Evaluation: Located in Italy. Delivered new to France. Number 27 of 65 special editions commemorating Jaguar’s 1988 Le Mans win, which finally ended Porsche’s seven-year winning streak. Showing 111,425 km (69,236 mi). Recent service of the cooling system and new tires. Tidy engine bay. Clean interior with light wrinkling of the leather. No major paint or body issues visible. While it has been driven, this XJS was also treated better than most Jags of this era. It looks sharp with these wheels and in these colors.
Bottom Line: Finnicky mechanicals and love-it-or-hate-it looks have kept XJSs cheap, even as other performance cars from the 1980s and 1990s continue to appreciate. This price is near the very top of the spectrum for a standard V-12 coupe, with much of the money owing to the fact that it’s such a limited-production special edition. It’s a solid value at this price.
If Roils Royce had built a sports car or a small GT this would be it. 4 wheel independent suspension, race bred inboard rear disc brakes and front disc, quiet smooth ride, a well engineered smooth V12 that continues to gather speed to an unknown top end. Connelly leather , hand finished wood veneers and the comfort of an Englishman’s private club.
The secret was to spend the money to maintain them properly and they will run forever.
Sadly too many of them were bought second hand by people who could not afford the maintenance or fuel cost and they sat or rusted away. They are a real bargain for a well sorted example especially in the USA. Jaguar made several limited edition XJ-S models like this one above, but the only difference was special badging and trim. Mechanicals were the same except the XJS-R models etc.