Got one at last

[jimdox]

Well I can now delightedly say I finally went and got myself a Jaguar XJ. I had been looking for about a year but due to work and other commitments I just could not find the time to travel to view any. My hankering for a Jaguar XJ originated in 1990 when at the tender age of 21 I wanted one. I worked in a tyre depot in Edinburgh back then and a father and son who had a garage nearby that specialised in Jaguars would come into us a couple of times a week. The father and son (who was around the same age as I) both had series 3 XJs and the first time I moved one in the depot I was hooked, I had to have one. I started looking for one and viewed a 1981 W reg 4.2 Sovereign for sale at a nearby dealers. We agreed a price for my 1983 Capri 2.8i but as I started to get cold feet about the deal the salesman sold it to someone else. I have had a lot of cars since then ranging from a Rover P6 V8 to a Range Rover. I did start looking for an XJ (X308) in 2010 but again nothing really caught my eye until I was walking past a facelift S-Type and happened to glance inside and noticed the dash was similar to the XJ so started looking for one of them. I bidded for a silver 3.0 Sport on a well known auction site that was advertised with all the toys I wanted at the time (multi CD player, cruise control) and I had the winning bid. I travelled from Edinburgh to Reading to collect the car and it turned out not to have the CD or cruise control but as I had travelled all that way and the seller took off a couple of hundred pounds I bought it anyway. It turned out to be a great car but as I was driving home from work early one morning in 2014 I hit a deer and the car ended up written off. So I thought then I would get an XJ but I changed jobs and got a company vehicle so that was that. Well this changed yesterday as I was in touch with a gentleman who had one and kept changing his mind about putting it up for sale. I manged to convince him to sell it to me so yesterday I did a 580 mile round trip to View and buy the car. As I have said I was looking for a while and wanted a car of a certain spec. I wanted sat-nav, heated seats, xenon headlights, power fold mirrors (for getting car through the doorway of my garage), colour coded grill surround and Jaguar Custom alloys. Also my preferred colour was dark blue or black. I know it is a lot but I would have settled for a car with some of these options missing (I could have had the grill surround and alloy wheels changed at a later date). Well this car had it all except the colour was red. Now, I did not have red as an option but once I clapped eyes on this car I had to have it. To say the colour grew on me is an understatement, I love it. It is a 2005 3.0 Sovereign with 62189 miles on it and cream leather. As the temperature has now dropped below 0, I was unable to wash it today (as it is now very dirty after my long drive) so I was going to include a photo. As I don't know how to do this just yet. hopefully I can get it washed and polished next weekend and get some photos up then.

[steve_m]

Well done, nice story.
I hope the car lives up to your expectations!

[jimdox]

Thanks Steve. Me too.

Jim

[J44EAG]

Well done, Jim. Welcome to the Brotherhood!

To add images go to the attachments button below the text dialogue box. Left click. Then left click on add files. Then go to your photo library, find your image, right click, select. Watch the image load on the add files menu. Then place your cursor in the text box where you wish the image to be placed. Come back down to the loading area and left click on place in line. The maximum load on each text submission is three images.

You may have to resize your images in pixels to a maximum of 900H x 1300W. If you are running on Windows and wish to copy and downsize an image, right click on the selected image, go to resize picures and input the max dimensions above. It sounds complicated but with practice it isn`t that difficult.

Hope that helps.

Mike

[Manbearpig]

Excellent jimdox, Like you I was looking for a year or more, very frustrating.

I have a feeling I know the car you bought, its stunning in the dealer ad but I would still love to see soome more pictures. If I hadn't bought mine a week or three before I would have snapped that one up, Radiance Red was my 1st choice! Look after it I may take it off you when you are done with it....

[jimdox]

I have been able to add pictures tonight. I will add others when I give the car a good clean and polish (as you can see it is covered in ice in the photo). I love the colour, and the interior is almost like new. On another note, does anyone know how to change the front interior main (both map reading lights are ok) light bulb? I assume the lense just pops off but I have had a little fiddle with this and it seems very tight. I don't want to break something.

[J44EAG]

Very nice indeed, Jim.

Now you have a 350, you won`t want to drive anything else. You know you have the right car when that feeling occurs.

Mike

[jimdox]

You're right there Mike,
As I only drive it at weekends and it's garaged all week (I have a Merceres Citan for work). I got a flurry of excitement when I got it out yesterday. It makes you feel special when you drive one of these cars and everything else seems rather boring.

[Manbearpig]

Thats a cracker. If the shine wears off I could take that off your hands no problem

[J44EAG]

Here is a video by a rather younger Ian Callum, describing the design of X350.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j ... 1MCHGnKe67

Mike