1969 Jaguar XKE Series II

Ever see one on the street? No? Sadly, the world's most beautiful car is also one of its least durable. Even those who own and love them describe them thus: "XK-Es used electronics from the dark prince, overheated even in Alaska and their bodies turned to Swiss cheese within two years of purchase."

But if you had the mad courage to own an XKE, this is the one to get. Many of the shortcomings of the first series were overcome, including an improved transmission, cooling system and seats. On the other hand, the Series II lacked the supercool glass-hooded headlights of the earlier cars. In 1971, Jaguar introduced the Series III, with the impressive but ill-fated V-12. That car found a whole new set of problems to make "XKE" synonymous with "unreliable".

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1959 Jaguar XK150S

In 1959, the car magazine The Motor described a car as, "the fastest closed car the magazine had ever subjected to a full road test". Was it the fuel-injected Corvette? Perhaps a hemi-head Chrysler with dual-quad carburetors? Maybe the supercharged Studebaker? Nope. It was a Jaguar XK150S with a 3.7 liter, six-cylinder engine.

The car pictured was the final, and most powerful iteration of the XK120/140/150 cars introduced in 1948.

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1995 Jaguar XJ-S convertible. The V-12 Supercar You Can Afford (To Let Sit In Your Garage).

The XJ-S convertible with V-12 engine had an MSRP of $82,550 in 1995; that's just about $150,000 in 2021 dollars. Yet it's no big deal to pick one of these up in good condition for about $15,000. How can that be? Well, Jaguar made some of the most beautiful cars of all time. But they don't exactly have the best reputation when it comes to long-term reliability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From carbuzz.com: "Even though these cars are cheap to buy, they are notoriously expensive to own. Even the youngest XJS is now a 22-year old car, and parts are going to need to be replaced. If you fancy the idea of owning a gorgeous grand touring car with a V12 engine, here are some issues you should watch out for. Fuel hoses in the engine are known to deteriorate over time, causing engine fires. The upper shock bushing are prone to failure resulting in a rattling noise over bumps. If you do decide to own one of these cars, you'd better be very handy and resourceful or know a very good mechanic. The good news is, the XJS is so plentiful, it isn't too difficult to buy a spare one to use as a parts car."

Uh sure, just buy two of 'em and keep the second one for parts.

From driving.ca: "Where do we even begin with this one? The Jaguar XJ-S and XJ-12 might be the most affordable V12 cars you can buy, but that affordability comes at the expense of reliability. The Jaguar XJ-12 has two radiators fed by two coolant tanks, with two fuel tanks, two fuel pumps and a battery that has its own thermostatically controlled cooling fan. If that isn’t enough to terrify you, these cars are filled with a mind-boggling maze of infamous Lucas wiring, with fuse boxes at seemingly random intervals along the fenders inside the engine bay. And when things do break, engine access is worse than anything except a twin-turbo 300ZX (look it up, it’s spooky!). Opening the hood on a V12 Ferrari reveals gleaming cam covers and polished intake manifolds, whereas the underhood view of a V12 Jaguar is dominated by a mess of vacuum lines and wiring that resembles the Windows “pipes” screensaver. This is not a car for the faint of heart or slim of pocketbook."

 

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1969 Lynx-Jaguar XKSS

A genunie 1957 XKSS is worth $18 million. I'm not kidding. The XKSS was the street-legal version of the Jaguar D-type race car, and only 16 were made. This car looks like the genuine article, but as far as I can tell there were no left-hand drive examples of the XKSS. And who would drive an $18 million car over Seattle potholes, right?

I think this is a Lynx-Jaguar XKSS, a car created by putting a custom-built body and XKSS-reproduction parts atop a regular Jaguar E-Series chassis. This car was no cheap replica, and it's probably worth about $500K.

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1963 Jaguar MkII 3.4 Saloon

Vintage Jaguars are the kind of cars that sit around waiting for restoration but never actually get restored. A full restoration on a car like this is going to cost something like $30,000. And then you've got a pretty cool car that is however difficult to drive, not very reliable and not very safe. Not to mention difficult to sell. Here's an immaculate MkII that just went for $18,750 American. Sorry buddy, but you should sell this for parts.

   

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