1991 Jaguar XJ40 Sovereign review from Netherlands

At 283.000 my wiper interval begun not to work proper. But I think I 'just' have to replace the wiper logical module.

When I first saw this Jaguar model I get crazy. I had to own such a beauty. I took 3 month of gathering information. So I first bought the Haynes Repair Manual because I knew this is going to be a hobby and its not affordable for a poor guy like me to go to a dealer garage. So I had to find a model in good condition. I drove hundreds of kilometers from dealer to dealer to find my XJ40. The dealer where I finaly bougth my car didn't promise to much.

For € 2960,- I bought this car free of rust (just one little spot of it) and the only fault was the light of the drivers seat belt. I kept burning and still does (shame on me, I'm to leisure to fix this little thing).

To get familair with servicing the car I bougth professional tools, hired a garage and I made a plan for every service thats on the list in the Haynes Manual. For the first time I changed oil myself a.s.o.

You should try all this, because the more things your check yourself, the more you get involved into the health of jou Jaguar and the more pleasure you will have. At least you know whats going on and where are future problems are coming your way. It's also nice because you learn a lot.

The cat never let me stranded. But I needed new tyres a month ago and I was desperate searching for the very rare dimension 225/65 R15. In Germany I have a friend who's tyre-dealer. I thought it could'nt be a problem voor him to purchase these tyres for me. But it wasn't that easy. First of all they seem just produced as P4000 from Pirelli. The second problem seemed to be that they don't produce them on regular base. So there where no tyres to get for my babe and I had to think about a other kind of wheels.

At last I had luck and found a dealer of luxury car's in Den Hague who was cleaning his attic. He had new complete wheels of a Jaguar XK8 with Pirelli P-zero 245/50 R17. The tyres where to big so I could not stear properly. But voor the APK (in Germany TÜV and the English name for the yearly check I don't know) it was good. I made a perfect deal because I just paid € 450,- for the complete set. You have to imagina that one wheel normaly kost € 500 + €319 ,- for one P-zero tyre.

Because of the stearing problem I had to drive the car like a van. It wasn't a pleasure anymore to drive it and it was dangerous also.

At leat I had luck again and my friend with the tyre business gave me smaller tyres 245/40 R17.

Now I can stear properly again and I am out of danger.

Before I finish I have to say a word about the running cost:

The cat is very thirsty when you drive her in the city. She drinks around 16 liters on 100 kilometres. On the highway with the cruise control on a average speed of 100 kilometers she drinks 10 litres on 100 kilometres. But I think it's OK because its a very fast and nonetheless a very heavy car. When you accelerate you will left every kid with his VW Golf and his baseballpet behind. It feels almost like a take of with a plane.

The taxes are very expensive in The Netherlands. I have to pay €68,- every month.

I wrote this review because I had an advantage when I was looking for a Jaguar XJ40 myself and I like to do something back. I hope you could enjoy it and I appologize for my poor English. I have to confess that I just started to learn this language 6 month ago but I think I can say that I make progress.

Regards

Mario Kluser