1998 Jaguar XJ8 review from North America

The "timing advance" mechanism went out almost immediately. We used a local independent Jaguar garage and it cost $5,200.

Within 30 days, the timing chain cover began leaking, we then took it to a different garage; cost to repair: about $1,000.

Within 30 days thereafter, the car simply stopped running. There was no knocking, no excessive oil consumption, no warning. It started up one morning, then quit, and has no compression!

It has now been out of service for another 30 days, with mechanics scratching their heads over the problem.

When we 1st purchased the car, our local Jaguar dealer supplied various maintenance and repair services (minor), was excellent and very easy to work with, but has the reputation for being very expensive. However, our next step (last resort) now is having the car towed to them for their opinion as to the problem.

This car is an extreme pleasure to drive, and an extreme pain to own! My wife purchased this car to use in her real estate practice, and only drives about 12,000 miles per year. However, she's gotten nowhere near that far in this one, and has had to revert to our smaller Chrysler for business (this after having sold her large Chrysler).

Her cars are pampered, and generally remain trouble free. This V-8 Jaguar, however, has been trouble with a capital "T".

We have owned several other Jaguars over the years (usually as a 2nd car), and, with the exception of the old Lucas electrics blackouts, have been reliable, enjoyable, and the (6 cylinder) engines seemed to run effortlessly forever!