The Jaguar XJS V12 6.0 registry

There is alot of mis information out there with regards to how many  1995 V12's were actually built. There seems to be confusion primarily based upon the build date, many sources refer to a 1995 car being actually built in 1995, but this is misleading, because Jaguar did infact build 1995 model year cars as early as March 1994. USA cars with a "S" digit in the 10th position denotes the car is legally considered a 1995 Model year, and considering most of the convertibles were USA delivered cars it is very easy to determine what is a 1995 model XJS. The number of ROW convertibles is very low, in my research i have only found a couple of cars delivered in Europe, i suspect the total number is in the single digits. 

Some of the numbers i see thrown around for 1995 convertible V12 production are 11, 78, 81, 180, 181, 194, 309, and 362. Here is what i have complied from my research. I currently as of October 2024 have 155 confirmed 1995 Model Year XJS Convertibles V12's in my database. 

With the coupes i decided to pay Jaguar Heritage to research how many 1995 V12 coupes were produced and I can confirm they told me 64 coupes were built worldwide. The USA market got 30 cars, Japan got 10 cars, UK got 6 cars, Germany got 5 cars. Canada and Switzerland got 3 each. The rest were sprinkled in Netherlands, Qatar, Italy, Austria, Australia and Thailand. I have 33 cars that i have found and confirmed VIN numbers in my database. 

Here is a list of the known colour combinations that were available for 1995 Model year. The USA market was limited to the following 7 colours:

• Topaz. SDN (metallic gold)
• Flamenco Red. CFH (metallic burgundy)
• Ice Blue. MPD (metallic light blue)
• Sapphire. JGE (metallic dark blue)
• Black. PDT
• Racing Green. HFB (AKA British Racing Green)
• Glacier White. NPD (no white coupes built)

Kingfisher Blue HFE was available as an extra cost special order according to the colour brochure for the USA market.

The rest of the world ROW had the additional colours available.

• Morocco Red. CFG (metallic dark purple)
• Silver Frost. MDK (metallic silver)
• Titanium. (metallic grey)
• Westminster. JFG (metallic grey)
• Alpine Green. (metallic light green)
• Bright Turquoise. UDB (metallic teal)
• Signal Red. CFC (bright red)

Interior colours were as follows:

• Coffee. SDC
• Oatmeal. AGD
• Cream. NDR
• Charcoal. (Not in USA)
• Nimbus. LFJ

From my research by far the most popular interior colours were Cream and Coffee. 

All cars sold in the USA are required to have whats known as a FMVSS sticker. This confirms that the car meets the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards set forth by the US Government. 

The sticker is located on the drivers door latch approximately 3" by 3" it contained the VIN, colour codes for paint and interior, Gross vehicle weight number and the weights per axle in LBS not KG like the ROW cars. It also contained the date the car was manufactured by month and year. 

If the car has been involved in an accident that required the drivers door being replaced then this sticker maybe missing. Canada cars have a similar set of standards known as CMVSS Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. I dont have a picture of a Canadian sticker, so please share it if you have one. 

The data tag on ROW cars is located on the left front inner fender just behind the headlight under the hood / bonnet.

It contains less info the the USA cars but has the VIN number and the colour codes. There are a weight ratings in KG for the front and rear axles, as well the total rating both empty and laden with passengers and luggage. 

There is no build date on the sticker unlike its USA counterpart. This sticker could be missing if the car has had a front end collision that required replacement of the inner fender panel. For the purposes of the registry its important that i have a picture of the sticker as it validates how the car was originally configured, interior colour changes happen when a car is restored and i know several cars that have had a complete repaint in a different colour. 

The car's vehicle identification number (VIN) is the identifying code for a SPECIFIC automobile. The VIN serves as the car's fingerprint, as no two vehicles in operation have the same VIN. A VIN is composed of 17 characters (digits and capital letters) that act as a unique identifier for the vehicle. A VIN displays the car's unique features, specifications and manufacturer. All cars built after 1981 used the 17 digit standardized VIN system, to complicate matters the VIN system used for the USA market is different to the VIN used in the rest of the world (ROW) The main difference is with the USA delivered cars the 10th digit represents the model year that is assigned to the vehicle. This digit can be a number or a letter depending when the car was built. For example in 1994 the 10th digit was "R" and 1995 "S" and 1996 was "T".  So we know for sure that a USA delivered car with an "S" in the 10th place of the VIN is a 1995 model year, even though the car was actually built in 1994. Typically manufacturers start building the next model year in September, with Jaguar in 1994 they started building 1995 model year XJS's in March of 1994. 

The VIN system used by what is known as the "Rest Of The World" (ROW) does not have a date check digit, and both VIN's contain mostly similar information the ROW numbers are one space behind the USA VIN, so the 4th digit refers to the model XJS (N) on ROW cars the 5th digit refers to the model XJS and this is true through the other digits which refer to destination country, body type, engine capacity, transmission / steering configurations.  The ROW VIN is easy to spot because it starts SAJJ whereas the USA VIN starts SAJN. The lack of date digit in ROW VIN's does create a bit of a problem when it comes to determining if your V12 car is a 1994 model or a 1995 model. The earliest confirmed 1995 USA VIN i have is 193705 and i believe this is the very first non prototype 1995 V12 built in March 1994. Jaguar were building 1994 and 1995 model years at the same time in March and April of 1994, i know 194680 is a 1994 V12 with a "R" VIN. There is an overlap of about 1,000 VIN numbers where an XJS could be either an 1994 or 1995 model year. The last 1994 4.0 liter XJS was 194766 and the earliest 4.0 1995 VIN was 193707.