Description
Welcome to my 2003 XKR; this is the half-facelift version – it has the updated 4. 2 engine and 6 speed ZF gearbox, but came before the full set of styling changes seen in 2004/ 5. A bit of a sweet spot, I feel, as the earlier styling is a little more elegant.
Current mileage is around 69900, this will increase a little as the car is in use.
Whoever ordered this car new must have selected an ‘all of the above’ box on the options list, as it has everything:
- Radar cruise-control/ forward alert (I didn’t know this was a thing in 2003, but it was and it works well)
- 20' Detroit alloys (in perfect condition – no kerb marks on any of them)
- HID (xenon) headlights, auto height-adjusting and come on automatically; they’re much better on unlit roads than the standard halogen lights
- Electrically-adjustable seats (not sure how many ways adjustment, but it’s many...)
- Full leather interior
- Recaro sports seats (more on that later…)
- Electric folding mirrors
- Spacesaver spare wheel
The interior is of the 3 dial arrangement rather than the (now-obsolete) built-in satnav, so has aged well in appearance.
All of the electrics work without fault (not a given, on older Jaguars), and the air-conditioning is very effective; of our 3 vehicles, it’s by far the oldest and yet also the coolest place to be on a hot day.
An aftermarket head unit fitted by the previous owner pops out and up to provide a satnav screen, which is Android/ Apple compatible (see pictures). I believe it’s also hands-free integrated and can probably do lots of other things, but I’m not very tech-minded with cars so can only speak for the navigation and stereo bit, which is useful even if it does cover the HVAC controls when in place (it folds back down at a single button touch though). The original stereo is present and will come with the car.
Aside from a nice stainless exhaust and sports cats (back sections replaced last year for quieter silencers, though I have the two louder ones if you’d like them), the only non-standard aspect of the car is a small mod called RealGauge, by JagWrangler. This system means that the temperature and oil pressure gauges show actual live data instead of the three position ‘dumb gauge’ setup which Jaguar coded them for – a system which gives very little margin of error should there be a problem. It works well and is a nice feature; it’s also easily-reversible (it piggy-backs signals rather than being soldered in, so no hard installation) should a fully-standard setup be preferable.
An obvious question is the reason for sale, when this is probably the most complete and useable X100 XKR around after all that’s been done. Well – as you’ll see from the expenditure - the car wasn’t kind to me in early ownership (the gearbox fault requiring the rebuild materialised very shortly after purchase), and so it’s never quite got under my skin in the way I thought it would. While rationally, sale therefore makes no sense when the car owes me nearly twice what I’m asking and is fully sorted, I’d nonetheless like to clear the air and move onto something else on my shortlist – if you have a nice Quattroporte V with the ZF box, or a 4. 0 XJ40/ V12 XJ81, we may be able to come to an agreement.
Practically, our household also seems to be collecting dogs at present and more than one is a problem with a car this size. Hence a large saloon being the next purchase.
By all means ask for anything I may have missed in the description (email better than phone, though I’ll answer calls when I can), and – provided you have the right details, as below – you’re welcome to come and have a good test drive, look through the history, and ask any questions.
Personalised registration included in sale.
PLEASE NOTE: regarding test drives, that you must be able to show me:
-valid driving licence
-written proof of fully-comprehensive insurance (note that a lot of policy wording regarding use of other cars only provides third-party cover). I use Tempcover. com for my test drives, and find it cheap and easy to setup.
I’ll make a note of both prior to the drive, for deletion once we’re done. This isn’t negotiable – the car is powerful – so if you arrive without either of these, I will do the driving.
The car has been very well looked-after, with 17 service stamps (most recent just under 1000 miles previously, November 2025), and a huge amount of additional expenditure – including a full gearbox rebuild – from both myself and the previous owner.
Notable recent maintenance:
August 2026: replacement of hand brake shoes, and an advisory-free MOT pass
November 2025: major service, replacement of rear tyres, idler pulleys and belts, chest plate seal (expensive!), a full refresh of the coolant system including replacement of the thermostat and its housing, and replacement of both front lower suspension arms; over £4k in total.
July-September 2025: full gearbox rebuild (also over £4k) at Auto Gearbox Specialists Hailsham (authorised ZF Partner), including the Mechatronic system and oil cooler (the latter is often missed if the gearbox is simply replaced, but it’s a critical component – coolant contamination destroys gearbox internals).
Prior to this, the previous owner addressed all of the usual rust areas, including floorpans, front chassis, rear arches, and sills, and had rust protection professionally applied.
I had the underside of the car cleaned and checked for new rust in March 2026 (see pictures), with none being present. The car has never had an MOT fail or advisory for rust – highly unusual, for an X100.
The previous owner (2018-2025) had a large quantity of mechanical work carried out as well, including replacement of the diff in 2021.
