So about 4 months ago, my dad's '03 STR was stolen from the dealer's lot while it was being serviced. The insurance ended up paying out and eventually the Jag was recovered with some light body damage and missing wheels. The Jag ends up with a salvage title and is put up for auction through an online auction site.(Co-Part) Listed with miles N/A, trim N/A, no wheels, and no keys I was in the best possible to position to get the car for a good deal. I knew the car has 35k on it, had never seen the rain, and had been well taken care of under its extended warranty. Today I bought the car through a broker paying $3100 for the car plus taxes, towing, Copart's fees, and broker fees it comes to $4200. Given that the car has a salvage title, the value of the car is tremendously impacted but even still I feel like I got a heck of a deal. Furthermore, my dad still has one of the keys to '03 STR and my mom has an extra set of wheels from her '05 STR that I plan to put on the car. However, I still face uncertainty of making sure the car runs after being stolen. It looks like the key was broken off in the ignition so that will be a challenge in of itself. So, tomorrow is the big day when we find out if we can get the key out and start car or if I'll end up having to part out the Jag because the engine is destroyed. I'm hoping for the former. I'll update this story with pictures and more details in the next few days.

Cheers!
Nick

 

Wow, crazy events. Hope all works out right, but worse case... part it out and double your money.

 

Ouch, what a mess! But... an opportunity, too.

As I (inadequately) understand it, the immobilising & locking are like 2 separate functions. The fob part does the signalling and there's a pickup for it. The metal key blade "just" works a lock with switches that connect power to various places. You can buy the lock part and rebuild to match the blade (& thus door & trunk locks) - at least I think you can. You would want to keep the fob part as it's already known by (programmed into) the car.

Similarly, you can buy the metal blade part and have it cut to match - with no need for reprogramming if you assemble into the existing fob part (I've never done this so treat with caution but it looks doable).

You can change the various parts if you choose / have to but if you end up needing it reprogrammed you're likely to need a dealer to do it and they need all the keys (minimum 2) when they do it as any not present (i.e. re-entered) will be deleted. If any may have stayed with the theif it won't matter if you have it reprogrammed (that's the "deleted" part) but could matter if you don't.

If the car doesn't like a start attempt (such as unknown fob) you'll get a PATS code - that light on dash top will flash a code so watch it for about a minute (after you turn key to pos II / er, or maybe has to be start) and see what it does.

 

Just curious how much insurance is dishing out these days, what was the payout?

 

Just checking to see what the outcome was? Was the motor trashed?