I have taken the plunge and just purchased a 1999 XK8. The idea had been forming in my head for a while, each time I saw one I wanted one. Prices were getting sensible and a sudden (unexpected) change in marital status meant no need to justify such a purchase to anyone else! But there were still a number of obstacles to negotiate. Firstly insurance, surely a group 18 vehicle was going to cost a lot more than my current group 12 Alfa Romeo? A call to my broker and I was amazed to find it was only going to cost me another £55 a year with my existing insurance company. (I still cannot work that out). So one bridge crossed. Next obstacle was the fact that I have a 3 year old and a 5 year old, looking at the rear seats of XK8s at various JEC meets I could see it was a possibility but wasn't sure the child seats would fit - especially as I am 6'1" and hence have the seat quite a way back. So next stop was a dealer with an XK8 on the forecourt and I popped in with the child seats. Hey presto they fitted! Admittedly I have to move my seat forward more than normal but with the long footwell it's not a big problem when the kids are in the car. So that was another obstacle passed. I was interested in the car at the dealer but eventually missed out on it as I slowly came to terms with the fact thare wasn't really any reason to stop me getting an XK8. (BTW - when describing the potential change of car with my children rather using the words 'small seats' I used 'sports seats' which seemed to do the trick especially with my son!)
Personally I love the XK8 in silver which was my preferred colour so when I saw another advertised locally in Autotrader for £2k less than the dealer with 10k fewer miles I was there like a shot. It seemed too good to be true. Only 51k miles, the service book full of main dealer stamps and not a blemish anywhere on the vehicle. I couldn't even spot anything really strong to negotiate the price down with! With typical heart over-ruling head reactions I immediately went for it - it just felt right. ( I do follow the old adage that nice people sell nice cars) I had spent 2 and a half hours at this bloke's house who had an amazing collection of cars in his garage, I even had to persuade him to come with me on the test drive.
It was with some trepidation that I picked up the car the following week and took it to my trusted jaguar specialist for a look over and service. He spent 3 hours on the car and didn't find anything untoward. Which leads me on to the age old question and apologies to everyone if this has been asked many times before. As the new owner of a 1999 XK8 with 51k miles what should I have done for peace of mind? Reading the forum it seems as if I should do;
1. Upper secondary tensioners
2. Water pump
3. Thermostat
I know there are quite a few discussions already on these elements, but I have now had 3 different opinions from 3 different sources and would appreciate any advice other owners can give. I have looked at the excellent topics on this with pics on the forum, and although I would love to give them a go myself, due to time I will probably be paying to get anything done so any recommends in the Wiltshire/Bristol area particularly welcome.
So hello to everyone, and I will sign off by saying I now have an enormous smile on my face when driving to work in the morning!
Cheers
Alex
ps will be entering details on the register shortly...
Mike.