1996 Jaguar XJ6

Supplied to its one and only owner - veteran British crooner Vince Hill - this 3.2-litre XJ6 Executive was first registered on 5 August 1996 by TWR Jaguar of Oxford.

Although Vince’s time in the hit parade spotlight was in the sixties and early seventies, he continued to release albums, make TV appearances and play live at venues all around the world throughout the eighties, nineties and noughties.

The XJ6 was his daily transport to UK performances - often driving to working men’s clubs in the north of England for a gig, performing and then driving home straight afterwards, at first to Bushey near Watford (handy for the M1) and latterly to his current home near Henley on Thames.

A diagnosis of Age-related Macular Degeneration just over a decade ago stopped Vince driving far and he also retired from regular gigging. The car has been garaged and barely driven since - although he’s kept it serviced and roadworthy and loved it so much he couldn’t bear to part with it until now.

The exterior of this handsome XJ is painted in Jaguar’s British Racing Green (code HFB), accented with a silver coach stripe down each side. Aside from a couple of car park dints in the sides and knocks on each corner of the front bumper, the bodywork appears to have escaped any serious damage.

The paintwork - although apparently resprayed some years ago - is now looking rather tired, with age-related marks such as chips on the nose and wheel arches and scratches on the flanks, as well as the occasional patch of micro blistering. The red paint around the tail lights is starting to flake off and there is also a small area of rust developing behind the bumper below nearside headlamps.

The Jaguar sits on its original 16-inch ‘Dimple’ alloy wheels, which are looking a little scruffy with surface corrosion but don’t appear to be overly scuffed or damaged. The fronts are fitted with Pirelli P4000 tyres and the rears with Dunlop SP Sports. There is some cracking in the older rubber and wear on the outer edges of the treads, so it may be best to replace them all and perhaps get the suspension geometry checked too.

Calling out the defects of a car can come across as a little negative but whilst just going over this Jaguar with a MOP won’t fix everything, we don’t think it will take much work to get this largely straight car looking great again.

The interior is a similar story of largely solid trim just needing a bit of a refresh. Light coloured leather like the car’s cream upholstery doesn’t usually age well and the patina, creasing and cracking on the front seats in particular, and the scratching on the steering wheel pad belie its relatively low mileage and 27 year age.

The rest of the interior is a mix of beiges, truffles and creams along with wood veneered panels across the dash and the door trims - all of which have fared better than the leather in terms of wear. As is typical, the rear seats show less patina although the centre armrest is a little discoloured.

The instrument panel is also wood veneer, setting off the black dials well. The central dash houses the original radio cassette player and we’ve got just the right album in the car’s folder to slot in - The Very Best of Vince Hill!

The sandy-beige carpets look relatively clean and intact throughout, with the protective overmats front and rear doing their job of catching the dirt instead of the flooring underneath. Up above, the headlining looks clean and is secure at the edges but has let go across the roof and is now sagging.

Under the front-hinged bonnet - which has its acoustic insulation liner intact - there are small patches of surface rust across the front panel above the radiator but elsewhere the engine bay appears in good condition. The engine itself looks well maintained - the belts appear fairly recent for example - and we can attest that it starts and runs smoothly, with plenty of torque.

Underneath the car, there is rust across the bottom of the radiator / oil cooler housing, along with traces of vegetation perhaps from driving across a grass field. Elsewhere, the floor pans appear sound but the rear sub-frame is also rather rusty. The most recent MOT in August last year pointed this out as an advisory but determined that it hadn’t weakened the structure. Would-be bidders should take a good look through the detailed photos of the undersides to satisfy themselves of the condition underneath.

Inside the spacious boot, the carpet and linings are clean and intact - including the insulative liner on the boot lid itself. Under the floor is the battery compartment, one of the car’s five fuse boxes and a Pirelli-shod, full size spare alloy wheel enclosing the jack and wheel brace.

The XJ6 has a current MoT valid until August 2023, which it passed with advisories on corrosion to the rear sub-frame and a rather rapid nearside indicator.

The car doesn’t have much in the way of a history file but we understand that it continued to be well looked after and given an MoT each year even when it wasn’t driven much. It does come with the original owner’s book pack, including a service record which includes the following main dealer service stamps:

• Aug 1996 - 61 miles PDI - TWR Jaguar Oxford
• Aug 1997 - 5,144 - a/a
• Dec 1998 - 17,500 - a/a
• Jan 2001 - 28,236 - a/a

According to the MOT records, the car’s annual mileage hit a plateau around 2011 when the owner stopped driving due to problems with his eyesight. It has covered sometimes as little as 10 miles a year since, presumably to the MOT station and back - and the odometer now shows around 73,700 miles.

The vendor reports that the car was resprayed some years ago and that more recently it has had a new gearbox sensor and water pump.

A one-owner car like this with ‘good bones’ but a tired look could be the perfect choice for someone who wants to try their hand at bringing a handsome luxury car back to its former glory. There doesn’t seem to be anything at all wrong with the drivetrain, although the power steering isn't working properly, so it would be a matter of sorting the subframe and suspension before tackling relatively straightforward cosmetic jobs like the paintwork and interior.

You probably won’t have to find a lot of cash to buy it either, as the classic car market hasn’t really begun to appreciate the Jaguar X300 in the way we’re sure it eventually will.

We think it will sell for between £3,000 and £5,000 - true to the cliché that it’s a lot of car for the money - and NO RESERVE has been set so you may find that a cheeky low bid wins it.

But don’t bid too low - the proceeds of this sale will be going to either the Macular Society (of which Vince is a patron) and Blind Veterans UK depending on how much is raised.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at Bonhams|Cars Online HQ near Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.