Darrell,
   One of the Jags I run in my family is a 3.6  '88 XJ40.  It is the same
car as your '89 XJ40.  I now have over 200,000 miles on it and it is rather
trouble-free.  As much as a 17 year old car can be trouble-free.  The thing
is --- I do all the work on it myself.
   The XJ40 has quite a lot of electrical problems that take a lot of time
and effort to resolve.  If I lived in the UK like you do and had to pass
OT  -- I would stay as far away from an XJ40 as I could.  Since I live in a
State that now does not even inspect motorcars that are pre - 1970 and does
not do emissions on anything prior to 1995, I have no problem running the
XJ40. The car has an lot of electrical "ghosts" in it.  For example, the
"bulb out"  warning will come on and it will fast flash on the dash.  You
take a look at the actual operating blinker and all is working fine.  These
are things you have to take in stride with these cars.  A little cleaning on
the bulb socket and the warning goes away. I have now gotten the car to the
point that there are NO warnings on the dash at all.  Unless of course you
start the car and drive before the brake assist pressure comes up.  Then the
anti-lock warning will come on.  The ABS still works -- but the warning
comes on!!

On any Jag, unless you plan to do the work yourself, plan to spend a lot of
money!!   I think that probably goes for the 2.9 as well as the 3.6.

Webserve

Run away, dont look back. That 2.9 is a devils engine.

Well, I abandoned the idea of a 2.9 and I've bought a 4.0 Sovereign instead.

Wish me well.

M.