To be a Jaguar fan is to be accustomed to loving and hating a car like the XJ at the same time. They are beautifully-styled and played a significant role in the company’s colorful history, but the Series II cars like this long wheelbase XJ12 here on eBay are difficult to have run correctly due to build quality issues and a finicky carburetor / automatic choke setup. Still, this one’s so cheap it may be worth a gamble.
Said to be a garage find in need of total restoration, the seller has set the auction up with no reserve, and bidding is at just $102 with two days left in the auction! This car will need rust repair in addition to sorting out why the V12 doesn’t run, which could be any number of problems related to the aforementioned automatic choke or mess of vacuum lines in the engine bay. I know the six-cylinder cars had the water-based choke and am assuming the 12-cylinder did as well – but Jag experts, feel free to correct me here.
Most brand experts say the cars built from the mid 70s to early 80s are ones to avoid, due to the ownership transition to British Leyland, when quality control and worker morale supposedly plummeted. The flip-side of that argument is for how cheap this Jaguar is currently bidding for, you could justify getting its many ills corrected and having a comfortable, classic, big-body cruiser to use during the months when snow isn’t on the ground. Of course, you’ll have to factor in a complete interior re-do, as seen here.
While I can sound like I’m talking myself into justifying a car with a poor reputation for reliability due to the low cost of entry, I also know that with a car like this, it’s a far wiser investment to buy the best one out there (which won’t be that expensive). This 12-cylinder, extended wheelbase sedan is likely headed to a parts-car future, but at least it won’t be languishing in a Midwest garage for the next 20 years. Would any of you take a chance on it?
No.
Seeeeeriously, NOOOO.
ummm no
Looks really rough, unfortunately. And a choke will be the least of the problems since a ’78 should have fuel-injection.
Probably looked a lot better covered in snow! Who wants to sit inside that?
LOL rare joke
You are right, they are bidding on a parts car.
Steve R
Front and rear suspension good for IFS / IRS swaps. Scrap the rest.
No F’ING way
If you like it, drop a 5.3 or 6 litre Chevy in it. Check out JTR.com. (jaguars that run). Used to be based out of Florida.
I was thinking this might be more work than it’s worth, but then I said to myself “what the hell, let’s get this baby back on the road!”
I’ll pass this one up. It’s best as a parts car.
I’ve always loved the style of the Series II Jaguar XJ6. I hope whoever buys this car knows a thing or two about how to properly tune a carburettor, and choke.
Greetings All,
Buy it for less than $300.00
You can then part it out for switches, relays, etc in engine compartment, but that’s about it.
I bought a much nicer one for minor parts for my coupe. Debating putting in a V8 Kit, John’s Cars makes a nice complete kit.
Drop a 350 chevy motor in it. Clean it up and drive it to it’s grave.
Like most British & European cars, Over engineered to the point of being nearly impossible for the average owner to work on, over priced parts, over priced at the show room, poor resale value, very prone to electrical failures. In general terribly over rated & the only attraction seems to be the presumed snob value.
Ha,
Ole guy in this town had 13 of them…yes 13, all V12’s…not bad…all sold for about $1500.00 each or so….but, but I got an 87 V12 VDP…now, very, very nice..a machine in all ways….stay away from the four carb’s models…well..let it go…nice sitting somewhere on blocks, clean as a “Hey look at that” ..no, no, no..not even parts.
Small block Chevy , overdrive auto trans, cruise in style & comfort with reliability.
For both performance and economy, one of the self- learning fuel injection units
that fit in place of a 4 barrel carb would do nicely. Holley and Fast are 2 brands that come to mind- check Summit or Jeg’s. I know at least one of them has all the electronic brain inside the throttle body itself , so install is pretty simple, and if I recall correctly, the price range starts about $ 1000….
Wow…that drivers side headrest truly redefines “sagging bag of rot”.
Like the 2002 and the 911 too far gone and to expensive too restore. Sure I always like the XJ… but…
Run, don’t walk away from this money pit!
Yeah…I’d rather remarry my ex wife. Uh…nope.
I really have no love for my ex- wife
In the days when I was a classic car dealer and had an XJ 6 or twelve on the floor, I did everything possible to persuade the prospective buyer to run away and buy anything else as sure as hell it would bite them in the backside.
I have been messing with old Jags since the late 1960’s. As always, buy the best car you can afford. It is much cheaper to pay for someone else’s restoration efforts than to start with a car in this condition.
They all go bad in the same places. This is a car from the rust belt with no usable interior pieces.It has parts car value only to someone in the business and sees some partcular part that can be sold. What 40 year old British electrical or mechanical part could be removed and reinstalled without rebuilding first? This car is yard art.
My HS english teacher bought an early 70s model with the straight six from her ex husband. Beautiful forest green car she washed and waxed regularly but in the shop every other week. Guess the 80 mile round trip every weekday was too much for it lol. Luckily she kept her old red Pinto and we ribbed her whenever we saw it in the parking lot. She took it pretty well. Kept that Jag until her dying day.
Just like that 912 we saw before another piece of junk
NO-HIO tags did the trick for me.
Stay away from this one. There are great examples that have lead a charmed life for WAY less than what it would take to resurrect this pile.
I grew up around Jaguars. My uncle was General Mgr for British Motors in SF back in the day. My Gramps drove a red MK II, best friends dad had a number of them. An XK 120, E type convertible etc. Heck, even my HS English teacher drove a 420 G! Yea, I got bit by the bug. Have owned 4 XJ’s to date. 1974 series two was drop dead gorgeous, but was a bad, bad boy. Just as I would be seduced by it, something would alway go terribly wrong. My partner cried tears of joy when we sold it. Next up, bought a restored 1983 series 3. Beautiful and reliable car. The next two I bought new over the years and loved everything about them!