Jaguar XJ is the ultra-cool vintage car you can actually afford to buy
In the 1960s and ’70s, few sedans oozed ultra-cool style as the Jaguar XJ does. Long and slender, with liquid lines yawning from the limpid headlamps back to an elegantly tapered tail, they seemed to slither down the road like something from a naughty dream. Jerry Hall, Tom Petty, and Frank Sinatra owned them. So did the royal family. Owning one now can also be a nightmare. Complications from rust damage, overheating issues, and cracked cables can spell hours stranded on the side of the road instead of tooling to a picnic or swishing through London streets to a nighttime haunt. And if you try to go more modern by buying an XJ from the later generations of the 1980s and ’90s, you’ll find that they lag, underpowered, comparable vehicles from BMW and Mercedes. But since it broke away from former owner Ford Motor Co. in 2008, Jaguar has been back in a major way. The brand, now owned by Tata Motors Ltd ., has just produced an excellent all-electric SUV, the I-Pace and