Best of luck. These cars are a joy to drive. Just be ready for more $$$ over the years. I do all my own work on my XJS, but it’s my third car, I wouldn’t want to have it as a daily driver.
You could have bought a used Honda as your second car and in the long run you would save money and time. But it would be a boring drive. It’s a trade off owning these cars, but life is short…at least it will be cheaper than a BMW!
Once you get it in tune and safe to drive you will be thrilled after opening it up on the highway. 60 to 120 is almost instantaneous, or so I’ve heard.
Something of a Badge of Honor to get a speeding ticket on the freeway in a 25 year old car. Frameable item and should be displayed proudly in your garage.
Phillip
With Pacific Northwest speed limits being what they are, “Badges of Honour” are very easy to get, even with a horse and cart.
Good Evening Gentlemen,
A badge of honour it may be but given my occupation, it may be somewhat frowned upon for me to be ripping along on the roads of NE Washington State, lol.
That being said, I’m excited to tell you that the Jag has gone to a different mechanic that is charging me a reasonable amount of money, not the highway robbery quoted byy the first shop I went to. So, the jag will have the leaks fixed with brand new hoses, and the brakes will be sorted out.
I will also have him do a proper tune up and check the belts and chains. After that I am going to drive the car and enjoy it until I can work enough overtime to continue with the project.
Anyway, just a little update. Hopefully there are not those out there shaking their heads and muttering " bloody fool."
I will keep you all updated.
Cheers,
Eric
Many kettles and pots 
I bought a 1967 etype coupe DRIVER, restored to enjoy…Im ALMOST done with a complete rebuild and don’t ask how much…….
Just because…
gtjoey1314
Hi Eric, If you treat the car as your ‘hobby’ or pastime, then the initial expense to make it road worthy won’t seem too bad a little further down the line. Every decent hobby requires a little investment in ‘kit’ or materials to get it off the ground. Once the ‘must do’ work is completed your annual running expenses ( fuel aside ! ) should not really be any more than most other cars. A 6 litre V12 is obviously going to use more fuel but a lot of owners I’ve spoken to say they can average 20 - 23 MPG on a long run which drops to around 17 -19 on short journeys. My own 6 cylinder 4.0 litre is comparable for short trips but I can get as high as 28 -29 on a long steady run, but I class fuel costs as part of my hobby anyway, so I don’t really take much notice.
We run a VW Golf as our family or everyday car so my Jag is classed as purely for my entertainment, we all need a pastime or something to occupy us when we’re not working.
If I was a football fan for instance, it would cost me at least £50 to watch my team play every week, but instead I prefer to run, maintain and drive a Jaguar so it is actually quite an inexpensive hobby when you weigh it up !!
Happy motoring.
Never ever will you get close to 23mpgs with 4 gears. Maybe 17 full highway at 60. More like 11 city 14 highway
UK cars don’t have EGR systems so get better mileage than N.American cars
Can the egr be deleted. We don’t need emissions testing for cars over 25 years old
Maybe, but you would probably have to pick up a UK ECU and probably plug a lot of hoses on the 12.
Update: Hoses are fixed, back brakes are almost done. 3000 into the car so far. Going to put 1000 or 1500 into a paint job. Then gonna drive it a while.
Eric …
WOW, you just posted yesterday and already have 36 replies. Obviously a subject almost everyone has an opinion on !
There is no problem whatsoever buying an older Jaguar and taking it to a good qualified Jaguar technician every time something goes wrong (and believe me it will, over and over again) if … you’re Bill Gates ! And I’m sure even Mr. Gates knows when to cut his loses.
But if you’re a moderately talented car mechanic who’s retired or perhaps independently wealthy, or simply love spending A LOT of your free time working on your car and don’t care about spending 3 or 4 times more for for parts that a Chevy or Ford would cost, then an older Jaguar is just the car for you.
Groove, the first post was November last year
“… and then there’s the cost of” … “what” … “last year’s post” … “NEVER MIND”
Way to go Snoopy. 4500 into it and there’s probably another 100,000 miles left in it.