable feature that is rare amongst these cars, which is a sporty manual transmission. This transmission is original from factory and no aftermarket modifications have been made. Jaguar owners have told me that this is a rare find, but IÆm not sure how much of a rarity it is. If any jaguar collector or enthusiast can give me more insight on the uniqueness of this car, IÆll be very thankful, seeing that IÆm reluctantly considering parting with it.

Submitted by arsenaultd@ear… on Sat, 11/22/2003 - 22:14

I think there are around 100 manual shift XJS of that vintage in the US. It is a very small number. That said, they dont sell for any more than any other XJS unless you find a collector willing to pay.

I saw a 1993 XJS coupe with factory manual shift on ebay a year back, it had only 12,000 miles on it, was absolutely perfect in every way. I think it brought $16,000. I kicked myself. It might be worth very little now, but even money says its worth a bucketload in 30 years.

Daniel Arsenault
Lakewood, CA
1994 XJ12 Morocco Red

Submitted by NE52-32043 on Mon, 11/17/2003 - 10:41

Nate,

Assuming that the manual transmission is, in fact, original, and it is a left hand drive car, it is fairly rare. As I understand it, very few XJS's made it to the US with manual transmissions. I don't have the numbers, but I'm sure they are available in one of the Jaguar books out there. Apparently, it is not so rare in England, where many of the cars, especially the 6 cyl., came with manual tranny.

Even if it is rare here in the US, I don't know that it will translate into a big money gain for you if you go to sell it. First, most luxury car buyers prefer an automatic. It would only be of interest to certain of us car nuts who would rather work the gears. In the American car market generally, manual transmission cars fetch less than automatics. But you might get lucky and find an enthusiast who would be interested in it for the stick shift.

Steve Weinstein
'72 E-type 2+2
'70 XKE FHC