Is the Jaguar XJ also on your wish list?
“The Series III is in my opinion the last real XJ”
Is the Jaguar XJ also on your wish list? Not surprising, because the appeal of this stylish British limousine is great and Sacharko Boere could not resist it. For over ten years he has shared joys and sorrows with his green XJ6 Series III and we are doing ourselves and the readers a great favor with his appearance in this column.
Owner Jaguar XJ
Name: Sacharko Boere
Year of manufacture: 1973
Occupation: TV presenter and voiceover
First car: Volvo 740 Turbo
Dream car: Ferrari 308 GTB
XJ bought from a Swiss
We do understand why Sacharko in 2012 fell head over heels for this particular copy. The color, the interior, the coveted Pepperpot wheels and the classic lines that combine sportiness and functionality so well, will make you fall in love immediately. “I had been looking for a nice and good XJ for quite some time. That turned out to be not as easy as expected”, he frankly admits. It was already established in advance that it had to be a Series III. “In my experience, it is the last real XJ and a well-developed model. And all with many of the external features of the first XJ6.”
He has viewed many copies in the Netherlands and also made a number of test drives, but time and time again the click was not there. “In Germany you have considerably more choice and while scrolling through the advertisements my eye immediately fell on a beautiful and very seductive interior photo. I had to open that advertisement and so I called the private seller in Germany a week later. After a short introduction we walked to the garage. The door opened. I didn’t want to cheer, but I just couldn’t. That was not good for the negotiating position, but I was no longer interested in that at that time.”
Sacharko had found the right one and the deal was quickly closed. The first owner turned out to be a Swiss, who has always taken good care of the car, and the second owner pampered the XJ just as intensively. “The only thing that was wrong with it at the time was a non-working air conditioner. So we still had something to negotiate about. In any case, I had my dream car and I have not regretted it for a moment. Contrary to all the horror stories that people throw into the world, I have not had any problems with the technology.”
Nearly ten grand in parking fees
The fact that the Jaguar has a quiet life with the Boere family obviously plays a role. “We take it for rides when the weather is nice. In the winter it hardly goes outside, although I try to drive it once a week. For the daily kilometers I have a Volvo 960, certainly no punishment. Besides the XJ I have a Mercedes 380 SL for the sunny days. In the back of the Jaguar are two small spotlights that serve as a reading light. The children love that. It did cause an empty battery once, because the lights had been on all night,” laughs Sacharko. The dry storage he rented in an underground car park in Utrecht has cost him almost €10,000 over the past ten years. “I will never see that money again in the event of a sale, but I am happy to talk about it. You can’t imagine that a car like this is outside day and night, in another wind?”
It reminds him of the time he drove a good friend on his wedding day. “The evening before I drove to Groningen and the weather was beautiful, but on the big day itself it really came down from heaven. That was a bit of a swallow, but luckily the bridal couple was dry and comfortable. And a little water won’t kill him either; brine is worse. He doesn’t get the chance to get really dirty, because I’m a real cleaner. Great to drive the XJ out of the garage on a free Saturday and get started with cherry-scented wax,” says the owner. He has had the wheels repainted and they are clearly not skipped when cleaning. “It’s quite a job, with all those round holes. After two wheels my fingers are blue, so the kids can do the other two! After that it shines nicely next to the house, but even then the pigeon in the American oak knows how to aim its big message exactly between two seams with rubber.”
Flirting with the XJ-S
The odometer reading is now 145,000 km, which is not much for a car that is almost 37 years old. The Swiss owner already had some rust touched up, but now we see some small bubbles under the sheet metal here and there. They have been there for years and are not getting worse, or so we hear. The largest and most expensive repair was that of the air conditioning. “That cost €2,000 and afterwards I sometimes wonder why I had it done, because it was not really necessary. Not long after purchase, I had the air injection system removed. This was once installed in Switzerland and has to do with exhaust gas emissions. This probably resulted in a tax advantage there or the system was perhaps mandatory. Anyway, a large pump was running at the front of the engine and that also eats energy.”
Sacharko has been looking for new panels for the center console for some time now. That turns out to be a difficult task, because the right color wood veneer cannot be found, according to him. “Last week I was able to find a part in Houten (what’s in a name, MK).”
Klokje Rond chef Dennis Koldewijn visibly enjoyed the ride with the XJ6. “Really a wonderful car for quiet cruising and the interior is beautiful,” he says. In the workshop he takes a close look at the engine compartment and the chassis, where we find no defects, apart from a stuck brake caliper at the rear right. That nothing car crazy is strange to Sacharko, becomes clear when he mentions towards the end of our session that a new love is in the picture. “I would really like to have a Jaguar XJ-S. It gets more beautiful every year. Then the XJ would have to go, something that is hard for me, because I don’t get tired of that either. I never thought I would like a car for so long.”
The history of the XJ
If you say Jaguar, you say XJ. Since its introduction in the late 1960s, this stylish sedan has been the pillar of the brand and a long-cherished wish for many car enthusiasts. Jaguar lays the foundation in 1968 with the XJ Series I (even though it was simply called XJ6 at birth), which replaced the MK II and S-type. In 1973 comes the Series II, most easily recognized by the slightly raised front bumper. In 1972 Jaguar presented the XJ with a twelve-cylinder engine and from 1974 the long wheelbase (2.86 instead of 2.76 metres) was standard on all versions. The Coupé makes its debut in 1973 (production start in 1975) and does have the shorter wheelbase. In 1979, the Series III replaces its predecessor and in terms of format everything remains the same. From 1984, the type name Sovereign appears on the XJ, to indicate the most luxurious version. The Series II with V12 was built until 1992, although the XJ 40 has been in the showroom since 1986. This is a completely newly developed car, although it hardly differs from the first batch with its dimensions and wheelbase. The 40 also lays the foundation for the X300 introduced in 1994, the first under the Ford banner. In 1997, the X308 replaces him, the main feature of which is the arrival of V8 engines, which means it is over and out for the famous six-cylinder. In 2003 it is the turn of the X350, which is clearly a size bigger. And especially a lot higher: no less than 15 centimeters compared to its predecessor. In combination with the longer wheelbase, this results in considerably more interior space. The base model has a 3.0-liter V6 and thanks to the use of a lot of aluminum, the X350 is much lighter than its competitors. It is the first XJ to be available with a diesel engine. The last generation XJ for the time being is the X351 from 2009, which really has nothing left of the classic XJ lines and was in production until 2019. In 2020, Jaguar will announce a new all-electric XJ. We haven’t heard anything about it since then.
Maintenance history
Rust repair on A and C pillars (Switzerland)
New gas pump, filter and regulator
New air conditioning system
Swiss air injection system removal
Engine tuning
Wheels sprayed
The opinion of Carrec Technocenter
Dennis Koldewijn: “It is a fine, luxurious car with a smooth six-cylinder engine, coupled to an automatic transmission. That 4.2 liter displacement makes it a large engine, which is good for just over 200 hp. A car with which you especially want to cruise, enjoying the comfortable interior. The condition is good, the maintenance was done by a Jaguar specialist. Unfortunately, the body does show some rust, which fortunately does not really seem to continue. The only serious flaw was a stuck rear brake that the owner had already noticed. If this is addressed, the Jaguar will be good for many sovereign miles again.”