Jaguar XJ-S - Opinions? - Page 4

That sounds a lot better than here.I hear what your saying about the Ford and my brother hates it too but until he can build up his no claims bonus he is stuck with it.

As the owner of a BRG Miata (the 2001 variant, not the 1991 LE) I heartily concur. You lose the Jag's wonderful Connolly Bros leather and Wilton Wool carpeting, but gain one of the finest driver's experiences ever engineered, an extra three speeds, a clutch pedal, and a real wood Nardi steering wheel. And the body, if you squint at it whilst inebriated, looks like a 3/4 scale model of what the E-Type's successor should have been.

As for the XJ-S, reliability-wise, you could do worse. But only if you had your heart set on a BMW 850Ci or Maserati Biturbo/228 instead of an XJ-S. My pick if I had to get an XJ-S would probably be one with the bastard British Leyland AJ6 instead of Sir Walter Hassan's glorious Le Mans-winning HE V12, despite myself. If you want a big European luxury coupe, I think the best of them in terms of driving dynamics and style is the Mercedes 300CE of 1992-5 with the Sportline suspension. It's a pillarless coupe, so with the windows down and the sunroof open, it sort of approximates a convertible. I single out the 1992-5 (or maybe it's 1993-5) because in those years Mercedes replaced the old SOHC engine with the DOHC design that debuted in the 1989 Mercedes 300SL. Without the Sportline suspension it is a wallowy pig. I've driven a 560SEC before and I believe Merc did a much better job on the junior one. Unfortunately, neither model was offered in the States with a manual transmission.

Also, no offense intended, but when I see an XJ-S I think "British Camaro." (Same goes for the bloated V12 Series-3 E-Type.) A very Burberry plaid kind of car. If you want 70s design done right, I think the Citroën SM is a much better car. (No cheaper to maintain, though...) If you want a proper Jaguar done right, look for a Series-3 XJ-6 (early 1980s) saloon with the real Jaguar engine (XK inline six) and that unendingly sexy Sir William Lyons meets Pininfarina body.