Jaguar Sovereign V12 Series 3

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Some choose a second home, a yacht or a lover to pour their heart, soul and bank account into. Others choose a car. This is a case of the latter…

Our vendor acquired this XJ12 in August 2002 when it had around 97,000 miles under its wheels and became only its fifth keeper. It came with a good history, owners pack and service book with some 18 service stamps plus PDI showing it was supplied new by HR Owen of London in August 1990. It was maintained by main dealers for 15 of the stamped 18 entries with specialists attending to it thereafter.

Keen to invest in the car, the vendor promptly spent over £18,000 on a range of mechanical and structural works during 2002/2003 with Classic & Collector Cars of Wiltshire. Later in 2003 a trip to Dragon Jag Centre of Cardiff saw another £970 spent on cooling issues and routine servicing.

A few years of light summer use followed before our vendor saw a feature on Top Gear where James may drove an XJS re-engineered by KWE of Thatcham. Suitably impressed, he commissioned KWE to add a plethora of expensive upgrades to his XJ12, proceeding to invest over £47,000 in goodies such as their uprated brakes/suspension/steering package (£6,985); V12 intensive engine service (£5,824); engine bay detailing (£1,069); interior retrim with two tone leather seats, blood red carpets, leather door cards, European walnut trim (£6,271); premium sound system (£1,900); wheels refurbished (£944); full repaint (£12,285) plus tons of other jobs – you get the picture.

Further trips to KWE to remedy a few glitches lightened his wallet still further, the exhaustive invoices for all this work making exhausting reading. The file also contains 20 old MOTs to confirm its current mileage of 109,782 and the MOT runs to July 2019 with no advisories recorded (what did you expect?). Following such a sustained bout of expenditure the car presents well with a particularly impressive interior and we are told that it drives as well as it looks.

Was it all worth the £65k+ poured into it over 16 years? Bid vigorously now and it could be you who finds out...