LUXOBARGE (sub5k) of the week/day

Nforce wrote: »

Speaking of Jaaaags..




http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/jaguar-xj6/6603926

I've always wanted one, and as my old bangernomics motor is put out to pasture I'm getting more interested in these by the day. What's reliability like with them?

Went to buy this car last week

Seller wasn't honest about the car so I didn't proceed with buying.

On the phone I asked:

On the scale 1-10, 10 being brand new car in showroom what's the condition of bodywork and paint.
His answer was 8.5
Well, I read on pistonheads that there might be problem with paint due to alloy body not working well with its paint.
So on this car pretty much every panel had laquer peel plus scratches on bottom of doors, cracked shiny bits of trim on bumpers etc etc
Seller first thing opened the boot so I paid special attention to it and guess what, the edge at the window all corroded (as in old alloy wheels)
Small crash damage around front light, would have to be looked at (bodyshop/paint)

In essence, if you buy a car like that you'd want it to be presentable and this one was starting to look shabby. OK from 4 meters but not up close.

On the phone seller said 160k, 178k miles in fact
Seats showing signs of wear in line with mileage so I'd say it's genuine 178k if you care. He said "rear seats never been sat in" well questionable I'd say because they had brown hue (baby shyte/chocolate?) and presence of playstation wiring and dvd screen (very small, useless really) kinda show that there were kids involved.
Wood on the steering wheel and gear knob didn't match the dashboard (darker on the dash) but quite a few early ones 2003-2005 models have this "feature"
Small hole on passenger door card, bit of an eyesore thats all
Tyres need replacing and not the same, not a good sign
Car fresheners in the boot so probably damp there

I was driven in it and mechanically it was ok as far as I could tell, no funny noises, gearbox ok etc but I wasn't at the wheel myself so no idea about vibrations from steering/brakes. Power/performance ok but not staggering. It's a massive car and it takes a lot space to turn it around.

In the end I hooked my autocom cdp+ interface but it didn't have much diagnostics on this model (usually it runs through all car's systems such as abs, aircon, lights etc etc, there was no OBDII (engine) related errors.

In the end the diagnostics was a deal breaker. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't run through all systems. If I could tell that apart from bodywork everything else is fine then yeah, why not. It looks the part, drives like tank and has that sense of occasion when you're in it. In this particular case I walked away. Seller lied and there could be other issues that I couldn't see so it was too much risk for me. I told him that I want to view one more car (which was true).

Afterwards, the owner was piss_d off that I didn't take it (he thought that I'll say "yeah, lovely") and changed the price on ad plus put some smart comment on it about computer geeks coming to view the car :pac: and to make sure his car is the last one you view.