The 1980s Series III Jaguar XJ6 is an Undervalued Collector Car Bargain

good morning this is Bill from out of Europe in Naples and I'm here today on kind of a quiet and no birds nearby no dogs barking no ducks around everything seems really peaceful and proper at the moment and I'm bringing you one of the most beautiful cars you know of all time from one of the most interesting makers of all time and one of the most iconic brands of all time you know Jaguar is an incredible machine for a variety of reasons all Jaguars it started with Sir William Lyons of course he wasn't a sir when he started he was the son of an Irish immigrant but you know very interesting guy kind of one of these Titan of the industry types he and a buddy got into building motorcycle side cars they have a pretty good metal fabrication they started building roadsters pre-war and bodies high-end bodies of course the war happened then he got into aircraft stuff for the war effort use that skill and money to develop an engine the XK engine which then went into the XK series of cars after the war and became one of the most iconic vehicles in world history now this was the last car that Sir William Lyons had the full design you know domination over that this was his design I had a few helpers and whatnot certainly by this stage although in the beginning he didn't it was basically just him coming up with the designs for the cars in his driveway you know pretty remarkable stuff that the most beautiful machines of all time were basically designed by a guy who had be in his yard but anyway this is the XJ there ago babblin XJ sex and this was the culminate this is what he intended from the beginning he wanted to build a reliable four-door saloon that would you know transport the public and style and grace you know with relative affordability and just be a stunning car and he succeeded in most of those things you know the reliability issue is debatable but we'll get into that in a moment so this engine the 4.2 litre inline-six is a direct descendant of that original mention twin overhead cam it was very advanced for its time when it was built you know was aging somewhat by the time these cars were out but still you know on par with anything Mercedes was building in terms of inline-6 technology Jaguar designs are instantly distinct you see those four round headlights the eyebrows over him the leaper on top of the hood which would disembowel pedestrians you know beautiful accents of chrome any word this is an 87 this is the last of the mohicans 88 saw the xj 40 which was much more square and different and all together you know not the same car now this series the series 3 xj it had design enhancements by Pininfarina they changed the roofline they made the greenhouse a little bit bigger and improved Headroom they flushed the door handles they were very faithful to the original lyons design but they did make it better and that's always a good thing now jaguar has this thing we're gonna call it the mystique and what the mystique means is that it's basically going to strand you on a you know semi reliable basis it's can be running like an absolute champ one day and the next day wouldn't start at gunpoint and that's just something Jaguars do they also like to meet Goyal you know so people who drive hold Jaguars you can kind of instantly consider yourself heroes I think the general public does they you know God look at this masochist he's out there driving this beautiful car keeping it on the road god bless and better him than me and you know that's not true there's no debate in it although this final incarnation of the XJ is by far the most reliable and the easiest to keep on the road in fact our little kept secret as some of these things would run up well over the two hundred thousand mile mark which is incredible you know for a car that's built like this in fact you know the earlier Jags all had very low miles mostly because they just couldn't be driven may be abandoned in somebody's yard anyway the Jag like this one also has a very close special meaning to my heart because as a 16 year old boy I turned on you know the television one day and there is a band called Whitesnake with a white XJ sex and a very attractive woman in fact shockingly attractive to a 16 year old kid I can tell you leaping around on the hood of this thing on the roof inside and legs everywhere and that was just the greatest thing that I had ever seen or heard of in my life now if we got Tawny Kitaen today to do that same thing we'd probably have to take the car to the body shop afterwards but you know happens to all of us even the best anyway 44,000 miles on this thing it's a two owner car the masochist that I got it from he bought at you know out of a garage old guy owned it you know had been maintained but you know really hadn't been for the last couple of years so he started spending money on it to bring it to where he wanted to I think he ended up with like $40,000 of this thing by the time all is said and done and of course as we all know it's worth far less than that these are very undervalued collector cars may be permanently maybe not in fact you know the finer examples are definitely starting to become more appreciated the wire wheels absolutely stunning a bit of a throwback on this car you know they came with a valise mostly but you know the old diehards wanted wires so they got them and to think that this is a 1987 model which I mean 87 is not Dinosauria you know I mean there are some pretty modern cars in 87 I mean this thing is directly out of the 60s and in fact the first XJ the series 1 which is basically the same car debuted in 1968 so you can drive a very very vintage car without it being terribly vintage have a look inside the trunk all right so quite a nice big drunk in this thing absolutely huge you'll be able to fit a couple of say you barely fit three or four sets of golf clubs in there has a very comprehensive fuel kit fuel kit nice tool kit hung properly I think this is the degradation of the mats man that's just dust from bad detailing the trunk is absolutely mint perfect pretty much everything on this car is it's exceptional condition this thing also very southern owned no rust anywhere it will rust if these things have been up north so nice to find one like this you know if you're gonna become one of these Jaguar masochists and try to keep one of these on the road and enjoy driving it and go down like a final British gentleman on your way to the store start with the best one you can find and I'm gonna promise you right now you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a better one than this so anyway everything lovely the chrome mint lovely chrome and tennis around lovely chrome bumpers Pininfarina recessed these taillights chrome trim on em all absolutely gorgeous see around the rear window the chrome is lovely there's no rust may you see it was got to fuel doors that's a bit of a Jaguar thing it has two fuel tanks with a electrically activated pump that runs between them you know call one a reserve tank call the other one the main tank although I think they're both the same size now this kind of begs the question that any nine-year-old would ask why not just make the tank bigger you know and have one tank instead of two tanks with this complicated series of pumps and hoses and you know they never work on these cars ever ever ever this poor guy spent thousands of dollars because he had to have the two fuel tank system working and he did I don't know how long it'll stay working but it works for the moment but you know again it's a bit like that I can't remember the name of that movie that the heavy metal documentary you know with the amps that turn up 211 well you know why didn't you just make 10 louder and the guy was very offended by the question well I'd like to know why he didn't just make one bigger tank maybe it was the way the design worked have a look under the hood my son classic Jaguar style the hood opens from the rear very very nice stuff and there you will find that 4.2 litre twin overhead cam inline 6-cylinder not very powerful probably got 200 horsepower and again you know the same basic engine they put in the e types in the X case I mean this thing just went back and back say they had plenty of time to get it right even if they never did they got a kind of right anyway it's fuel-injected it's an inline 6 so they inherently benefit from having one of the most reliable designs you can have it's got great stuff like this is sort of beautifully machined oil cap you know this lovely thin valve cover on both sides it's not a massive wires and tubes and hoses the way the v12 SAR much more simple much better to maintain and you can see just how nice and Memphis's this car had all new air-conditioning that had valve cover gaskets I'm sure it still leaks oil but probably not much you know new coolant hoses the guy just went through everything to make it a reliable daily driver for himself the poor bastard you really have to hand it to him but you know he did it for a while and you know his girlfriend now is complaining the car just doesn't have airbags it's too vintage you know she wants a Maserati or something so with some regret he brought it to us and we got it and here it is for sale you have to get this a bit of a slam if you're just one handed forgive me for that by the beautiful leaper up there I mean that is just absolute artwork this was originally the swallow sidecar company Jaguars before the war and their models were the SS s or the SS that obviously that wasn't going to work after world war ii as SS had some pretty wicked connotation so that stage it became Jaguar he had to get permission from someone who is used in Jaguars airplane motors but thank God he did it just kind of really fits the car although very few people seem to be able to pronounce it properly anyway lovely lovely let's have a look in the backseat now these things were very comfortable very nice to sit and a lot of heads of state took mine I shouldn't say that at least British heads of state royalty you know CEOs that sort of thing this was a card that they would drive in either by themselves or in the back you can see it has tons of leg room down there it's got rear hvac controls rear of course power windows the most beautiful that way the dam had washes out the matter its day this is not pink leather it's the most gorgeous shade of biscuit economy hide you've ever seen anyway it drives me nuts the way the might always affects these cars anyway absolutely gorgeous back there rich proper film original mother lovely to sit in lovely to smell and just very very nice and proper door panels exceptional lovely inlaid chrome pearl wood I mean all this stuff is from the 60s it's so not from the 1980s even you know the 1980s didn't have stuff this antiquated extraordinarily well-built lovely little chrome scuff plate there on the bottom it's not a very tall car it's kind of low and sleek so you have to bend down a bit to get in but the seats are also low so once you're in you have plenty of headroom and it feels nice see if I can pop this fuel cap so you can see how it works Pam alright so there it is pretty cool the way that works it's very racing style fuel cap tap the little button up top and pop up it comes you can unlock it never do but you can with that little guy there but I mean the way this is designed with the slotted screws the you know placarded unleaded fuel the rubber gasket there there's just nothing else out there that was like this at the time and of course when Jaguars came out they were incredibly technologically advanced the in fact their disc brake system was so good they had to put a warning badge on the back of the cars because they were afraid people would you know run right in the back of them this one does have inboard disc brakes that job's just been done if you look at the wire wheels the condition of them absolutely incredible the axle incredible they put a 288 rear-ended these versions I think to make them better highway cruisers at the sacrifice of some quickness but you know it is a lovely driving car up front these incredible burro sorry economy height buckets all original leather never been touched absolutely gorgeous leather steering wheel if they made the dashboard to have any more wood it would just be all wood so you know that again is what Jaguar is on without you know all this new stuff they had to do what they had to make him like every other car but they really lost something of their heritage when they did that of course Ford bought Jaguar in 89 they really improved the brand although it didn't do much for them and then eventually Tata the Indian company you know in a revenge for colonialism thing bought Jaguar and may someday take it out of the hallowed town of Coventry and bring it over to India and we hope not but anyway for the moment everything's going well Matt jag they're building pretty nice cars but nothing not than like the way this thing was put together which some people will say is a very good thing I don't I don't I love the mystique I really do and again with Tawny Kitaen you know throwing her legs around inside this thing that just forever sealed it in the bill coolest of all time and it's not them try to get my keys organized here alright so this thing has enough gauges to you know to outfit a small airplane you've got your oil pressure you got your voltmeter your fuel your water temp your incredibly cool look at that a Smith's cage still made it okay what's a UK it looks like a Smith's cage anyway with the you know the aircraft style redline they're all class they're not plastic absolutely beautiful gauge set up in this car lovely thin steering wheel leather beautiful it does telescope in a hilarious way you see this big twisty guy here you open that up and if I had two hands I could do it now there we go a little bit anyway so you can pull the wheel out and push it in and and tighten that back up like a peanut butter lip excuse me like a peanut butter lid over here you got these crazy power mirror adjustments there's that poop and dog again he's given me the eye he knows he knows what's up anyway these beautiful rod power window adjustments little chrome things they look like golf tees coming out of your car beautiful chrome door handle the way everything's chrome trimmed and leather and wood oh it's just so Jaguar alright so let's see if we're Jaguar enough to not start a pile of keys here they go over here in the ignition look at that like a champ like an absolute champ fires right to life seatbelt buzzer annoying the living hell out of me if a parent shuts off getting a little bit of a see going that's another thing he spent a fortune on to keep going okay you can see a nice steady idle all the gauges as they should all pressures correct folks look a little bit low let's give them a tap that go I'm sure it's fine or we wouldn't have started you've got lovely cold air coming out of there even in the days before cellular phones Jagger gave you this about a monthly had it in May here to put stuff you know if you do any spirited cornering of course it's gonna fly off of there but I can tell you it's a nice place to rest your phone for a moment you got a cigarette lighter there you got that trip computer that the series 3xj had it gives you a toe see how crappy your fuel mileage at 4.3 and that's not very good fifteen point one average that's a shock all right not that this row of lights or sorry switches this one that the gas thing that does switch over the tank from tank a to tank B this is the rear defrost this control some interior lights which all work in this car it's shocking you know the electrics in this car are pretty good and of course that's a direct result a benefit from that guys checkbook man he did all this stuff that you otherwise would have to has the original Jaguar radio would have been great if it was a white snake but it's not it has this incredibly cool vintage t-handle shifter they use a BorgWarner three-speed automatic it's pretty late in time for a three-speed but of course you know Jaguar had to do what they had to do do you have these fantastic twin chrome ashtrays a little crack in the wood there little patina that's fine for the car it's not enough to be troubling over here and one of the most beautiful matched glove boxes yep very nice set of books we got some service records with this thing it's it's just a fantastically kept example really rare to find one in this condition I think even the sunroof works no not really I had it open the other day so maybe just needs a loop all right let's go for a spin I would recommend not opening the sunroof anyway good that however uses it okay so now here it is the driving is what really separated Jaguars from a lot of their competition I mean they're out there competing with mercedes-benz he's like the old racing I mean this little company from Coventry would put out these cars into my mom's you know competing with the Giants you know the Ferraris the Mercedes and they took it to him they took it to him and they won quite a few races they became incredibly competitive in fact their racing history is really what jump you know jump started the company and made them start selling and gaining interest across the world nice kick down there so that what you know about 180 or something like that plenty of pep to move the car down the road but it's not a rocket ship and nor is it meant to be it's really just a great cruiser suspension wise it's all independent it's got four-wheel disc brakes you know it's got incredible poise and agility and that is what separated it from the from the asteroids BMWs you know the fake sedans this thing is really nimble light lovely to throw around corners not too much body roll you know it's just a fantastically well driving car and again you do feel like this fine old British gentleman I want to make a tweed cap and you know elbow patches and a pipe and you know make my way to Parliament so you can argue about that you know council tax on something but so there it is look 87 Jaguar xj6 44,000 miles on the clock an absolute time capsule this thing very hard to find one in this kind of unrestored mint condition if you're looking for the best one out there and you're willing to spend five times which you can get a crappy one for you know the jump on it because you're just not going to do better than this and there just aren't that many examples of this quality around a fantastic cars interesting company incredible mystique and once again everyone's gonna think you're a hero for trying to keep it on the road so if you have an interest give us a call two three nine to nine eight eight thousand on the web at AE maples calm thanks so much revenue Qui appreciate it or see you with the next one take care you

Channel: Curious Cars

Views: 82,693

Rating: 4.7871032 out of 5

Keywords: 1987, Jaguar, XJ6, XJ-6, Saloon, Sedan, Naples, Florida, Autohaus, Auto Europa, Doug, Hoovie

Id: ute20ky-gdY

Length: 20min 50sec (1250 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 12 2018