Oh NO!, it's impulse purchase time.

Is this a bargain deal?

1990/1 H XJ-S 3.6 Auto,

*Good bits*

Metallic gold (not Jewish racing beige, kinda champagne colour), tan leather, A/C, ABS, Airbag, Cruise, recentish tyres, sounds sweet as a nut (especially for a '40 engine), starts first go, good oil pressure.. drives sweet as an XJ-S ever has. Headlining still attached to the ceiling. Late spec x-wire alloys.

£500 - which I can pay weekly. Buying it means I can store my Merc for free, and will have a job til it's paid for at least.

Cheap classic insewarance.

18-22ish mpg (not bad for a Jag)

*Bad bits*

Bubblicious wheel arches (it IS a Jag), centre console walnut fooked. Alloys need refurb. Handbrake not braking handily.

Needs MOT and Taxing. But if it passes the MOT it's a cheap XJ-S. I sold an

83 V12 one that was about to die within minutes for £600... and that was about to snap in half with rot. £500 - but it's buying it off my boss...

Would mean using XJ-S daily til Merc lives, meaning Merc rebuild would take mucho time due to 3.6 fuel costs.

C'mon, talk me into / out of it.

erm... if it were my money then maybe not. But as it's yours...

Buy it!!!

If it doesn't pass you could grow plants in it.

I wouldn't pay more than £50 for something without an MOT.

Dave

more fool you.

In news:dNwTb.4505$ snipped-for-privacy@news-text.cableinet.net, Theo decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

ain't that the truth, some of the best cars I've ever bought have been bought without an MOT.

Alfa - £160, one weeks MOT left on it. Passed first time, no work needed. A quick spin round the block, 2 minutes looking around it and you tend to know if you've bought a crock or not..

Then again, the Merc needs about £180 to get it through the test

Ignore the purchase price.

The purchase price is a bit like a sort of non-refundable membership fee, you pay it and then you are entitled to spend money on the Jag. That's why they're cheap, it's a bargain price for a luxury car but you're not getting a warranty and most of the many parts you will probably need are expensive, high tech bits.

Brilliant to drive, obviously, but you know that already.

If I had a spare car I could use instead I would be *sorely* tempted too, so don't feel you have to say no just because it's going to cost you money.

In news:NlyTb.15986$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net, AstraVanMan decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Well, I reckon this XJ, if it's not fooked underneath will fail on the handbrake (it's a Jag), otherwise it actually seems ok.I'll have a mooch round it tomorrow.

£95 worth of welding which was expected, but to do it right costs £95, £23 shock absorber, and a back box £60ish C'est la vie.

Don't they just let off Jags because all the Jag handbrakes are s**te? Of course, I've never heard of such a thing happening.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@nnrp-t71-02.news.uk.clara.net, Doki decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Heh, where I get my cars tested, there seems to be a common theme..

Golf - duff handbrake - passed Alfa - semi duff handbrake - passed Merc - brilliant handbrake - failed

as the Jag will have a totally pathetic handbrake, it should pass.

Hey Pete - PLEASE stop posting tomorrow.

Cinquecento crap handbrake pass too? They really are terrible.

Most italian cars seem to have crapp handbrakes. The dedra ones sieze...

/handbags at ten paces mode on/

I'll bloody stop posting right now if that's the way you're going to be about it :-)

/HATP mode off/

Nothing like a witty post ten minutes too late.

And that was nothing like a witty post (before anyone says it!).

Peter

Probably, but then maybe not. At least the seller is honest enough not to put a bent MOT on it.

Dave

In news:6tDTb.16213$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net, AstraVanMan decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

nothing like 10 minutes either..

Heh! Reminds me of one a mate of mine had - that was a 3.6XJS, and a couple of little things had gone wrong - (a) the front brakes appeared to be buggered, with a pad one side of one of the discs wearing a hell of a lot more than the other one - he suspected a seized caliper, but it turned out to only be a wheel bearing, which was £14 for the part - (b) it sprung a coolant leak - he put a new water pump on it, but it also turned out it had a slight crack in the block, which he bodged/repaired with some sort of sealant type stuff. It was a bit of a bodge, but he seemed confident it would last a reasonable length of time, but he didn't wait to find out - he got £1000 part-ex for it on a mint N plate Rover Vitesse (though it was overpriced anyway).

Peter

True. My TD Carlton Estate I bought off ebay with only 2 weeks' MOT left - bit of a gamble as I hadn't seen it, but spoke at length about it on the phone, and he'd had it for about a year, towing a burger van with it (only done 2000 miles since the last test), and the previous owner was his friend who'd had it for the previous 7 years and looked after it well. He said it was a real shed inside, and he wasn't wrong, but it needed very little to get through the MOT. It had been stolen and recovered (not claimed on though) and as a result the ignition lock had been ripped off, and the driver's door lock was missing. It had also been lightly smashed up at the front, needing both headlamp lenses replacing, and ideally the wing (and the

2 driver's side doors which had been kicked in). The tyres were only borderline, with one or two being almost definite fails, But I had two headlight units kicking about (just swapped the lenses as the bumper needs to come off to replace the whole units as they're motorised), plus a set of 4 steelies with good tyres, so on they went (it was when changing them over that I discovered that all the discs and pads were virtually new). Checked all the lights, which worked fine - only thing that didn't work well was the windscreen washers - took it down anyway, and all they failed it on was one tyre (I hadn't changed them over yet), the washers and one number plate light (intermittent - needed a good whack!). Plus £17 for a replacement ignition lock (and about half an hour chiselling away at the remains of the old one so the new one could be bolted in) and bingo, one cheap car. Rust wise it was very good, if anything slightly better than my CDX.

D'oh! What does it want doing?

Peter

I know you are somewhere in scouseland, so which garage is it? My Saab passed the handbrake, but he warned me that it took 9 clicks to lock (not that I've ever been able to get it on more than 7 clicks, it held great, on a large hill with cold discs). Saab disc handbrakes are a pig too, because the cable adjusters are a git to get at, they work on the disk so they slacken off as the disks cool, and if the cable is too tight when cold they bind when hot, and even with the auto self adjust at the calipers they always appear too slack with cold discs (like if they have been sat on the MOT ramp for an hour).

In news: snipped-for-privacy@news.cis.dfn.de, MeatballTurbo decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

That'll be telling ;-)

Tried the Jag handbrake today, and it almost works, so that should be ok. Holds it against drive at tickover anyway.

In news:7awTb.4468$ snipped-for-privacy@news-text.cableinet.net, Pete M decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Well peeps, I've taken the plunge. Bought the XJ-S..

Spent most of the day getting paid to clean it (didn't tell him I'd buy it til I saw it clean)...

Good bits - it's actually a lot cleaner than I thought, runs well, handbrake nearly works, wipers work (unusual for an XJ-S), valets up inside a treat, and it's got the late spec sports seats in.

Bad bits - passengers electric window doesn't work, screen leaks now (I dislodged the seal in my cleaning frenzy, but seak'n'seal should sort that), main beam doesn't work, horn doesn't work. Probably all fuse related I imagine, with the possible exception of the window.

Heater temp control doesn't work, but the a/c seems ok.

Could do with a couple of tyres on the back.

Goin in for an MOT maybe tomorrow.