Thanks for all of the great info

Hello everyone.

I am a newbie and I dont own a Jaguar, but I want to thank you all for the great information on this site, and potentially from making a big mistake. Let me explain.

Several days ago, I went to a fellows house to look at a classic car he is selling. In his garage, along with the car I was interested in, sat a 1983 XJ-S.

It is bright red, has the V12, full European ground effects and 52k miles. I could not find a spec of rust on it anywhere and the interior is flawless. The engine compartment looks like it has never been cleaned or tampered with, and looks like a car with 52k miles would expect to look.The car is literally gorgeous, and I instantly fell in love. He said that he may sell it, and I instantly got the fever, so I started to look for forums, and stumbled upon Jag-Lovers. I’ve owned a few classic cars, but have never had a foreign vehicle let alone an exotic V12, which I’ve only been able to dream about

After reading many posts over the last few days, I’ve reluctantly decided not to pursue the deal. Why? Because I feel, unfortunately, that it would be a mistake both for me and the car. I’m not very mechanically inclined, and dont have a maintenance budget to speak of, both of which seem to be a pretty important requirement. The car has been garaged for many years, and would require a complete going over by a qualified and knowledgeable mechanic to avoid any potentially harmful issues, but I live in a small town in a very rural area, so finding someone like that locally would be next to impossible. Dont get me wrong, there are some good reputable mechanics in the area but probably none of them have even seen a Jaguar, let alone know how to fix one, especially a 30+ year old XJS with a V12.

If I bought the car, the only use it would get would be to take it on short trips to local car cruises in the summer months and the occasional trip to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. From what I have read, the car would not do well in that type of environment. Finally, the owner bought the car used, and didnt get any type of maintenance history, once again, another important issue.

Forums like this provide so much useful information and not only are they a wonderful resource for owners of specific vehicles, but they can serve to help people like me by helping us to avoid a potentially costly and heartbreaking mistake.

Thank you all for the wonderful information that you so readily share. I will contact the seller again and tell him that I am not interested, but I will also also tell him about this site and encourage him to offer the car here if he ultimately decides to sell it.I will not provide his contact information because I would not want that to happen to me if the roles were reversed.

You sound like a very wise man. These cars are often worked on more than they are driven and my personnel cost per mile may exceed a that of a Boing 747. Glad this forum enlightened you to the trials and tribulations of owning a XJ-S.