Currently driving a Corvette but my wife and I are older and she doesn't like riding in it and won't drive it. My last Jaguar was a 64 XKE but that was 40 years ago. We are looking to find a 2002-2005 XK8 as that seems to be in our price range, but the good ones seem few and far between and prices have really gone up over the last few years.
As for other cars, we have Genesis 5.0 Ultimate and a Chrysler Pacifica.
I hope to be able to announce a new purchase soon.

 

Welcome back jimb100,

7 years on and still looking?
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ew-guy-110297/

Graham

 

Welcome back aboard.

 

Welcome. Apparently right now, the prices for especially classic cars is off the charts because the US government has pumped so much money into the economy following COVID. People who aren't comfortable investing in the stock market and don't have enough to get into real estate are looking at their swelling bank accounts wondering what can they put their money into (people haven't been commuting, dining out, vacationing, etc.) For the first time in history, buying a fully depreciated, future classic car almost makes sense. Normally the cost of long-term ownership negates any appreciation for classic cars, but since your idle cash is earning something like minus four or five percent annually...... might as well buy a reasonably liquid asset that you can have some fun with.

I've noticed too that many of the really nice classic cars are more and more being sold on auction sites that are specifically designed for "no-contact" sales. They're mostly seven days which generally precludes inspection. With my work I can't ever arrange to travel to inspect a car in seven days and sellers usually DON'T make it easy to schedule even when they are local. I'm gun-shy about buying sight-unseen because I've learned the hard way that you can't trust your computer screen. Heck, its risky enough when you can inspect it. I've showed up to inspect a few that were local and I'm always the only one to inspect it in person. And I've only won one car (a 68 Mustang on Ebay Motors) because I always know what's wrong with the car and stop bidding early while everyone else keeps going as if it is absolutely perfect. I forget who posted it to give credit, but someone on here wrote something to the effect of "The best money I ever spent on a car was for the pre-purchase inspection of the one I DIDN'T buy." Sage advice. Good luck on the hunt. Persistence will pay off. (And maybe hold onto the Corvette too - I sure enjoy mine.)

 

Hello,
Welcome to the forums from ElinorB.
(';')

 

Welcome back to the Forums.

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

Welcome back to the forum jimb100,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.

 

welcome to the forum - good luck in your search and enjoy!!!!

 

We were looking a few years ago but couldn't find anything. At that time we were living in the Tampa Bay area and the jaguar dealers weren't the friendliest guys around. So we passed on Jaguar and went with a 2008 Corvette convertible. After that we had a Mercedes SL500 and kept that until the extended warranty ran out and we bought the 5 liter Genesis which we still have and is a nice car. We moved to Williamsburg VA and I picked up a C4 Corvette that I've been restoring but my wife hates it so we're looking at XK8. It's such a pretty car my wife loves the look. I'm doubtful we'll have much luck this time around either as they seem so few and far between for anything with mileage under 60k.

 

I've had a few Corvettes and this is my second C4, it's fun to drive, once you pour yourself in. I've seen only 1 for sale around here and it's a 2000 with 43k miles on 'consignment' at a local foreign car dealer. Condition I would say was 'good', but they wanted $15k for it with no maintenance having been done. No chains and guides, no water pump, etc. I could see myself having to put $5k into it after purchase and having to keep it forever with $20k in it and perhaps more. At $12K I'd have taken a chance but $15k was, I thought, too much. I expect I may see one come up in the Washington DC area, I'm keeping my eyes open.

 

Thanks to all for the warm welcome.

 

I'm tinkering with a 69 C3 right now, but couple years ago I finished a complete body-off, nut-n-bolt restoration on a 72 and had it judged at NCRS Lone Star regionals. I posted a few pictures in another thread here:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/o...7/#post2213202

 

Nice job, looks better than new!

 

60,000 miles is just well broken in and well loosened up for a modern engine. By those miles all the bugs have probably been taken care of by others. What's likely to break probably already has.

You should be well able to get at Least another 100,000 miles from such a car if you take care of it, change oil every 7500 miles and not let it get hot.
​​​​​​​(';')

 

Ha ha! Actually lost I think it was 85 points on the exterior paint job for looking "better than new". The factory paint would have had a lot of orange peel, would have felt rough to the touch in certain places like the inside of the flying buttresses and was supposed to fade out to no paint at all on the very bottoms of the rear quarters. Yep, you're supposed to reproduce all the factory flaws just the way bubba would have done at 5am on the graveyard shift. Couldn't have lived with that so just had to make sure not to lose too many points on other things.

 

We found What we were looking for today. 2010 XK, burgundy convertible with the light interior. We probably overpaid, $32k, but the car is brand new with only 11057 miles. The important thing is my wife loves it and it has good power and handling.

 

That's quite a bump from your original budget. You must've learned scope creep from the government! Congratulations. Now just be sure to continue to read these forums as I believe that the key to Jaguar reliability is to read what others are having problems with and do what the general consensus concludes for preventative maintenance.

 

Used Jaguar prices in the US always sound terrifying to me as we pay considerably less for them in England. However, condition is everything and worth paying top price for a good one.

These vehicles are very sensitive to battery condition. To avoid annoying issues due to low battery charge, it's best keeping it on a battery tender if you intend to cover similarly low miles. Most of us use one from the CTEK range.

Graham

 

Thanks for the heads up!