I'm looking at purchasing a series III ('85 I'm looking at today). Any words of wisdom for an XJ6 newbie?

The car only has 70K miles and was sitting for a few years. The owner has reconditioned it to some extent (gas tank was flushed with additive but not with a phased treatment for sludge/new shocks/paint/not sure what else yet) but we shall see.

Your comments are greatly appreciated!

Submitted by jeff.bolmeyer@… on Fri, 04/22/2005 - 10:09

I recently purchased an '87 XJ6 VDP for $5,750. The interior and exterior were in beautiful condition, but like your car, mine had been driven a total of 6,000 miles over the last 10 years. Even at that, it now has 95k on the clock.

I don't work on the car my self and instead have a good local Jag mechanic. My budget for reconditioning the car mechanically is $4,000 and I'm coming in right at that amount. Ball joints, a tie rod, front and rear transmission seals, reconditioned torque converter, new cam cover gasket, complete tune up, new fan blade, fan housing, rear transmission mount and two new front transmission mounts. Change all the fluids. Recondition all the switches for windows, new headliner, convert the AC over to 134.....and I'm sure there was a few other things. New tires and new wheels.

I bought the car 4 weeks ago and get it back today, ready to roll. All in all I'll have $10k into this car which is well worth it. The car is certianly worth that much money if I want to sell it.

There is a check list on the jag-lovers site and you may wish to take that in hand and do a complete inspection on the car. Invest a couple of hundred dollars in a good Jag mechanic to go over what you can not. You can never avoid paying for maintiance on a Jag and anything you do avoid, you defer. Once you have your list of things to sort out, decide what you will offer for the car and go for it.

I'm looking forward to getting my car back today and driving it for the first time with everything sorted out.

Jaguar Jeff
'95 XJS 6.0L Conv.
'87 XJ6 VdP