So a friend let me know about a 2005 STR in Myrtle Beach Jeep Chrysler. Racing Green two tone leather 76000 miles listed at $14900 great I say in the ball park. I run a Auto Check and up pops 1 accident Moderate Damage! No I was told that if the damage was over $1000 then it has to show. Well if a Jaguar is in an accident it's cost more than$1000 to repair a scratch. So any thoughts would be great on this subject. Will say it's the color I want and the interior color I want but I must not let this swing my diccision.

 

Get it inspected.

 

Go back to Auto Check and find out who and where the repairs were made. Could also be on CarFax..

 

You can only find out who repaired the car if the repair was over $1000 so dead end.

 

Its worth about 14k if it was accident free. If your planning on keeping it for a long time and it was repaired correctly than its a hard decision. But if your planning to resell it at some point you should stay away from it.

 

Yep this is long term Father and son car. So not planning on selling for years. Am pushing for $13500 dealer has offered $14000 inc all taxes and plates. It's a main Jeep dealer so they where asking $14900 plus taxes and paper work which would of been another $1600.

 

A lot of members on this website are under the impression you can get a low mileage STR for a couple hundred dollars. They depreciated badly, but I think the one you are looking at is in the ballpark for beginning negotiations. I mean, someone paid $65k for that, and there is is asking for $14k.

If you are planning on keeping it, then you won't have to worry about what I am going to say. I had a burgundy CLK430 that showed one accident. People that looked at it always complained of the color, and I had two or three people back out of buying it last minute when they ran a carfax that showed an accident. It wasn't severe, but they didn't want it and just moved on to the next one that shows no accident.

So there you are with your STR - it's a color that's going to be hard to sell (I like it, many won't) and it shows an accident. But if you are gonna drive it into the ground, no worries. Test the headlights at the dealership see if they point to the ground. It's a common break. If so, ask them to come off the price to reflect cost of new headlights ($$$) and when you get home fix the broken headlights with two $0.10 screws (research forum how).

 

I got my 2005 STR with 53000 miles for $15000 in January 2012, and love it. I keep asking myself "would I buy this STR with 76k for $14000?".

Because it's an STR, answer is "Yes".
Because it's Racing Green, answer is "Definitely".
Because of the mileage, answer is "Probably, if everything else is OK".
Because of the accident, answer is "Not until I know more about the damage".

 

Most of the time when damage reports are listed on Carfax or similar types of reports, they are often based off of the estimates of the local law enforcement who was there on scene of the accident. I remember one time when my Volvo was rear ended by another driver, my rear bumper was damaged. The police officer wrote down that it was $2k worth of damage on the incident report, but in reality i had it repaired at the Volvo dealer for $700 or so.

So it might not be such a heavy damage as you think. But it is best to inspect the vehicle. See if all the body panels, hood, doors, and trunk align well and etc. Look for re-torqued bolts and feel the edges of any painted surface to find any location which is not smooth to the touch. That usually means that area has been repainted.

Sometimes, in my opinion, if it is a small accident I don't worry too much about it. And if you can use that to get a bargain on the car, that would be great as well.

But again, make sure to take a good look at it and isolate where the damage might have occurred. If it seems to have been a minor accident, and if it was repaired well, I would say go for it...but at the right price.

Good luck!

 

i think as long the damage is not frame or any kind. fender bender should be fine but it depend on person. some people like perfect body some can over look, it depends on how you feel and how much the car is worth to you

 

Robert,

Here are a few within 300 miles of the zip code for Cary, NC (27511)....

Find Your Car: Used Jaguar S-Type Listings Near Cary, NC 27511 - AutoTrader.com

 

Thanks, have looked at most of thes. So need to calm down just wasted 9 hours and 500 miles looking at 2 STR's 1 in NC 1 in SC the NC was a wreck the SC one I am mad about because some idiot with no knowledge has wrecked a perfectly good car with Spray paint, bolt ons that don,t fit and trashing the interior. The running gear and body inc paint was top notch was willing to save the car but I am not paying top dollar for a wreck that will take prob $5000 to bring up to standard. I am fed up with the dealers who have these cars not nosing anything about them and just saying well they are rare! That does not mean I have to bend over!

 

Robert,

If you have the courage to buy a car from across the country blindly, I found a low mileage one for a great asking price in California. I suppose you could hire a Jaguar technician to inspect it for you, and have it shipped. It appears to have very high end HRE or Kinesis wheels (hard to tell, but they are definitely forged aluminum and three piece)....

http://m.autotrader.com/vdp.html?id=325473700

 

Thanks for the link, think I will wait for something to come up locally. The silver car in Charlotte is a real good one, but I can't stretch to over $16000 for a father and son car the BRG in SC would of been fine if they would of taken the $9000 I offered. That is the first time I have ever seen a spray painted Battery! That car must of had 2 really good owners but the 3rd who only had it for about 10 months wrecked it. Shame the paint was really good.

 

Rob,

I like your story, reminds me of my father and I as he and I are both gear heads and have had the car itch for almost 10 years now. He and I have gone through the literal hell of trying to find four diamonds in the rough (97 Z/28, 71 Mustang, 04 GTO, and my STR). I think you are on the right track and should listen to all the good advice your getting.

The only value I can add is that I bought my STR site unseen because of its resume. It had a solid car fax and beyond solid story from the private party owner who was a general manager at a ford lincoln mercury dealership who bought it for his wife (lol, actually himself) when the car was traded in during a divorce. I took a big risk and did pretty wel considering the car waas 1500 miles away, knock on wood. There were definitely some issues such as weird paint, broken coolant reservoir, and sagging headlight, but those are all easy fixes. All I can say is dont be afraid to buy something across the country if everything looks perfect. I even paid $130 to get a different STR at a dealer taken to a mechanic to discover that it had a bad transmision.

Best of luck with the hunt, and be patient, it took 7 months to find mine.

Have you looked at an 05/06 GTO? Great, great cars and in your price range!

 

Thanks, I am staying on the hunt, I am English so it has to be Jaguar!.

 

Well, the GTO is a Holden which is Australian so it's technically English by lineage lol. My three finalist were the GTO, C55, and STR. I eventually dropped the GTO as its less refined, and the STR offers more performance than the C55 and was a few thousand less so I'm happy with my choice.

 

LOLz.... Sorry to burst your bubble, Jaguar is now owned by Tata from India. Its funny how the tables have turned on the Brits since their colonization of India.

 

Shh don't mention Chrysler,Dodge,Jeep.

 

Cars are still built in Coventry England, good enough for me!