Manufactured between 1987 and 1994, the Jaguar XJ40 was officially unveiled on the 8th October 1986 and was a major redesign of the XJ to replace the Series III, although the two model ranges were sold concurrently until the Series III was discontinued in 1992.

Throughout the 1970s Jaguar had been developing "Project XJ40", which was an all-new model intended to replace the original XJ6, and despite a number of serious delays for various reasons it was eventually decided to go ahead with an in-house design, and £80 million was allocated to the project. Sadly, the XJ40 was to be the last car to which, company founder Sir William Lyons, made a major contribution. During development, the XJ40 pioneered significant improvements to the way Jaguar designed, built, and assembled cars. Among these improvements was a 25 per cent reduction in the number of bodywork panels required per car, resulting in a weight saving and a stiffer structure. Greater attention to panel gaps improved the drag factor, whilst also improving the fuel economy and lowering wind noise inside the cabin.

From 1988, the Sovereign model came equipped with significantly more features than the base XJ6. Included was air conditioning, larger rectangular headlamps with washers, a six-speaker sound system, rear self-leveling suspension (SLS), ABS, and the window frames were now chrome-plated.

Supplied new on 15/04/1988 by Jaguar dealer, Harvey Hudson of Woodford at a cost of £29,572.25, this lovely Sovereign 3.6 Automatic presents superbly having covered a nominal 39,000 miles whilst under the obvious care of its first and only owner.

Having been used sparingly, and snoozed gently under its dedicated car cover in the garage its entire life, the sparkling condition of its Grenadier Red paintwork is not a surprise. The interior is, quite frankly, outstanding with the soft cream leather remaining supple, the grey carpets are excellent and the cross-banded veneers on the dashboard and door cappings look immaculate. Lifting the bonnet you're met with one of the cleanest, tidiest engine bays we have seen on a XJ40.

Supplied with lots of supporting documents and history and boasting a recent MoT, this car is surely, pound for pound, one of the best value cars you can buy.

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