I think you'll find most of the diesels are manual. A couple of years ago a 4.0 manual came up on Fleabay, claiming to be the only one in the country, but someone I knew who parted out XJ's as a sideline said he didn't believe there were any - & he'd been looking for one for a long time.

XJ's were sold here quite differently, having regard to their target market, so there were no endless choices, with huge options lists, essentially just 2 packages, 4.0 auto + 242 Limiteds (for the school run) or manual diesels + 231 Sports (for the horsey set) with the 2.5, presumably as a sort of token economy model.

The manual shift is still around. I'm the original owner of a 1988 XJ, 2 door, 4x4, 5 speed manual. It also has the rocking style front seat for the driver and passenger side. I still have the window sticker, sales contract, manufacturer owners manual and the Haynes repair manual.
I also have a guaranteed $10,000.00 insurance policy on it.

There
 

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You're right, although I just went with what I reckon is the most numerous. I could be wrong! There was stiff competition from the Disco2 at the time. I wonder if people would have made the same decisions back then if they had known how horrific the Disco2 turned out to be for rust...

Don't know if it's accurate or not but a guy in the old car restoration business told me that the XJ is at an "in between" spot. Not old enough, desired enough or plentiful enough to warrant many companies to tool up to produce aftermarket parts.

With a Chevy squarebody, 57 Chevy, 69 Camaro, etc. you can literally build one with aftermarket stuff and have something fairly nice, if not great.

We are stuck with a few guys making very few replacement parts and frankly the quality is not all that great and there is little to no pressure on them to improve the quality since they don't have any competition.

It makes sense to me. I think we also need to consider that most aren't interested in preserving these. They are looking for something to beat off-road, hence the numerous off-road parts available for them

I think, rather late in the day, Jeep realised they had a potential alternative to the Disco, at least in the UK, which is why it didn't arrive 'til '94(?) & generally, high spec'd, to meet the target audience's expectations. Why there was no 2-door is a bit of a mystery: Europe got them, so did Australia (I think), so there were export models, including RHD, just no UK spec ones; odd, because there was a, originally, a 2-door Disco..

That was true ten years ago, when I bought my 1st one, by 2017 when I got my latest one they were already getting expensive, now thery'e well into the "more than I'm prepared to pay" bracket.

What surprises me though is not that parts are still readily available but that there's a flourishing aftermarket business so mods & conversions are still being developed. They are already starting to be described (or, at least, advertised) as classic which means their days of being used are limited, as they become another "must have" for the car collectors' portfolios. What follows, of course, is restoration parts will become more available but anything related to off-road use will disappear because you don't really need 4WD to get across a showfield & they will have become too precious to risk getting dirty.

Let's enjoy them for what they are - while we can.