I am quite happy with my S Type, so I really don't know much about these Jaaags. Nevertheless, I was leaving my sister's house in Chico this last weekend, and when I got down to Hwy 32, some storage business had a 2000 xj8 supercharged vanden plas parked just inside of the gate.

I was curious so I parked the Metro and took a look. The paint seemed fine, but there was a weird spot on the hood where it appeared that some tiny holes in the paint had formed. This was the only place that I saw any imperfections in the paint. The car seemed to have good interior, black leather. It looked to have a 5 speed transmission, but compared to my S type, it seemed kind of sparse on the interior.
Anyhow, I went inside to inquire about the car, but some old lady, who only knew that the car was once owned by some famous plastic surgeon, was watching over the business.
I asked for some information about the car, and she gave me a carfax-like report, that was based on the NMVTIS. This is the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System. NMVTIS is a government initiative to provide carfax-like information inexpensively to consumers. Pretty much all the NMVTIS information tells you is the title location, title dates, title types and if the vehicle has any "Brands" on it. Consider the brand a negative mark. Like flood damage, lemon law, etc.

I could not see the mileage, and the old lady didn't know.
I asked the asking price, but again the old lady didn't know.

So I left with the NMVTIS info, a business card and did not think much more about it.

Then just now, I see someone found a very similar car in Florida, and this had some people excited.

Is this car rare? Was that a dumb question?

Anyway, here is what I can provide about the car.

VIN SAJDA25BXYMF15861
Oklahoma title 10/02/2002 19196 miles
Texas title 11/15/2002 19197 miles (weird huh?)
California title 10/23/2009 40842 miles

Checking the California DMV, the registration is up-to-date and due in August.

The storage place selling the car is Home


UPDATE: This Just In, I found the Craigslist ad for the car!

2000 Jaguar XJ8 Vanden Plas Supercharged Sedan

Enjoy!

 

Wholesale book is $8k but it gets a whopping $7k add for miles. In the old days, dealers didn't add for miles but today's short supply of quality clean used cars made that a factor to consider. I checked the Manheim Market Report (MMR) and almost fell out of my chair - the highest recent transaction was in Nevada at $3900 for an above average VDP in white. Granted, most likely it was not S/C but, a supercharged engine would not quadruple the price (IMO). So I went back and checked the wholesale value of a regular VDP - it was at $3900. Considering that the Nevada sale was in December 2012, the book was higher (drop was in January). Drawing a simple analogy, I'd say that the closest to $8k you get the sweeter the deal. It all hinges on how bad you want this car and what sort of condition its in. The hood discoloration is bad (did it overheat, what is the reason?) because painting the hood will most likely require blending the fenders and that's quite a bit of paint work on an undamaged car. The current reg. is good, most likely the car was somewhat used. I would definitely splurge on a Pre Purchase inspection by a Jaguar specialist. So yeah, my thought on the price is no more than $8k. But that's just my thought...

 

Thanks TireFriar, I am not going to be buying this car. I am happy with my S Type. I was just relaying what I saw to anyone who might be interested.
And, I think that considering Chico is a small town with a limited market, getting the car for $8k might be possible.

Hmmm, let me see if I can adequately describe the paint problem with the hood.
The paint was not discolored. It was an area about the size of your palm. In this area were about 10 holes or chips each about a millimeter in diameter. The chips were spread over this area in a random pattern. The chips went through the first coat of paint, but not the second so the chips are the same color as the rest of the car. From about 5 feet away you cannot see the chips. Additionally, the paint does not appear to be peeling. Just weird micro chips.

What is odd is that my metro has the same effect on the drivers door. My car has never been in an accident. The door has never gotten hot or resprayed. No weird chemicals have touched the car. So I don't know how the chips got there. My metro is also white, could this be a behavior of white paint from 1999-2000?


So where did you get the wholesale price from? Is this the legendary black book? I gotta get me one of those.

 

11.5K is the ASKING price. X308 is SOFT on the market, so the price WILl go down. If it's a private owner (not a dealer), close to wholesale is possible. If it's a dealer owned,......well,... they need to make some profit to stay in business. Mileage is great, but it needs to be inspected.

Sometimes I wish mine is supercharged, but after I went through it with the fine tooth comb (and haven't found ANY issues!), I would hesitate to get rid of mine, and get the unknown S/C car. Adding another one to the stable, would be border line rediculous at this point.

There are not that many Super8 VDPs out there (and with that mileage!), so if they are in no hurry to sell, the right buyer will show up eventually.

 

I usually use 3 sources to value a car:
1) karpower.com - subscription service from Kelly Blue book for dealers/wholesalers. that's where wholesale info comes from
2)manheim.com - largest auto auction organization. they offer an MMR (manheim market report) that can give you previous auction results for the model selected at a glance. dealers utilize this quite extensively to gauge the ACV (actual car value)
3)autotrader.com - just for crossreference. helps understand whats available and at what price. gives you a real world understanding for a particular car you are looking at.

Besides the MMR and KBB many other factors can and will affect the ACV such as condition of the car, service history and prior repairs.