You Can Still Buy A Dirt-Cheap Classic Car On Bring A Trailer And This $2,300 Jaguar XJ6 Is Proof

Jaguar Xj6 Topshot
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While fancy internet car auction sites frequently cater to those who have it made, occasionally, a dirt-cheap deal pops up. This Jaguar XJ6 just sold on Bring A Trailer for $2,300, and while it’s certainly not perfect, it looks like a solid driver for bargain basement money.

On first glance, this XJ6 definitely doesn’t seem like the jankiest Series 3 car you can buy for $2,300. Sure, the paint on the trunk is faded and there are a few dents and scrapes, but there doesn’t seem to be any excessive corrosion on this thing, the Kent alloy wheels still look the absolute business, and once the sun’s below the horizon, this’ll look like a million bucks pulling up to a restaurant or theater. From gleaming chrome to those sturdy five mph bumpers, there’s a certain underworld vibe to a late XJ6 that feels so right.

Under the hood of this Jaguar XJ6 sits a 4.2-liter inline-six hitched to a three-speed automatic transmission. As you might expect, this combination doesn’t make for overwhelming acceleration, but it is smooth and well-suited to a four-door luxury cruiser. Interestingly, the engine in this XJ6 can trace its bones back to the 1948 XK120 sports car, and if that isn’t pedigree, I don’t know what is.

Jaguar Xj6 Engine

On the inside, things are a mix of good and bad. The leather is in astonishingly good shape for an example this inexpensive, with no huge rips on the seat faces and a rear seat that looks as if it were hardly ever used. Sadly, the walnut veneers haven’t stood the test of time quite so well, cracking like a dry lake bed on the console and dashboard. On the plus side, the headliner appears to be mostly staying up, and since headliner work is always awkward, I’d count that as a cheap car win. Besides, low-budget used car interiors can be worse. Have you seen how the inside of a GMT900 pickup truck ages?

Jaguar Xj6 Interior

Now, for $2,300, you’d expect some mechanical TLC to be needed on this Jaguar XJ6 and you’re right. The tires that are on it are reportedly dry-rotted, and the air conditioning is inoperable. Tires on a car like this are cheap, but air-con is less so. Oh, and the power antenna is broken off, but that’s rather minor for the price. The seller claims that both fuel tanks feed liquid gold to the engine and that the labor-intensive inboard rear brakes are in good shape, and this is a running, driving car. Fire a sub-$350 set of brand-new tires at it, roll the windows down, slide a Bluetooth cassette adapter into the tape deck, and cruise.

Jaguar Xj6 2

This certainly isn’t a show-worthy Jaguar XJ6, but it looks to be a promising driver, and for $2,300, that’s more than alright. It looks more than good enough for a cheap classic with 137,000 miles on the clock, and since most of the really dodgy examples out there have already been reincarnated as Maytags, there’s a high likelihood of this one being pretty decent. Whoever bought this is going to have lots of fun for their coin, and at the end of the day, isn’t fun something we all want from old cars?

(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer)

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35 thoughts on “You Can Still Buy A Dirt-Cheap Classic Car On Bring A Trailer And This $2,300 Jaguar XJ6 Is Proof”

  2. When I saw the headline picture, I did not think “cheap classic”. I thought “pre-Ford Jag that is a unreliable, poorly engineered and poorly built heap of shit”

    Seriously these heaps of shit were so bad that in the 1970s, I recall reading somewhere that it was recommended that if you buy one of these, you should have your own personal mechanic on your staff.

    Post-Ford Jags are much better than pre-Ford Jags unless you’re getting one of the pre-BL ones.

    1. They have their charm though. Cruising in one with your elbow out the window really made me consider buying one, despite the inevitable mechanical headaches down the line.

  3. Fire a sub-$350 set of brand-new tires at it, roll the windows down, slide a Bluetooth cassette adapter into the tape deck, jam a wire coathanger into the antenna hole and cruise.

  4. On these high miles may be a good sign. They are low priced when used and so often not well taken care of. Mine came from a little old man from Pasadena. Had over 100k miles. All stock. Kept it serviced. Was a lovely car to cruise in. Would not trust it on a road trip and then again it never let me down. An automatic suits it, maybe not the three speed.

    A great choice as a hobby car. Would only buy one after a full inspection and with lots of documentation.

    Oh, if you put a blown hemi in it the milage will improve.

    1. “Oh, if you put a blown hemi in it the milage will improve.”

      Of course the mileage will improve. If the engine is blown, it won’t run and won’t use any fuel at all!

      :-p

      1. You have to be a dad or were severely traumatized by one.

        I shared your comment with my daughter and as I laughed she looked at me with disgust

    1. As the owner of a 2004 XJR with 125k miles (purchased in 2018 with 100k miles), I can anecdotally say that mine has been no less reliable than various other 20 y/o, 100k+ mile cars that I’ve dealt with. It’s not something that I rely on as a daily driver, but it has been an excellent summer/weekend cruiser.

      2. My ’04 XJ8 splits daily driver duty with another car, and still gets driven 20k+ miles/ year. It’s worn surprisingly well and has been quite reliable. Quirky? Sure. But it still looks good and drives well at the 20 year mark and with 220k on the odometer.

    2. The Series Jaguars are truly lovely but always had iffy build quality, and today they are very out of date and hard to work on.

      The most reliable of the Jags, and one of the prettiest, is the 1994-1997 X300 XJ6. If you can find a well maintained one (not so easy these days), they are very easy to work on and near Toyota reliable mechanically. Ford money was spent on manufacturing and quality control, but the design and materials are pure jaguar. The earlier XJ40 has good design and materials, but can suffer from poor build quality and many had troublesome mouse belts. The later X308 is also very good, but the switch gear is cheaper, the ride less plush, and the V8 and ZF 5 speed more troublesome.

      The X350 is a much different beast! They are the best of all in terms of quality, and in the right trim the interiors are lovely. The ride and handling are impressive, but they do feel more ordinary to drive than the older jaguars. They feel like a very good large modern sedan with a veneer of Jaguar, rather than a traditional low slung Jaguar brought into the modern world.

  6. Here’s the thing – you can easily buy a show worthy or nearly so example of an XJ6 for under 10 thousand. Unless you’re really looking for a project car it will be cheaper to pay a little more for the best example you can find.

    I bought my 1988 XJ6 (XJ40 code) for $5600 in 2017 with only 38k miles on the clock and in pristine shape. I replaced the wheels and tires for $1200, and I have about another 2 grand into upkeep and mechanicals (mostly from a new steering rack, front shocks, and an oil pan repair due to some previous idiot overtorqueing the oil drain plug bolt). It’s been a lot of fun and it remains a striking, conversation-worthy car. And really, for a car approaching 40 years old it’s been surprisingly reliable – nothing like the horror stories you generally hear about Jaguars. I’d take it on a road trip today up the California coast without hesitation.

    Sadly, these cars don’t really seem to appreciate so I’d be happy to get 8 to 10 grand out of it if I sold it today. But at least it hasn’t lost value and it’s been fun, therefore a net win overall.

  7. I currently have two of these – one for parts I took in exchange for a month of rent from a tenant. The other is an ’82 with an ’87 Iroc Camaro drivetrain along with a whole bunch of documentation on the conversion. There’s even a placard stating it was California emissions compliant as of 1999. Picked it up for the exact price this one went for – $2300, although that was 10 years ago, so I guess it didn’t work out all that hot as an investment.

    As a car, it’s been great. To date I’ve spent a grand total of $3842 including purchase price, plates, tires, fluids, etc., and I’ve driven it well over 20,000 miles so far (the odometer was inop when I got it… among other things). Never fails to start a conversation when I’m out and about. My daughter loved learning how to drive on it, as well as being dropped off at school in it – it was her first choice of the fleet for first-day-of-school duties for many years. We’ve done several cross-state road-trips in it and even though the AC doesn’t work, the sunroof does and most of the electric windows do as well (most of the time). Overall it’s been one of my favorite old cars to own.

    I did have problems with it starting to overheat if stuck in traffic for a bit, but I felt like I may have solved that towards the end of last year (air bubbles in the cooling system) – looking forward to getting it out of storage within the next few weeks. I figure I can use it as a backup for my 2000 XK8 that I’m also planning to soon freshen up for Spring.

      2. An old friend of mine has continuously referred to it as the Chaguar, pronounced as a direct reference to Austin Powers. Almost always followed by a “yeah… baby”. And that’s almost always followed by a shot of Bushmills.

        I think “Jag-roc” has a nice ring to it in an 80’s television sort of way.

  8. Had two. My wife loved them. The first one I LT-1 swapped. The second was stock and very nice. Thing is, they ran the head bolts (studs? I forget) through the water jacket so corrosion led to one failing. It was quite interesting. Had my parents in the back seat when *Bang* the..fastener..hit the hood with resulting water feature.

    Took it to “Kat’s British Motors” in Denver where the back room guys declared that it was “Hydro Locked”. It was no such thing and I knew it. Had it towed home where I managed to extract the stub down in the block and replace the fastener.

  9. My family had one of these, somehow we got it because somebody owed by dad money for something… no idea what… and gave him the Jag instead.

    It caught fire twice, the horn honked itself at random times, and it left my mom on the side of the road on many occasions. Then it languished in our garage in a broken state for years.

    DON’T….. they are nightmares. Even if they look very pretty.

  10. These XJ6’s are wolves in sheep’s clothing, ready to kill your wallet, tools, and dreams. Don’t be tempted by their good looks, comfy seats, and giant work space of a hood.

    About 10 years ago I bought one on Craigslist for $1500 (for my ex) because it was “clean, running and driving, super luxurious!”. It was a little rusty and had the charm of a beaten dog, something that needed to be saved from the hands of evil before it. It had a hacked up stereo system, plenty of empty cigarette boxes and scented pine trees strewn about. It was dirty, it was old, and I fell in love.

    On the 8 mile drive home the temp gauge started to rise, the left front caliper started sticking, and the transmission didn’t want to kick down. After a weekend of wrenching and reading several manuals, the brakes stopped and the transmission shifted properly. I went to replace the thermostat and broke off the mount on the engine block side. No matter, a little SteelStik, time, and a new thermostat and we were off to the races… for a week.

    The alternator fried, the battery died, the right fuel tank stopped pumping. I replaced all these parts and was suddenly almost $3000 into a $1500 Jag. Then she wanted to drive it to Florida for vacation! Here I am doing 70 in an ancient Jag with the A/C blowing and life is good, comfy seats and a nice place to be. At least it was until the A/C compressor locked up and spun the belts off, at 2 AM, in Georgia.

    The final straw was when we were driving on Daytona Beach (trying to make the best of it after all) some kid yelled, “Hey your car is dragging!” I smiled and waved while trying to figure out what he meant. I pulled over to see the right rear subframe had completely rusted away and we were dragging that portion into the sand. Just had to drive it back 1500 miles home!

    We sold it on Facebook on our last day of the trip, took an Uber to a Carmax, and she bought a Cobalt SS that we drove home. To this day, I still loathe and miss that XJ6. More than that relationship anyway…

      1. I test-drove one decades ago. 355 crate motor with a hot cam/carb/intake, and a custom dual exhaust that was as quiet as a Lincoln. What a wicked light-blue sleeper it was.

      2. I did one to an ’87 Vanden Plas, but didn’t use an LT-1. Found a ’93 Caprice wagon with an LO5 350, since it was a year too old for the LT-1. I didn’t mind too much, except the stupid TBI was expensive to replace when it started to leak. Anyway I did a John’s Cars conversion and it went great. Wish I could do another one. It was a fun project and a fun car. Ended up giving it to my nephew, and someone crashed into the left rear wheel and knocked the IRS askew on the frame. Damn shame. Everything on that car worked great after the conversion except the cruise control, which would have been an easy afternoon fix that I never got around to. Just needed to wire the Jag stalk to the Chevy’s cruise control circuits, maybe six or eight wires. Oh well.

  14. The lack of seller engagement on cheap BaT auctions will always be funny to me. The entire discourse from the seller on the XJ6 was two comments, both directly copied from the auction:

    Hood close good

    Yes both fuel tanks working grate. Rear brakes are in good shape.

    Other questions unanswered included “do the gauges all work?” and “mileage of brake components?” Absolute shocker this one went cheap. This is also why I prefer Cars & Bids more direct “Known Issues” section versus a body of text that may or may not discuss actual issues like BaT has.

    1. I’m looking at 80 series Landcruiser on marketplace and are seeing a lot of ads like this. The complete lack of any info makes me highly skeptical of them.

      1. And they’re usually the ads that spout off “no lowballers, don’t waste my time, must be seen to be appreciated, no tire kickers, I KnOw WhAt I hAvE” etc

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