Smokey Jags are back!

Andrew Elphick 

Jaguar XJ Sport
Jaguar XJ Sport

We were wrong – Scrappage didn’t wipe out the smokey Jaguar. Trainee Publicans across the nation rejoice! 

Admittedly sub-£1000 bangers are getting thin on the ground today, but gems like this Jaguar XJ still appear every now and then. What’s not to like? Nine months’ MoT, XKR alloy wheels (and, rather strangely, two of the correct alloys in a metre square ballast bag on the back seat…), the Irish cherished registration and no real major body damage. Okay, so it was last washed using a scourer, but what do you expect for £800 or near offer? 

With £700 in crumpled £50 notes and RAC stored as Speed Dial 1 in your mobile the world is your oyster… 

Unfortunately, the wedding ring I own precluded me from making the fateful call. I never got the chance to squeeze the keys and watch most of the central door locking motors release as I stickily shuffled into the gummy leather and wondered just why the previous owner had grasped the wheel while eating a kebab. 

Hopefully, as I slowly opened each eye maybe the instruments would only show one or two warning lights; the unimportant ones – low washer fluid, ABS failure, that little engine one with the exclamation mark on it. Then the moment of truth – IGNITION! Followed by ‘popping’ the bonnet to get the jump leads on (of course, trying to go direct to the battery via the boot lid that was ‘working earlier’ is just foolish). 

Nope, I never did discover whether this once proud feline pulled like a Carthorse or a three-pot Corsa, but go on, give the number a ring and leave me a reply about how you got on. 

Jaguar XJ Sport
Jaguar XJ Sport
Keith Adams

7 Comments

  1. I’m on my third X300 in the space of two years – commuting about 1,500 miles a month. Avoid the 3.2, which is slower AND thirstier than the 4 litre, find a good independent specialist who understands their quirks and has the diagnostics then try not to feel too smug about not buying some grotty little rotbox for the same money. T.T.

  2. The X300-generation XJ6 (and also the later X308 range) is, without doubt, one of the best-looking executive Jaguars ever produced. It’s a shame they have reached near banger money status.

  3. Nice write ups. I think that, given the choice, I’d go for the 20 year old Lexus above rather than the 13 year old Jag in this article!

  4. @David 3500
    I disagree, it was a dreadful facelift of the XJ40 – while the XJ40 grew on me, the X300/308 never has and looks like a squashed SIII from the front.

    The best looking Jaguar saloon of all time has to be either the S1 XJ or the SIII XJ -there are no questions or doubts, it’s one of those two.

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