Recent Auction Proves the Jaguar XJ220 is Still Undervalued

By John Coyle - December 7, 2020

Sure, $420,000 isn’t exactly chump change. But it’s still a bargain for a car as special as the Jaguar XJ220.

While I’ve loved cars for almost as long as I can remember, growing up, I didn’t get the opportunity to see much fancy hardware. In the suburbs of Philadelphia and Tampa, there just weren’t any proper exotics to be found. And if there were Cars and Coffee events, my folks never took me. For example, I didn’t actually see a Lamborghini Countach in person until I was around 20 years old. It was on the back of a flatbed headed north on I-75, just before the junction with I-10.

My car spotting experience changed dramatically when I moved to Seattle, in 1996, and it wasn’t because the city was booming with tech money. Nope, it was because of a shop called Cosmopolitan Motors, which was originally located a few blocks from my first apartment downtown. Upon discovering it, I completely flipped out, because the cars which came through that place were absolutely unreal. And fortunately, the folks who owned it treated it more like a gallery than a dealership, so they never seemed to mind me poking around.

At Cosmopolitan Motors, I saw Ferraris, Lamborghinis, weird brass-era stuff, Alfa Romeo race cars, pre-Rolls-Royce merger Bentleys, and loads of gorgeous British sports cars. But I lost my mind when a Jaguar XJ220 showed up.

This would have been about 1996, so at the time the XJ220 was the fastest production car in the world. While it famously never achieved the 220 mph top speed the engineers were shooting for, the 217 mph it managed at Italy’s Nardò Ring is hardly unimpressive.

So getting to see one in person was, as other Jaguar Forums members have described, like seeing a unicorn. And in the years since, I’ve only seen one more in person, despite writing about cars for a living, and despite the fact that I lived in Los Angeles, where you can never, ever, be surprised at what you see on the road.

Over the years, there’s been lots of great stuff written about the XJ220 on this blog, and not too long ago, Doug Demuro did a great video where he pointed out all of its “quirks and features.” Back in April, Jaguar’s design team even rendered what a modern-day XJ220 might look like, and I think it’s absolutely stunning. Though to really make an impact? It would probably have be called the XJ300, and actually be able to achieve that speed, as 220 mph just isn’t as fast as it used to be.

That said, the mystique of this car has never faded for me, and it remains as fascinating as it was when I first read about it in the pages of my dad’s copies of Car and Driver.

As fans know, only around 282 cars were produced. The bottom basically fell out of demand when Jaguar announced that the XJ220 would be packing a twin-turbo V6 as opposed to the initially promised V12. But even still, I can’t believe that prices for these machines haven’t climbed in the years since. After all, the list price for an XJ220 — in 1992 — was around $631,000, and since one just sold on Bring a Trailer for $420,000, that means it’s actually depreciated significantly. How does that make sense?

Sure it’s packing a twin-turbo V6, but in compared to anything else of the era, the performance is still spectacular, and the looks remain stunning. So I wonder how long it will be before these cars actually start to climb in value, or honestly, if they every will. What do you think? Do you think the XJ220 is still undervalued? Or do you think we’ve seen the high-water mark for Jaguar’s legendary supercar? Hit me up and let me know, and if you’ve ever seen one in person, I’d love to hear your story about your encounter with this rare cat.

Photos: Bring a Trailer