2020-08-10 09:10:34 | pauls writes:

Ebay item 8/10/20
www.ebay.com/itm/1990-Jaguar-XJS/224112301655
Opening bid $1,900, no reserve, no bids 6 days left in auction, seller stormdesign86, 135k miles.

Seller's description:
I purchased this car a couple months ago as I was looking for a driving JXS, I have recently purchased another XJS that better suites what I’m looking for. That is the reason this is for sale. When I was looking, and the reason I originally purchased this car, was I wanted one that was running and driving, that had not been sitting in storage for many years that caused it to deteriorate. The other reason was the amount of previous owner service records. I haven’t done any work to the car since I purchased it, so it’s basically in the condition it was when I bought it. It would make a great driving – fixer upper, which was my goal. Or a good starting platform for someone’s entry into vintage Jags.

That being said the car itself is a bit of a mixed bag. It has a lot of potential and also needs some TLC.

The history of the car that I know of: I bought it out of Michigan from a guy who owned it for a couple of years. He drove it occasionally, to local events but not all the time. He purchased it from his father in law who also lives in Michigan. He owned it for around 10 years or so. It sounds like he or his wife drove the car all the time and put a lot of miles on the car each year. So it does have a good, on the road history to it.

One the positive side the car runs, shifts, drives and brakes very well. No miss-fires in the engine, it revs well. The wiring hasn’t been all butchered up like I’ve seen on so many of the V12 cars I’ve looked at. The electric fan runs and times out as it should when the car is shut off. The transmission is responsive, with no problem holding 1st or 2nd gear. The car itself does feel proper quick. The brakes don’t shutter and it has a good pedal feel. Overall it really has been fun to blast up and down the road in a few times with it. The wheels are in nice shape and it has fairly new tires on it. The door panels and dash of the interior are nice. While there is a bit of rust around the wheel arches, the floor pans look nice and solid. The car itself is complete, and shouldn’t need a lot of little things, it even still has the original owner’s manual and tool kit. Include in the cars sale will be an entire folder of receipts that I got with the car. The records go back to 2007 and many are from a Jaguar dealership. Some of the parts listed on the receipts include; crank sensor, rebuilt calipers, brake job, radiator hoses, shock absorbers, plugs, coil, distributor cap, ball joints, tires, etc. etc. Overall there are over $8,000 worth of receipts that are included with this car. This one certainly seemed like it was well taken care of mechanically by its previous owner’s father in law. That was a major selling point for me when I bought it.

On the flip side the car does need some TLC, and shows that it does have 135k on the clock. The paint is spider-webbed, and discolored by the fuel door from where it looks like it burped back after a few too many fuel ups. Chips have been touched up here or there, but it’s a good 10 footer. There is some bubbling in the paint where some rust is appearing in front of the rear wheel arches. The windshield has had some extra sealer applied around the rubber seal. The driver’s door sags a bit and can use a new pin/bushing (it’s a heavy door), but closes fine if it’s “slammed” shut. The wood on the center console is missing and someone put contact paper over it. Even really nice examples usually have cracked veneer here. I would recommend swapping it out, or re-veneering it (I’ve done it before, it’snot a difficult job), or wrapping it in leather like the early cars had. The seats show their sign of wear, the drivers outside bolster is the worst, with a patch on it. Followed by the rear seat on the passenger side with some rips. The most noticeable issue is that once the car is warmed up, the idle moves from hi to low idle repeatedly. The issue does go away when it’s in drive and under a load. I believe it has to do with the auxiliary air valve, and that was what I planned on checking first. I’m sure it also could use the usual filters/fluids, normal stuff when buying a collector car.

My attempt is to be as up front and honest as I can about this car based on what I know about it.