Well, I also drive a XJR, and after you get use to the fact that the gray haired guy looking back at you in the mirror is you, it is great. Yes, when we first got it, I felt only old gray haired guys drove these cars, then I saw one in there mirror:eek:
Got to tell you, 390HP, in comfort, with a few friends is pretty fun, eating 5.0 stangs, while wearing a coat & tie, is just priceless.
I ran into the long time parts manager of Brumos Porsche a few weeks back, while driving the Jag (my 911 was at Brumos having some work done) and I admitted to him, this car is fun, and fast, and that I may stop doing PCA stuff (and have, our region sucks!!!) and give the Jag club a try (I met a pretty hot brunette who is active in the Jag club) and now will:D
Back in college, a girl I dated use to date a guy who bought an old RR (and no, he wasn't older than her or me) and she thought it freaked her out, thought he was weird, and she drove an MG Midget:D
As everyone has said, unless you want her to take everything, don't buy an RRSmileWavy

X-Type isn't really a Jag, anyway, is it? It's it a re-bodied Ford Mondeo?

Steve, I actually think it's based on the BMW 325xi or at least the 3-series 4wd chassis. the BMW inline 6 is the base engine i believe.

In reference to the original question, "Rolls-Royce - should I?" the answer is no

My XJR is a V8

XJ220 is nice

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202105691.jpg



And if I lived in a "manor" on the Isle of Man, this might work:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202105812.jpg

Wow, no offense, but where in the world does that come from???

The X-Type Jag has absolutely nothing to do with BMW. It's chassis is from the Ford Mondeo (Ford of course being the current owner of Jaguar). The Mondeo is sold in the US as the Ford Contour.

Interestingly, the Contour chassis was designed to be a front wheel drive economy car chassis. The chassis has to have power driven to the front wheels to function properly. Jaguar knew (correctly) that they could not sell a front wheel drive Jag in the US, because Americans view front wheel drive as for economy cars, and front wheel drive would make the roots of the car too obvious. So they ran a driveshaft to the rear to make it four wheel drive!

No Jaguar has ever used a BMW engine.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658544_1658539,00.html
http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/sedans/0106_jaguar_xtype_25_sport/index.html

Confused lineage but I believe BMW and Jaguar were related through marriage at one point. Range Rover was BMW designed and powered under Ford's failed Premium or Premier division. Now it is Jag powered. I do realize this was only because Ford bought Land Rover from BMW.

How about a Mercedes or BMW? They fit the bill of depreciated, safe, carry 4-5, available parts, and reasonable to work on. For the "fun to drive" quotient, you can get an older M5, or an AMG-tuned S-class (or one of the original 500E "Factory Hammers"). Whether or not you consider them to be "a little different from a Ford Taurus" will be a personal thing. Everyone in my neck of the woods has a Benz or BMW or Porsche or Jag.

The X-Type Jag shouldn't be confused with the XJ Series. The X Type is a compact car, the S Type is midsized and the XJs are large. The real name of the current base XJ series is XJ8 and obviously has an 8. The XJR has a supercharged version of the same engine. The Vanden Plas is the luxury version of the XJ8.

Just to clear things up at some pint during the Seventies Jaguar, Land Rover/Range Rover, MG, Triumph, Austin (who made the mini amongst various other horrible cars)and Rover were all one company (British Leyland). Actually they were all nationalised but the less said about that the better!

In the eighties Jaguar escaped to go it alone. (crucial point this as it saved them from BMW ownership)

Triumph was put to death, MG was put in suspended animation and Austin, Rover and Land Rover survived and were sold to British Aerospace (are you bored yet?).

By the Ninties Ford had purchased Jaguar.

The separate Austin Rover Land rover group had a change of name to MG Rover group (there products still included Land Rover and Mini). BMW then bought the group, poured millions into it and then started to realise what a horrible mistake they had made!

BMW kept LandRover and Mini and sold the remainder of the MG Rover group to group of businessmen who it turned out were clueless and the company went bust.

BMW then sold Land Rover to Ford, Ford slowly ditched the BMW engines which had ended up under the bonnets of the Land Rover products and replaced them with a mix of Ford and Jaguar running gear.

And yes the X type is based on a ford Mondeo/Contour.

Oh and back on topic don't buy the Roller unless its for your self. I doubt your wife will thank you for the service bills it will be hugely expensive to run.

Sounds like you want a used Mercedes. I would check them out.

Rolls? No. There was another thread about RR brakes recently. Apparently they are a fortune to fix. There's a reason they are a "bargain". If your a RR mechanic with a barn full of parts- yep, it's a bargain. Sorta like a 928. Quite the bargain but can you afford to fix it?

Buy the newest Jag XJ you can afford. Not that they are the pinnacle of reliability, but there is nothing like a nice, real Jag. Be prepared to have it serviced in Minneapolis. I'll wager there are no qualified people in your area.

Years ago, if you told me there was another car community that had more money and less brains than us Porsche fanatics, I would have laughed in your face. But the RR community makes us seem downright frugal and sane.

Recreating plastic lenses is idiotically easy. I bet there are a lot of RR parts that could be replicated for big profits if the owners are actually willing to pay that much. At prices like that, you could have parts produced individually at a professional machine shop and probably still make a killing.

I smell an untapped market.

EDIT: I once contemplated buynig one of those cheap RR's on ebay. So I researched it and found a BBS much like Pelican for RR owners. In one thread, a fellow said he had gone out to his car and it failed to start. He said his first thought was that he was standing on "the brink of a financial abyss". Frankly, I'd rather not live one bad alternator or fuel pump away from "the brink of a financial abyss".

Sorry, I meant to say the lens was over $1000.00 not 3000.00, my mistake. But that is still a ripoff for a piece of plastic. Racerbvd is right on, the Jag XJR is the way to go for car guys who know the difference. A great car in my mind, which sometimes is off.