The XJ-S has always been a car out of its time: a glamorous riviera Grand tourer

You can’t get away any longer with dismissing the XJ-S as a future classic. They’re getting older, but they’re not getting cheaper. This is a car on the cusp and now is the time to buy. It’s amazing, considering the XJ-S’s lukewarm reception in 1975, that it endured 20 years. What happened is that it grew into its skin once we all stopped making bogus comparisons with the E-type.

The XJ-S has always been a car out of its time: a glamorous Riviera Grand Tourer for an age of leisure thrust into a grasping GTi world that had no time for lunch. Yet it endured, and over time it has become recognised as one of the great Jaguars; with production totalling 115,000, the XJ-S outsold all earlier sporting Jags.

So which one? V12, straight-six, coupé, cabriolet or convertible? Unlike the E-type, it developed stutteringly and where opinion is polarised between first and last, the XJ-S evolved and grew more progressively. Go for first-generation time-capsule authenticity if you must, an early coupé for affordability but intense ownership experience; cabriolets are an aficionado’s choice.
 
In general, last is best, six is thriftiest and it’s got to be a convertible.