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easydebt

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  • First Name
    Alan
  • Gender *
    Male
  • Jaguar Model
    E-type
  • Year of Jaguar
    1969
  • UK/Ireland Location
    Shropshire

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  1. Just noticed Russ68 planning to fit Nexens. My STR came with fairly new ones, I have to say in 5000 miles use I found them to be excellent, more grip than is sensible to use on the public road, quiet and comfortable riding. I'm not a tyre snob and realise you don't get to test and reject a selection of tyres on the same car, same road and same weather conditions, so it can be a bit of a pig in a poke with one person's opinion countering another's. Can't comment on wear really, except I've had Nexens before (Civic and a Citroen Relay) and they seemed reasonable on that one..
  2. Thanks Russ. Yes fully installed at £4300 and at first I thought that was way OTT. I did find out after scrapping the car that a better deal was advertised by London Car Solutions, same cost but with a fully-reconditioned engine. I did also look at it as a DIY prospect, costing it all up with a 20% margin for snags at £2500, after all I've done all the things like engines in a TR7V8, bikes, I've changed suspension bushes and reluctor rings on a S Type before, been messing about with motors for 40 years now. But I was doubtful on this one and a couple of mates took one look under the bonnet and pronounced themselves unavailable, permanently; a friend of mine in the trade pointed out that the quotes/offers seen would inevitably turn out higher; he himself had tried to remove the radiator from a 10 year old S Type and after an hour of struggling and cursing, the core disintegrated in his hands. It's the cost against the value of the car for me you see Russ, I was gutted but I think I let my head rule my heart. They're an impressive car, although a bit Marmite to a lot of people and yet to go up in value. Good ones might well do so sometime, especially as they become rarer partly 'cos people like me let them go to the Great Yard in the Sky. They're lovely to drive, very relaxing, classy in their own way yet with real performance on tap. So back to the OP, is it worth a gamble? Hell yes providing you can accept the risk of losing your money (but same with a Merc or BMW or anything prestige but now old), that's why they are now such bargains to buy. A work colleague recently bought his dream car, a 3.4 996, delighted it came with £9k worth of reconditioned engine at only 45k miles (the infamous cylinder cracking had occurred), so why was it being sold very soon after? Needless to say he's had loads of problems including failing variocam solenoids (£2k+ repair), rotted radiators and the car's only worth £15k tops. Same thing not exclusive to the S Type.
  3. Many thanks Peter, don't worry I will. I continue to be afflicted by the Jaguar bug, with a '69 E Type which will stay with me to the end . I'm certainly not averse to another Jag as a daily driver, maybe when I'm fully retired and don't need to do many miles. I'll swallow the stereotype about retired people and jags when I can say "Oi I resemble that remark!". I know forums can get keyboard warriors, some people can turn nasty when someone challenges their almighty knowledge, also the internet can exaggerate problems with specific cars so that you'd never buy anything! This was just my experience, I'm over it now (twitch twitch!), a well sorted STR in rude health is a conspicuous bargain and a hoot to drive.
  4. Hi to all having read most of this topic with interest and not having contributed to the club's forums before, I thought I would add my experience. I only had my STR for 5 months, I thought I had got the best possible example, from condition, loads of invoices for work done and a FDSH on 95k. It was an '02 in Zircon Blue. I was really happy with the car, cruising at just under 2000rpm on a long motorway journey, it would even do 30mpg, not that that was ever a priority. Performance was good, not far off the 5ltr XKR I had a few years ago, although slightly blunted by the auto's insistence on changing up too early, even if in 'manual' selection. The XKR had the same box and another 100bhp, but presumably different software? I had the rot in the sills, fortunately only small patches both sides about 20cm back from the front end and easily fixed. The rear subframe was also found heavily surface-rusted but still solid. The infamous hose under the supercharger was still intact but a local garage said they all go at my mileage, however they could do it for about £300 depending on exactly what ancillaries needed replacing, rather than the £1000+ I'd heard about. I also had occasional slight surging in revs under light load at 1700rpm in Sports mode, rumour was this was a failing torque converter, but it didn't do it in Normal mode. At 98k, cruising at low revs, an engine rattle developed. Turned out to be one of the main bearing caps had fretted loose, lunching the bottom end. Despite my understanding these engines have a bulletproof reputation, the marque specialist who took it in told me they now get a steady stream of these engines letting go in this manner at these miles. The cheapest (!) option was another second-hand engine with just a 30 day warranty, at £4300 all in!! After much soul-searching, I decided to scrap the car, not least over the dawning realisation that even with another engine, the car had reached a point where lots of things were quite easily going to cost big money, e.g. found the headlamp washers had failed, no obvious fix, needed for next MOT due to being fitted and with xenon lamps, complete bumper-off job, intermittent ABS sensor fail, the aforementioned hose?, seat and pedal position memory fail etc etc. Still a big Jag fan, lots of other makes have their own faults, it was the engine fail I wanted to mention as it was a shock to me, but apparently starting to become known in the trade, same with LR's as they use the same engine.
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