When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
New Member Area - Intro a MUSTNew to Jaguar Forums? Drop in and tell us about you, your ride and location. This is your chance to introduce yourself to the forum.
Greeting everyone!
In my previous life I owned and operated an exotic car restoration shop. I now operate several websites that serve an area west of Austin Texas.
I noticed an XK8 in a local Craigslist posting. It was pretty but a bit too expensive (I think) for what it was. The seller was asking $10,200usd. It is a 2005, base model conv, with 110,000 miles on the clock. A month later I noticed he was asking 9K, a month later he was asking 8K…at which point I contacted him in order to drive and possibly purchase the car. I made an appointment with him and drove to his residence, 70 miles away with cash in hand. He was not waiting for me and I sat in front of his house for an hour while trying to contact him via txt/phone …no answer/response. I left a note on the front door informing him of my failed attempt.
The following day I called him and he informed me that he got busy.
My subconscious yelled out, ‘Hasta la vista baby’ but my voice said I’d look elsewhere, bye-bye.
A month later, after several failed attempts to find a nice xkr conv I noticed he had relisted the car at 7900 OBO. I called him; by this time he was somewhat apologetic and offered the car to me for 7750…I drove over again and purchased the car for a lot less than that amount.
Given my past business endeavor I have one of those cursed set of eyes that sees every imperfection. This car is a truly beautiful example that is too good to repaint etc. but the body really should be smoothed over and repainted. The interior is beautiful and someone did an excellent job in re-dying sections of the leather…yet it should have the front leather replaced. The top looks great but the threads are starting to pull…the top should be replaced. The suspension…and so it goes.
I hope to fix a couple niggling things-rear bearing, shock upper mount + lower shock bushing- and drive it till mid Jan when our weather turns foul. If I deem it a keeper at that point I expect I'll probably spend @ 5K (doing all of the work myself) and will enjoy the end result. The paint will remain as is until someone bangs it up.
The styling of this car is really exceptional and since I prefer to drive at multiples of the speed limit I find white/silver to be less of a magnet to the men/women in blue. I.E. my compromise is to pass on some other magnificent color combinations for the ability to possibly sneak by without being immediately noticed and ticketed. I don’t like/need the attention, the pleasure of driving a great car is enough for me.
And just for giggles…if I try to adjust the head rest on the driver’s seat my driver’s side outside mirror folds in-bang! I have other more pressing issues to handle before I look into this one. I did however pull the module and check all traces etc…the unit had been replaced and my initial thought is that the module was from an earlier model, hence not fully compatible. Time will tell the story.
I can see you've already found your way to the XK8/XKR forum so there's no need for a link to it from me. The 'HOW TO' thread at the top is a good place to start for information on regular issues.
Please remember to add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User CP button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.
If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help
10-26-2016, 11:43 AM
howdy
