‘My dad’s new car (now I’ve tested it)’
Danny helps his dad out by blatting around in a Jag
Danny Hopkins
On a mission from my dad, I was sent out into the car buying world to spend his money and purchase a new (old) Jaguar. Dad loves Jaguar saloons and having now owned an XJ40 and an X300 Daimler, he wanted to explore the delights of the next in the series – the X350. The only stipulation was it had to be a V8 and cost under £10k.
I set sail onto the interweb and started lining up my prey. There are lots of cheapish dealer cars out there and my first experience saw me wobbling around in a high mileage 3.5-litre. It had a full service history but stunk of cigarettes and felt like it had been used hard. Suddenly £4995 looked steep.
I had a go in a Japanese import, high spec, low mileage: but jumped out and baulked at the £8995 asking price. Then I went to the Spring Autojumble at Beaulieu and had a cheeky low bid on a local car in Lymington. I only went and won it. £3350 for a Jaguar XJ8 3.55 V8 SE described as being ‘In great condition. MOT until November 2017. Good service history with 10 stamps. Drives wonderfully – engine is strong, air suspension in good working order.’ I gave dad the good news and went to collect.
My slight disappointment to find the seller hadn’t mentioned the non-working air-conditioning, the corrosion along the front lip of the bootlid and the leaking coolant union in the V, was accompanied by a polite request for a £500 reduction in price – or no deal. This was accepted and I drove away with a 112k mile cat for under £3k. I doubt you can buy more luxury for less.
Other than the obvious omissions that I picked up when I collected it, the car’s ‘new’ battery is not very good at keeping charge (it was left for a long period and went flat – resulting in electric death) and there is a puncture repair that causes drumming at 70mph. Annoying.
Pat from classic air-con specialist Fenair (fenair. co.uk) came and sorted the air-con (two O–ring unions needed replacing) and again, dazzled me with his expertise. I am becoming an air-con nerd thanks to this man. I’ll get everything else sorted before dad picks it up. That’s if I let him have it… I’ve put on around 1500 ‘test’ miles because, you know, I’m generous like that. It has a neat trick, too – it feels classic. I can sense the bloodline from the previous XJS, but it has all the trappings of a contemporary motor. Testing will continue for a bit… hmm.