On the bring-a-trailer.com website. Very low mileage, 8K.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1987-jaguar-xjs-10/

 

Someone with more money than sense...

 

8,000 miles fuel pump? And I'm complaining that mine just broke at 112,000 miles, man I should count my blessings....

 

The fuel pump was likely gummed up from the fuel turning to lacquer from sitting for so long. The fuel tank and sump tank are likely full of rust or lacquer also. Those repairs are probably just the tip of the iceberg on repairs due to lack of use. They can expect that any fluid seal will likely leak very soon. I'd be concerned about the injectors being gummed up and not spraying correctly, but they will need to change all the fuel lines anyway to get rid of 35 year old rubber.
I'd rather buy a car with higher mileage that's been driven and properly maintained than a garage queen like this. Too many things go bad from sitting.
​​​​​

 

you can buy 4 of these for that price! (even more depending on your definition of high mileage)

 

As they say Beauty is only skin deep!

Jack

 

I'll begin by saying that this car sold for about 2x more than I anticipated and far, far more than I'd ever be willing to pay.

As for low-miles/lack of use concerns well, the description really doesn't tell us how the car was used.

If the car has been in dead storage for many years, well, that could present some real problems, yes. On the other hand, if it was taken out and driven a few times a year it might not be too bad at all, even though very few total miles have accumulated.

The upside to a car like this is the work we know it doesn't need. The new owner won't be spending many, many thousands of dollars on paint, rust repairs, chrome, leather, headliner, carpet, and wood. Top grade cosmetics are a huge bonus and usually worth the extra buy-in cost. Most often, the mechanical refurb is far less costly...especially if DIY labor is in the mix.

All that being said....

$42,000? No way. Not for me !

Cheers
DD

 

We know it wasn't driven often if the fuel pump went bad. That takes time.

 

I wouldn't take failure of a 33 year old fuel pump as especially meaningful. Fuel pumps fail on cars that are driven regularly as well.

The proof in the pudding is the actual condition of the car itself....which none of us here can truly ascertain as we've never seen it. Nor touched, driven, nor inspected it. Beneath the good looks it might be a turd....or might be a real gem. All we can do is speculate.

Personally I'd love to find one like this.....but I'd never pay that much for it. Not even close.

Cheers
DD

Cheers
DD

 

I'd bet dollars to donuts that the pump was frozen due to the fuel turning to lacquer and freezing the impellor. Happens all the time to cars that aren't driven for long periods of time, especially on fuel injected cars. The parts are very close tolerance, and it doesn't take much to stall a pump. It would be rare that a factory pump failed at that few miles otherwise.

 

That's certainly plausible

In any case, if you buy any used XJS of that vintage it's quite plausible you'll be facing fuel tank issues as they're known for leaking and rusting.

For that matter, we all know that buying any used XJS means certain things will almost surely need tending to: replacing all fuel hoses, a cooling system overhaul, a brake system overhaul, fuel injector cleaning, new fuel injector harness, replacing vacuum hoses, suspension rebush and ball joints, and so on. The usual list of faults most XJSs suffer. You can go through process on a good/fair condition car or you an go through the process on an exceptional example such as the one in question. The only difference, IMO, is the original buy-in price and what you get for the extra money spent.

If premium condition cosmetics are important to a buyer then a higher initial buy-in is usually worth the money; it usually results in less money spent overall. You have to take into consideration the umpteen thousands of dollars it costs for a Jaguar-quality repaint, new leather, etc. But's that's only a factor if exceptional cosmetics are on your radar. If not, there's no sense in spending the extra money.

I think the $40k selling price in this case is purely an anomaly and almost certainly not repeatable. At something like $15k-20k this car could actually be a bargain for the person seeking an exceptional example.

Cheers
DD

 

Deleted

 

Nice, and depending on the size of your bank balance not a lot of money. Everything is relative. Maybe someone got lucky with bitcoin.

 

And there was that $41K S3 XJ6 last month (also BaT). Not a VdP, not a special version, but 13K miles.

 

It's really hard to judge what happened in these cases.

Auction fever? A couple bidders got carried away? And perhaps now regret it?

More money than brains?

Absolutely fell in love with the car and have tons of disposable income....where spending $40,000 is of no particular consequence?

Or, perhaps, genuinely thought the car was really worth that much money?

I dunno.

All we can do it speculate.

Cheers
DD

 

lately a lot of things are crazy, and dont make sense, just look at the government, and the rest of the world, for that matter!
i see it as times are changin, so all things are NORMAL!
ron

 

On that XJ-S, there were three bidders to $30,000. The first to drop out was a dealer (not sure about the other two).

 

I wonder that also. I noticed the winning bidder on this XJ-S also won an auction a few months ago for a 1990 Porsche 944 with 2k miles, at $67,000.00. So maybe some of the really high dollar sales are to very wealthy collectors looking to stash low mileage cars as an investment.

 

True that some wealthy people use specialty cars as a place to "park their money" for a few years. The ROI can be substantial.

As an investment goes, $40k for this XJS is pretty risky, IMO

Cheers
DD

 

You can sell dog shitt if the package is pretty enough.