Jaguar XJ6 Series 3: the Pininfarina polish on Lyons' last saloon (1979–1992)

The Series 3 is the XJ6 perfected, and the proof is how long it refused to die. Launched in March 1979 as a reskin of Sir William Lyons’ 1968 saloon, it was meant to hold the line until the XJ40 arrived; it ended up outliving its replacement’s welcome, carrying Jaguar through the John Egan quality revival and the 1984 privatisation, and staying in production as the V12 until the end of 1992. Around 132,000 were built, it was the Jaguar on every successful driveway of the 1980s, and it is now the XJ to use: the best built, the best supported and the cheapest good big Jaguar there is.

The XJ6 and XJ12 guide covers the whole three-series story; this page is the Series 3’s own, what changed, the engines and the badges, what to check and what one costs.

What Pininfarina changed

Jaguar handed the facelift to Pininfarina, and the Italians treated the shape like the monument it was. The roofline rose and the pillars slimmed, enlarging the glass and the cabin; the door handles went flush, the bumpers wrapped around in black-faced form, the grille grew a subtle vane, and the details moved the car into the 1980s without breaking a line Lyons had drawn. Underneath, the 4.2 gained Lucas fuel injection, a proper five-speed manual replaced the old overdrive box for the few who wanted it, and the cabin was steadily upgraded through the run. It is the only case of an outside house restyling a Jaguar icon and being thanked for it.

Six cylinders, twelve cylinders and the Egan rescue

The engines told the range’s story. The 3.4 XK six stayed on carburettors for the fleet buyer; the injected 4.2, with about 200 bhp, was the heart of the range and the engine in most survivors; and the 5.3 V12 sat above both in the XJ12 and Daimler Double Six, from 1981 in high-efficiency HE form with 295 bhp and a genuine 147 mph. Build quality, dire in the late British Leyland years, became the company’s public battleground: John Egan’s quality drive from 1980 fixed the Series 3 in full view of the press, sales rose on the proof, and the car’s success underwrote Jaguar’s 1984 return to private ownership. The six-cylinder cars ran to spring 1987; the V12s, built in small numbers at Browns Lane, to the end of 1992.

Sovereign, Daimler and Vanden Plas

The badges were a ladder on one car. Until 1983 the plusher XJ6 wore Daimler’s Sovereign name; from 1983 Jaguar took Sovereign for its own top six-cylinder trim, and the Daimler range became the Double Six and the Vanden Plas above it, fluted grilles, rear picnic tables and the deepest walnut in the catalogue. Mechanically they are all the same saloon, and the market prices them close enough that the sensible buyer shops on condition and lets the badge fall where it may; a Daimler usually brings more equipment for the same money, and the last Double Sixes are the most opulent Lyons-shape Jaguars ever built.

What it is like to drive and own

Nothing this side of far more modern metal rides like a sorted Series 3. The steering is light and alive, the six is smooth and the V12 smoother, and the car covers ground in a silence that explains every legend about Jaguar saloons; the manual 4.2 is the enthusiast’s pick and the automatic the character fit. Running one is the XJ bargain it always was, with parts supply excellent, the specialists everywhere and the club scene deep; the costs that matter are body repairs, which dwarf the car’s value, and the V12’s appetite when neglected. Fuel economy is high teens for the 4.2 and low teens for the V12. The earliest Series 3s are in the historic vehicle tax class now, a 1986 car joins in April 2027, and none clears the London ULEZ.

Buying guide: what to look for

The shell decides everything, because an XJ rusts in places that cost more than the car: the multi-section sills, the floors, the wheel arches, the valances, the boot floor, the screen surrounds and the rear radius-arm mountings, where rot lets the suspension pull away. Buy the driest, straightest shell in reach and treat everything mechanical as detail. On the engines, the 4.2 wants proof its cooling has been kept right and tolerates old-age oil leaks; the V12 is a joy with an unbroken history and a liability without one; gearboxes and axles rarely trouble anyone. Then the cabin and the electrics, which set the top of the market: wood, leather, working air conditioning and central locking, and the long file of a garaged car. A cheap V12 remains the classic trap, and a £3,000 Series 3 is usually a £10,000 restoration wearing a temptation.

Current value and where it sits

Within the wider XJ6 record on this site the Series 3 sales, about 250 of them, sit at a median of £5,300, with the middle half between roughly £2,900 and £9,300; projects start around £1,000, honest cars sit at £4,000 to £9,000, and the best low-mileage Sovereigns and V12s reach £15,000 to £25,000. The highest recorded XJ6 sale in the data, £41,900 in 2024, was a Series 3, which says what the market thinks of the best of them. The full family record, badge against badge with the coupé, the XJR and the Daimlers, is on the page covering what a classic XJ sells for.