I used to run an '89 3.6 Sovereign that was lovely, but an electrical nightmare and it cost me a bloody fortune to keep on the road. Having run various big Citroens, Fords & Rovers, none of which have come close to the Jag, I'm now contemplating a 2.9 XJ6. At my budget (sub £600), another Sovereign would be a potential millstone however I'm hoping the relative simplicity of the XJ6 (less gadgets) means I can get a reasonable one for the money.
Questions:
Are there massive differences in the performance of the 2.9's and the 3.6's? Is an XJ6 worth the bother or is another Sov the answer?
Darrell, One of the Jags I run in my family is a 3.6 '88 XJ40. It is the same car as your '89 XJ40. I now have over 200,000 miles on it and it is rather trouble-free. As much as a 17 year old car can be trouble-free. The thing is --- I do all the work on it myself. The XJ40 has quite a lot of electrical problems that take a lot of time and effort to resolve. If I lived in the UK like you do and had to pass OT -- I would stay as far away from an XJ40 as I could. Since I live in a State that now does not even inspect motorcars that are pre - 1970 and does not do emissions on anything prior to 1995, I have no problem running the XJ40. The car has an lot of electrical "ghosts" in it. For example, the "bulb out" warning will come on and it will fast flash on the dash. You take a look at the actual operating blinker and all is working fine. These are things you have to take in stride with these cars. A little cleaning on the bulb socket and the warning goes away. I have now gotten the car to the point that there are NO warnings on the dash at all. Unless of course you start the car and drive before the brake assist pressure comes up. Then the anti-lock warning will come on. The ABS still works -- but the warning comes on!!
On any Jag, unless you plan to do the work yourself, plan to spend a lot of money!! I think that probably goes for the 2.9 as well as the 3.6.
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