1995 Jaguar XJS 4.0

A limited edition to mark Jaguar’s 60th anniversary as well as the end of the XJS’s 21-year production run, the Celebration gained contrasting piping to the Oatmeal hide, a wood-rimmed steering wheel, different bumpers, and diamond-turned alloy wheels.

This one is also finished in Carnival Red, a colour that suits the XJS’s lithe lines very well, as well as the rare and desirable manual gearbox.

Only being sold because he is emigrating, the seller has owned ‘J40 RJD’ for the past 14 years, during which time he paid Jaguar specialists KWE more than £35,000 to carry out a “no expense spared” restoration.

Why spend so much?

Well, he’d owned three previous XJSs, all from new and all fitted with manual gearboxes. Of course, by the time he bought this one they simply weren’t available new anymore so he bought the best example he could find and then spent far too much money in restoring it to better-than-new condition.

It’s covered just 16,000 miles since and still drives beautifully with an especially nice exhaust note thanks to an AJ6 Engineering extractor exhaust system.

Of course, a hefty proportion of that £35,000 investment was spent on the bodywork including paint in its original colour of Carnival Red, colour code CFS.

Further paintwork was carried out by Spraycraft eight years later, and the result is the car you see here, a car whose neat panel alignment and consistent shutlines form the perfect canvas for the Carnival Red paintwork to shine.

The thin pinstripes showcase ripple-free doors too, and even the front spoiler is free of scuffs and scrapes.

Jaguar used chrome sparingly, restricting it to the top of the bumpers, the windows, the rear lights and boot, the headlamps, and the door handles and mirrors. But what they fitted is is both perfectly judged and almost perfectly preserved, with a very good shine and no dinks or heavy scratches.

It’s the same story with the 16-inch alloy wheels, which are free of the sort of kerbing damage we were starting to think was inevitable. They are losing their lacquer though, and would benefit from being refinished.

They’re also fitted with a matching set of four 225/55R16 Pirelli P6000 tyres. Made in 2011, while all have god tread left on them and no obvious damage to their sidewalls, they are old and will need to be replaced, so perhaps you could arrange to get the wheels refurbished at the same time you fit new rubber?

The restoration saw the oval headlamps, one Carello and one Cibie, being retained, which is great to see as the UK-spec light units are becoming increasingly hard to find, a situation that forces many folk to fit the American-spec ones that ruin the XJS’s handsome face.

These are also free of chips, cracks, and other damage, as are the rest of the light lenses.

The boot badges have developed a bit of a patina, but we don’t mind a bit of character when it’s set against paintwork as bright and cheerful as this.

The seller is honest enough to admit that there are a few spots of rust, some of which could be due to a water leak into the front passenger footwell. This could be something as simple as a blocked drain or it could be related to the rust at the base of the windscreen.

The front bumper also has some scuffs and scratches, the bonnet has the usual stonechips plus a few scratches, and the top scuttle is blistered below the windscreen.

The offside front wing is bubbling at its base and doesn’t fit as neatly as it might, the offside sill is starting to rust near the front wheel, and the driver’s door has a dent, peeling paint, a touch-up in its middle, and chips on its trailing edge.

The offside rear wing has also had its paint touched up, and we spotted some bubbling to the wheelarch and bottom corner. The boot lid has a few light scratches and chips too, and the bumper has a light scuff to its offside corner.

The nearside rear wing has a chip near the door plus touched-up paint and various scratches, the passenger door has a few chips and scratches, and the nearside front has scratches where it meets the bonnet.

The front seats were retrimmed at a cost of almost £2,000 and given they’ve covered so few miles since being finished it isn’t surprising to see they’ve weathered the past dozen years with impressive aplomb; still firm and only gently creased, they feel every bit as good as they look, not least because the work to the driver’s seat included new padding.

The 2+2 rear seats are in an even better condition; beautifully shaped to nestle their occupants, they’d be ideal for young children or grandchildren.

The Jaguar has had a new headlining fitted too, so that’s another job you aren’t going to need to worry about as it is still clean, taut, and free of damage.

The rest is delightfully coordinated with the Oatmeal leather upholstery being piped in mid-brown and the mid-brown carpets being edged in Oatmeal – and what isn’t covered in leather or high-quality carpet is finished in a light wood veneer that is in the same condition as the rest of the cabin.

The headunit is a modern Sony with Bluetooth connectivity, the small digital display in the centre of the dashboard still shows all its pixels, and the lettering on the switches and controls is still bright and vivid with the sole exceptions of the Speed Control and the horn.

The steering wheel is a tactile blend of wood and leather, the wooden gearknob for the manual gearbox fits the hand perfectly, and the red warning lights come on when the doors are opened.

The boot is as well-trimmed as the rest of the interior, and its grand-touring credentials are bolstered by the presence of a full-size spare wheel fitted with a Pirelli P4000 tyre, an umbrella, a set of booster cables, and no fewer than two proper Jaguar tool kits in addition to the jack and wheel brace.

Faults, therefore, are few: The central locking is a bit lazy, with the driver’s door occasionally not unlocking on the first attempt. The air-conditioning could be colder too, the central armrest is more worn than the rest of the cabin, and a small section of the outer edge of the driver’s seat has lost its colour.

That’s it though, which is pretty impressive, isn’t it?

The £35,000-rebuild included £10,000 to rebuild the suspension, £7,000 to recondition the top-end of the engine, £2,000 to sort the gearbox, and £3,500 on a tuned stainless-steel exhaust system.

There are also receipts on file for servicing and repair work before and after that, including one from 2009 for £8,600 and another from 2004 for £3,100.

The most recent work, which was carried out by DCM Classic Services in June 2026, included new injectors, sparkplugs, and a fuel pressure regulator and filter.

Little wonder then that the XJS drives so well: The ride is a little firmer than normal thanks to that suspension upgrade, but it also gives the Jaguar commensurately better handling.

As the video shows, it also starts well and shows good oil pressure, even at tickover. There’s also a healthy charge to the battery and the sort of smoothness that only comes with multiples of six cylinders; balance a pound coin on its edge and it’d still be there, even at 5,500 revs.

However, while our test drive went very well, we thought the gearchange was a bit vague and the revs bounced at idle.

The engine bay would also repay a few hours work in cleaning it, painting the rusty metal brackets and, perhaps, replacing the underbonnet soundproofing.

As for the underside, it looks strong enough although the past couple of MoTs have raised corrosion on the lower rear suspension arms as an issue. We also spotted an errant hose clip and a few spots of flaking underseal.

Its previous keeper bought it from XJS specialists Clarkes in 2009, at which time it bore the registration number ‘N837 DTR’.

The XJS’s MoT certificate is valid until June 2027, the recent Vehicle History Check is clear, and it comes with two keys.

The history file includes a V5C Registration Certificate in the seller’s name, a folder documenting the restoration (this is also available on a hard-disc and at J40RJD 4 litre coupé - Chris Knowles) along with a certificate confirming the work, invoices for other servicing and repairs, historical photographs, and the Jaguar book pack and wallet.

The Jaguar XJS was an icon when it was new and nothing has changed, three decades on.

But while it is universally loved – other drivers fall over themselves to let you out of junctions, and you’ll have more forecourt conversations than you’ve ever had before – prices have yet to take off in the way we’re sure they will.

Because this example, even with that huge investment in restoring it AND the presence of the factory-fitted manual gearbox, is only likely to fetch somewhere between £8,000 and £12,000.

Better yet, it’s being offered with no reserve, so it’ll be going to a new home no matter where the virtual hammer falls.

It’d be nice to get in at the ground floor for a change, wouldn’t it?

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