Rubbish Cars We Love: Jaguar XJ6 – Squaring Up For a Fight
In 1986 Jaguar introduced the XJ40, which was essentially an XJ6 with rectangular headlights and fewer curves. And essentially people were miffed about it too.
Slippery Slope:
The rot set in with Jaguar’s XJS in the early-eighties. The Mark 1 was a Formica junkyard drinking more petrol than a double-decker Humvee. Although a change of image was needed, Jaguar felt they had hit the jackpot with the XJ6 and kept tweaking through economy. ‘Make money by saving money’, that’s the big cat way.
While continuing to play with the XJS (a car they would finally get right about a week before discontinuing it), Jaguar hoped the XJ40 would bring in some much needed cash by appealing more to the masses than the offensively minted. This new XJ had been on the cards since the late seventies, and not much had changed on the drawing board over half a decade later.
Just when everyone else was starting to think round again, Jaguar went square. Co-designed by Pininfarina, the normally reliable Italian had a field day with the XJ40; “A corner here, a right angle there, and how about a pasta bake tin for the headlights, no?” Lord alone knows if he approved the dreadful cloth seats as well.
Public reaction to this thrifty Jag was grumbly at best. Though time has been generous to the XJ40. Find a good one and it might even be worth taking to your school reunion. Find a bad one and you’ll be towing it there.
Sit Down, Sir:
Alpine forestry interior was standard for all Jaguars in the 1970’s/80’s. Even as a cost costing exercise the XJ40 was no different. Cloth and plastic was the bargain basement option, along with a woefully pathetic 2.9 litre engine. If you purchased one of these you were a loser, no question. Why anyone would struggle to buy the bottom range model of anything is beyond us.
Thankfully Jag soon dropped the 2.9 and replaced it with a slightly more willing 3.2, promptly instructing dealers that anyone ordering cloth trim be reported to the Wild Wildlife Fund. Those poor cows had to make a living somehow.
You Will Or You Won’t:
Nothing was particularly wrong with the revamped XJ6. It was a cheap Jag when Jags were getting cheaper. It still bared all the hallmarks of the brand: smooth ride, long wheelbase, unpredictable circuitry. But for many it was not what was missing that caused concern…being flat enough to use as a dinner table is one thing, having the world’s most ill advised front-end is something else entirely.
That the public initially baulked at the XJ40’s headlights has only worked in its favour on the used market. Take a look around and all the most affordable retro-Jags are 40s. Plus those lights do not seem like quite such a balls-up idea nowadays. They fit the old thunderbus’ brutally angular lines perfectly. Symmetry they call it. The S Type, that’s what you call a real cock-up. If you want a Mark 2 , people; just buy a Mark 2.
Check or Cheque?:
Like us you have decided a cheap Jaguar is the car of your impoverished dreams. How can you ensure your car has not been used as student marijuana dealer’s weekend ride? Or worse still, has been sitting gathering woodworm in a dead man’s garage for the past decade?
The problem is that those in the know have been snapping up quality XJ40s for a while now. Most of the best examples change hands through club ownership (try the Jaguar Drivers site), with everything that’s left enticing the clinically gullible in high street car parks.
If you desperately want a square-jawed XJ6 you can buy one for less than £500. If you want your money to last longer than a fruit fly you will need to up this amount to at least £1000. Still not bad money for a luxury car that cost somewhere in the region of £30,000 new.
