Wow … was just reading some notes about the XJS model on a local vendor’s website here who sells a lot of used Jag parts … He mentions this, and I never knew/noticed that fact before. 
Any idea why Jag “abstained” in '81?
From Wikipedia;
From July 1981, the XJ-S was renamed the XJ-S HE and received the new High-Efficiency V12 engine for much better fuel economy. With the Fire Ball combustion chamber designed by Swiss Engineer Michael May, power output was increased as a by-product to 220 kW (295 hp) or 196 kW (263 hp) in North America.[9] At the same time, the XJ-S HE received changes to its exterior and interior (body-coloured boot trim in place of the standard previous black, new five-spoke (starfish) alloy wheels, chrome inserts on the upper part of the bumpers, burled elm inserts on dashboard and door
Remember, MY has a different meaning in the US than in the UK. In the US, a MY is largely designated by the manufacturer but the car must be made between January 2 of the previous year and December 31 of the MY in question – meaning they can actually build a MY for just short of 24 months if they choose. In the UK, the MY is the year the car was sold – which means a car constructed in 1982 and sits on the lot for three years before anyone buys the pig magically becomes a 1985.
There was a MY of XJ12 that got sold for several years IIRC, still using the 5.3 when the XJ-S had moved on to the 6.0.
In the UK the most used age designation is based on the date of registration. In 1981 the registration year started on the 1st August and designated by a single letter code in the number plate. Since 1999, instead of MY the calendar is divided into 6 month chunks split on 1st September and 1st March. Your registration plate will have it coded into the two digit number NN as part of AANNAAA format.
Usually you will buy a new car and it will be registered when you receive it from the dealer. The sale date may be months before if there is a long lead time for delivery. There is also the case of dealers pre-registering cars before sale to fiddle their numbers, these then sit around supposedly as demonstrators until a buyer is found.
For anyone who has to work on a car the important date is when it was manufactured. My Alfa was built in 1968, but not registered until 1969, so those registration plate look up systems don’t always find the correct part. For Jaguar, the VIN is the key identifier, most part numbers are associated with a range of VIN identifiers that will tell you what vehicle it fits. This slips over time as parts are superseded, but it is the most reliable method to go by.
Specifically for 1981, the factory produced 1,292 XJS Coupes. Road & Track tested one in May 1981, so they certainly look to have been available in the US at that time. Not sure why your local vendor is confused over this.
I have that road test !
It’s a pre-HE model and the text of the article states “…there is no 1981 model year…” and implies that the test car was taken from an existing supply of 1980-certified cars. I suspect that the car, when it eventually was sold, was titled as a ‘1980’ model year.
Things get weird when it come to Jaguar and USA model year designations. Sometimes, I think, this was a matter of working around year-by-year changes in Federal safety and emissions requirements. In other cases, perhaps marketing considerations.
I (perhaps incorrectly) recall that there was another “missing year” for the XJS. Maybe 1991, and only involved cars sent to California? Something like that; the details escape me.
My XJS was built in Feb 1987 but was known as a ‘1988’ car and carried a ‘1988’ VIN identifier. Elsewhere in the world it would be known as a ‘1987’ car.
Adding to the confusion is that Jaguar documents quote production numbers by calendar year. If you’re accustomed to production figures being broken down by model year (as Americans are) it can throw you for a loop!
Cheers
DD
Kinda like no 1983 Corvettes…
1 Like
Right!
If you bought a new Corvette in calendar year 1983 it was either a (old style) 1982 MY car or a (new-style) 1984 MY car.
Cheers
DD
1991 was the introduction of the facelift model. Perhaps they did the same thing as for the HE introduction in the 1981 “missing” year. Pre-facelift were up to MY 1990, then facelift cars were sold in 1991 designated as MY 1992. Seems an odd way to do things. But our number encoding of 6 monthly periods into 2 digits could also be pointed to as being strange. The six month thing is only there by insistence of the motor trade so they can push new sales with the promise of the proud owner having the latest registration date on their street.
The rule-of-thumb in American automobile marketing is that a significant design change should coincide with a model year change. There are exceptions but in the grand scheme of things that the norm.
I’m nearly positive that we’d find that, in the USA, the early HE XJSs all carried a 1982 VIN identifier (even if built in 1981) and all early face lift models carried a 1992 VIN identifier (even if built in 1991).
Cheers
DD
The data plate on my car records it as being built in November, 1990, and meeting federal specifications for model year 1991. So it’s one of the last “pre-facelifts”, and when buying parts, I go by VIN.
Warning - a tall story (but I have seen the pictures):
I heard of someone in Singapore with a 1989, pre-facelift XJR-S, but he really wanted a facelift car. Import duties and taxes for new cars were huge so he decided to send his car back to Jaguar to be updated to facelift specification 
. Sure enough a 1993 facelift XJR-S was returned, same VIN as before, and no duty to pay. The guy who bought it from him cannot now use that VIN to reliably buy parts, so he “borrows” the one from my 1992 XJR-S. Obviously there is no way that you can update a pre-facelift car in this way, at some stage there was a switch made between two cars. I’ve no idea if the original car really did get sent back to the UK, there’s no easy way of checking without a registration number.
Most of the time missing model years have to do with significant design change and assembly down time to implement those changes, but I don’t think that the HE or facelift changes would warrant long shut down. More often US Federal emissions or safety requirements that usually become effective on January 1 of a given year would affect a lower volume manufacturer like Jaguar; and they would continue current year production until year end- then label the vehicle that meets the new requirements as the next year, actually building it unchanged for a year and a half.
Probably why your February 87 built car is labeled as an ‘88- the year passive restraints became a requirement in the US.
