Number of cylinders: 8
Service history: Present

Jaguar S-Type 4.2 V8 Executive, 2003. Two owners, 61,136 km, service books from new.

Blair, spin doctor of New Labour, was busy building a new Great Britain in the late nineties. Everything had to be fresh, modern and self-assured. And while Cool Britannia blared out of every radio, there was a little group of engineers in Coventry with exactly that same feeling. Jaguar needed a new chapter. Something that reached back to the glory days of the Mark 2, that gorgeous saloon in which bank robbers used to outrun the police, only without the rust and with rather more civilised manners. And so the S-Type was born: retro before retro was cool, with that soft, rounded nose and the broad grille that shouts "Jaguar" at you from ten metres away.

The trouble with the early S-Types was that under the bonnet they had turned out a touch too well-behaved. Ford had its hands on the dials, and you could tell. But then came the 4.2 V8. And that changed the whole story. This AJ34 eight-cylinder suddenly turns a proper British gentleman into a chap in a club blazer with a mischievous glint in his eye. Three hundred horses, a greedy, rounder rumble that in the distance sounds like someone quietly impersonating thunder, and a gearbox that eases you up to speed so smoothly that you come to your senses at Spaghetti Junction without quite knowing how you got there.

The story continues on our website, where the full file is kept as well. 103 photographs including the underside. The service history, scanned in full. Paint thickness measured panel by panel. The original factory brochure to page through. A timeline from 25 September 2002 to today, with every owner and the mileage year by year in a single graph.

Every car here follows the same route: first pre-market, then the showroom, and finally the live auction on our own site. What changes is the way you buy, not the location — once a car has arrived, it stays with us in Katwijk. This one is in the showroom and you are welcome to come and see it, no appointment needed. You buy it here at a fixed price: no bidding, no waiting. Our showroom in Katwijk, 30 km from Amsterdam Schiphol, is open Mon–Fri 9–18 and Sat 10–17. Call ahead and it will be standing ready, with someone free for you.

Within the EU no customs duty arises on this purchase. Registration tax and registration costs in your own country are not included. We supply the export documents and assist with the registration. The price shown is the full price for collection in Katwijk. We arrange insured door-to-door transport worldwide, cost quoted per destination beforehand.

Prefer a different colour or specification than this example? Tell us what you are looking for — another Jaguar we can often find through our network of marque specialists and collectors, outside the listings. Have one of your own: we buy exceptional cars outright, classic or modern.

Our showroom measures 6,000 m², with over 150 cars under one roof. You are just as welcome if you are not buying — walk around, take your time and enjoy the cars; sharing the enthusiasm is half of it.