Arguably, there is no car in the history of the automobile that’s had a harder job than the Jaguar XJ-S. The direct descendant of a legendary family tree that includes such luminaries as the XK120, C-Type and D-Type, the job of the XJS was to replace the immortal E-Type. Yep – the car labeled by many as the most beautiful car to ever be produced.

Tough act to follow.

The XJ-S shifted the game on from the sporting antics of the E-Type, into a more grand touring role. It was faster, handled better, was more aerodynamic, and just plain nicer. Except it was no E-Type, and never would be. It did well, it sold in strong numbers, but it was never viewed as a true replacement for the immortal E in the eyes of many.

The XJ-S began life in 1975 with a V12 as the only engine option, quite exotic given that only Ferrari and Lamborghini produced V12s at that time, but it was a tough sell given the ongoing fuel crisis. An update in 1981 delivered the XJ-S HE (High Efficiency), but the redesigned cylinder head couldn’t mask the inherent in-efficiency of a big V12 lump sitting in front of an automatic transmission.

A 3.6-litre straight-six was made available in 1983, and the Coupe and newly introduced Convertible continued largely untouched until a major refresh in 1991. Those updates carried the XJ-S all the way through until the dawn of the internet age in 1996, when it was replaced by the XK8. Over a mammoth 21 year lifespan, some 114,000 XJ-S’ were built.

The key to enjoying the XJ-S is to forget that the E-Type ever existed. No, it never should have been considered a replacement for the E-Type. It’s something else again, something valuable in its own right. For decades the market seemed to have overlooked this point, and while values stayed low, true enthusiasts made best use and spent many happy decades enjoying these cars.

 

Even Harry Metcalfe, founder of Evo Magazine and owner of countless exciting exotics, is a proud XJ-S owner and advocate.

As our auction results tracking tool shows below, even the best XJ-S’ rarely traded hands for more than £20,000 before 2015. But then things started moving, and the market seemed to wake up to what proud XJ-S owners had known all along – that they’re actually a really great enthusiast car, and pretty special in their own right.

As with any of these sorts of cars, the key is to buy a good example. V12 Jaguars are heinously complex cars, irrespective of their market value, and the costs of maintaining them doesn’t change accordingly. Just because you had £5,000 ten years ago to get into the cheapest XJ-S you could find, doesn’t imply that you ever had the means to properly run a 140mph V12 supercar from the seventies. These are the cars that you need to really watch out for today.

The example in our photos is not one of those cars – it has been clearly pampered for its whole life, and drives accordingly. It is currently for sale via online auction with The Market, and represents one of the best opportunities to get yourself into a truly lovely XJ-S.

Studying the price curve reveals an interesting insight. The XJ-S wasn’t alone in experiencing a sudden price increase at the beginning of 2015, but a lot of the other classics that did have noticeably softened over the past 12 months. Have a look at what XJ-S’ are selling for in 2018 – they are just as strong as they were in 2015. This indicates to us that there is some substance behind the jump, that the market really has decided that the XJ-S is a bonafide classic, not just some old and rusty Jaguar coupe.

We predict that the XJ-S will continue to enjoy its time in the sunshine for a long while to come.