10 used Jags we found this week for £10k or less

The Jaguar S-Type R (for ‘really quite entertaining’) took an aggressively OK car and gave it the kind of teeth company founder Sir William Lyons would be proud of. Fitted with a glorious 4.2-litre supercharged V8 producing a sniff over 400bhp, you ended up with serious performance in a rather unassuming shell. Jag being Jag, it wasn’t simply given a big motor and sent on its way - no, it could come with all sorts of toys, including a rear privacy screen… presumably to protect rear passengers’ eyes from seeing plumes of tyre smoke firing out of the rear.

Grace, pace, and space were Jaguar’s three core pillars from the off, and the the 5.0-litre V8 XF has all three in spades. The follow up to the S-Type, the XF brought heaps of modernity to Jaguar’s saloons, causing people who’d usually fawn over all things German to admit they wouldn’t mind sending a bit of their hard earned cash to the Midlands. The V8 in this XF is more for smooth cruising than all out performance, but it comes with a suitably slick soundtrack. Though for less than £10,000 you might want to brace yourself for some bills…

Built to replace the XJS, the original XK came with wafty V8 power and smooth, elegant looks. Two years after its 1996 launch Jaguar brought out a supercharged R version. Packing 370bhp (lots for the 90s), it mixed incredible looks with grin-inducing punch. Towards the end of the first generation XK’s life, an XKR even found its way into a Bond flick, so it’s technically a Bond car too. There are plenty kicking around, and for less £10,000 you can find some, erm, interesting examples like the one we've stumbled across here, but with some TLC you’ll be stylishly smoking your way around town in no time.

How do you get a little bit of E-Type cool without breaking the bank? Get yourself its successor - the XJ-S. Famed for its flying buttresses on the rear, it was a softer, more GT-ish successor to the E-Type (you won’t find one of them for less than £10k unless you go to Bburago) that burst onto the scene in the mid-seventies and stayed for just over twenty years. You could get an XJS with in-line sixes or a glorious V12 - the latter made it quite the rare beast in its early days, as sporty V12s were usually the job of the Italians.

The last Jaguar XJ was one of the coolest luxobarges out there. It was beautifully designed, drove wonderfully, rode softly, and stood out from the German crowd. Its replacement was supposed to be here (and electric) by now, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. Instead, we’ll have to make do with a leggy-ish derv wagon. It’ll have the looks, and the V6 diesel under its nose might not be the most powerful in the world, but when you’re lounging in the back… who cares? If you can find a supercharged V8 for keen money do let us know though, yeah?

Other than the E-Type, when you think of a classic Jag what do you think of? A rounded off saloon favoured by TV detectives from the 1990s? You’re thinking of the Mk 2. It came with straight six engines ranging from 2.5- all the way up to 3.8-litres, which gave it varying degrees of punch. Festooned with wood, chrome, and leather, it was the sort of car you’d expect to find outside a country pile owned by someone with a triple-barrelled surname. If you close your eyes you can almost smell the leather. And hear John Thaw on the wind. Probably.

The second generation XK was a turning point for Jaguar - it ushered in a new design direction, an era of cool that hadn’t been seen for a long ‘ol while. Modernity, and getting the hell away from the ‘Oh, my Grandad LOVES Jags!’ image that plagued it at the time were the order of the day for the new GT. It launched with a 294bhp 4.2-litre V8, and was later given a whole heap of exciting upgrades (XKR-S GT, we’re looking at you) to make it a really quite incredible bit of kit. Looks, waftability, and under ten bags? Doesn’t get much better than that.

Introduced in 1968, the Jaguar XJ was the firm’s top of the line car for well-to-do chaps and chapettes with places to be and certain standards to be met. Building upon the legacy laid down by Jaguar’s saloons of old, it’s an imposing thing that promised luxury from every pore. The first generation, of which we’ve found a Series 1 example, was around for 24 years and could come with plenty of exciting engines… and a 2.8-litre inline six with moderate power and a propensity to go pop. Still, it’ll look suitably luxuriant sitting immobile on your drive.

It was supposed to be the great followup to the XJ, the car that’d usher Jaguar into a new era of softly sprung executive transporting brilliance… It was also supposed to be out sooner than its 1986 debut. Its late arrival was the least of its maladies, as a woefully underpowered base engine (though competitively priced) and electrical gremlins marred its reputation. Not Jaguar’s finest hour, though you can’t deny it at least looks the part. So long as ‘the part’ is an aggressively 80s slab of car.

‘Why should middle managers have all the fun? Let junior executives have some of that good ‘ol Jag magic too!’ This is what managers shouted across boardroom tables in Coventry when the X-Type was first mooted (we think). It was hoped to be a volume seller, but it never did the numbers. It came with some ‘Ford owns Jaguar now’ baggage that it couldn’t quite shake despite it being a decent way to get around, albeit not quite as decent as its more German rivals (hello there, E46 3 Series). It does have headlamps inspired by a de Havilland Comet’s engine intakes, which is pretty cool when you think about it.