Sedona doesn't get the heat like Phoenix, but it does get wild temp swings hot to cold and additional UV's from the altitude all around it (flagstaff is 7K ft, Jerome, 5K ft and its usually sunny)

The mismatched silver bumper is the headshaker for me, besides the sheepskin seats, but the bones are probably solid.

 

sounds from your initial post that you are not particularly hands on? If so, you really need to steer clear as as soon as you get a complicated fault it will be cheaper to scrap it. However that will improve resale values for the rest of us so on second thoughts go for it. Just to explain things a little more, I paid £3000 for mine, 1998 XK8 with 124k miles. i've spent nearly that amount in the first year getting it right with a respray to follow. Economically these car do not make any sense at all, if it wasnt for a hardcore following there would be very few on the road

 

I'm from Oregon myself and have been looking for a XKR coupe for a while. I also saw the add on Craigslist. You were the guy who had a deposit, and was going to pick it up this past weekend. I also put down a deposit down on it for seconds. Knowing that you drove a while to go look at it, makes me feel better that it has been looked at. I am a fairly decent shade tree mechanic, and can take on the motor and suspension work. But electrics kill me. It helps to have all the right tools. I still think I'm going to jump on it. The lady, Tie wanted me to hold off picking it up until next weekend, so the mechanic can look at it.
Now I have a list. I might be able to talk them down some.

 

A weird thing that popped up with this car, from 01 to 07, the owners only put 40k miles on it. Then from Jan 08 to December 08 they put 60k miles on it in that year. Then it must have sat for some time. Probably due to a major break down. It has only been driven 20k miles in the last 9 years. Saturday I'm going to drive upto Portland to check it out.

 

Here's actually my experience:

Cost to Own: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...etails-147767/

Value Question: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...urious-155357/

It's 8-10k miles higher than when I asked the value question, and has had a full repaint since then, as well the as the mentioned full front suspension rebuild. In the next few weeks, when there is a sale, it will be getting a full set of 4 new tires too. Either another set of Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sports or a set of Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s. I got 35k out of the Bridgestones so if a fair price can be had, it's getting those again. The car has also seen some additional repairs and maintenance last year, specifically a new AGM battery, all 8 coils and MAF.

The snout of the SC is making some noise like it did in my XJR, so I am rebuilding the SC soon toon. That's only about $100 but a whole day for remove rebuild replace. Also doing all the coolant hoses at that time, that's another 200-400$ but money well spent. The top hoses are on the docket shortly too. Winter is when I do a lot of these little projects.

If I were to sell I'd ask $9900 after all the work I've done and am doing. These cars aren't super valuable. I'm not looking to sell. Even then, $9900 is up there in the ask for my car considering... I'm ahlf tempted to just give the car to my dad when I'm done. It sucks doing stuff for the next guy .

I'd wait and find a car that's had this level of expense done on it. They're out there. You pay a little bit more than your average craigslist moron, but you get so much more.

 

that's a great write up. Thank you for all the great info!! I'm going to buy the jag more for running to the coffee shop more than any thing. It's not going to be a daily driver. I have my truck, my wife has her car. Time to work on it and get it all fixed up is not an issue.. I am also looking forward to working on it with my 15 year old son. I am going to get him interested as it's a cool car. I just might be able to get his *** OFF the video games for a few days. That would be worth it no matter the cost.

 

Cool!

It's so much more fun when you can be relaxed about the car. They're very reliable, but when they do need something, there's a very good chance that Autozone/NAPA/Whoever doesn't have it in stock and even if they do, internet parts are so much less. If you ran a 15yo Mercedes, even though a relatively reliable W208 (I've worked on W215, W221 and R230s; and my aunt had a beautiful R230 SL65 that I got to drive on a decent basis), you know what you're in for. These are very solid cars, but you aren't coming from a Mustang and expecting the same ease of ownership. I've found consistently that the work on my XKR has been of similar or less difficulty than the same work on my previous A8L, 740i or even A4. If you thought BenzWorld was useful, this forum is even more so. Great people here and great guys, great stuff from people like Gus, ReverendSam, WhiteXKR, and MANY more. You'll find many Jaguar techs hanging around too, like Brutal and jagtechohio.

When I was little, my dad always made me be involved with fixing things, cars, motorcycles, boats, house, appliances, etc. His family always valued practical knowledge, and oddly was what would be considered incredibly progressive as far as women. All of us women in the family know how to work on stuff. My aunts all have ridden, one is almost 60 (youngest) and she has a ZX14R (she personally has modded it quite bit mechanically...) and scares a lot of the flyboys around base. Super valuable skills. I've done tons of different work on tons of different cars, and same with house work (like water heater, roof, appliance repairs, building houses, redoing kitchens and baths, etc). Your son might not see it now, but he wouldn't believe how valuable these skills are and how much money you save.

I'm a software engineer so I definitely like the games, but getting out and learning life skills is crucial. Knowing how to work on cars is a valuable, but not 100% required, life skill.