Description

1986 Jaguar XJ6 SIII 3.4 Automatic

From a deceased estate; current owner 5 years; 82,700 miles; recent service and new Pirelli tyres; recent £5k spend and recent MOT with no advisories

The ground-breaking XJ6 made such an impact at launch that virtually every other luxury saloon on the market was rendered over-priced and obsolete overnight.

Its combination of stunning looks, performance, refinement and ride comfort, not to mention value for money, shook the rest of the industry to the core. No wonder CAR magazine voted it 'Car of the Year' in 1968 and later, in 12-cylinder Daimler form, 'Best Car in the World'. It remained in production for 26 years, going through three stages of development before being replaced by the X300 in 1994.

The Series 3 model (as here) came out in 1979 and was subtly redesigned by Pininfarina with a few minor tweaks to improve safety and wind noise, with features such as bigger rubber bumpers, flush-fitting door handles, one-piece front windows with no quarter lights and a raised roof-line for increased passenger head-room. Build quality also went up markedly to address some of the shoddy practices that had crept in during production of the Series 2.

This XJ6 Series 3 has the smooth, carb-fed 163bhp 3.4 engine and was supplied new via Julians of Reading to first owners Dial Contracts of London SW15 in February 1986. It then had four further owners before our vendor spotted it for sale at a classic car show in Llanelli in 2011. A friend of his was looking for a nice Jaguar so a phone call was made and a deal was swiftly done, the friend buying it for £3,500 with 77,100 miles on the clock.

In January 2018 the friend decided to sell the car and our vendor was keen to buy it from him – a decision soon sealed when he scraped the rear wing on a fence post just as he was setting off on a pre-purchase test drive so he could hardly hand the car back!

Deciding that the Jag was 'a keeper', he promptly sent it off for a full respray, also treating it to a major service, new exhaust sections, new battery, new rear brake calipers, discs and pads (including handbrake), new windscreen, new headlining and Evans waterless coolant at around the same time. In 2020 it got four new Pirelli tyres and in 2021 it also got electronic ignition.

In April this year it had another service and some attention to the bodywork/underside, the bill for this lot coming to a hefty £5,216. Sadly the vendor passed away not long afterwards – hence the car’s appearance in this sale.

In addition to the aforementioned invoices, the car retains all its original handbooks, the service book showing five Jaguar main agent stamps up to November 1988 by which time it had covered 35,346 miles. An invoice shows that in 2003 the ignition timing was adjusted by Jaguar to make the car suited to unleaded fuel. It also has 20 old MOTs going back to 1999 at 66,869 miles, the current MOT running until April 2023 with no advisories recorded.  

Now showing 82,740 miles, the car has been starting promptly and driving well as we have moved it around on site, with good 40psi oil pressure, although we did detect a slight misfire. As you can see in the photos, it looks very presentable with a nice grey leather interior although the paint/bodywork has a few blemishes here and there.

These Series 3 Jags are wonderful cars to drive or be driven in, with a ride quality that still puts most moderns to shame. On offer here at a modest guide price, this old girl will simply make its new owner feel better every time they slip behind the wheel.  

For more information contact James on 07970 309907 or email james.dennison@brightwells.com