Hey JaginKC, you may be a little surprised by this reply. I live in Gladstone (suburb of Kansas City). I didn't have to leave Gladstone and found my 2001 XKR at a great dealership 3 miles from my house. I wasn't even looking for a Jag, but saw this one and fell in love with it ... now I'm a mostly happy Jag owner. Today was a bad day though for the Jag! See my other post today regarding my convertible latch problem and the green oil shower :-(. If you get an XK8/XKR convertible, make sure you are aware of the hydraulic hose problems to the latch!!!!!!

Steve

 

In my case, About 400 miles. Phoenix to North LA, but only because I was very choosy about what I wanted and for some stupid reason Jag seem to only make 1 blue car for every 50 silver,black or red ones.

The only blue cars I kept seeing were portfolio editions but I didn't want the (now dated) nav system, or a black interior, or that garish portfolio trim. I much prefer the classic look of the extra analog dials. I ended up compromising on also finding one with adaptive cruise as just finding a good 'affordable' classic trim blue XKR took a long wait. One also with adaptive cruise was probably never going to come along as it seems to be a hardly ever chosen option.

Anyway, I think the road trip back home in a new car is a great introduction to your new toy and the fun part, not something to be avoided, but to be enjoyed and cherished. Especially if you drove an average car on the way out, you really notice and appreciate the difference.

 

had mine shipped from GA to Philly...mileage...maybe 650 but just a guess

 

OK, I should have figured this would happen. Ever since 1972 when I got my first car, a 1966 Ford Mustang convertible, I have always had at least one old Mustang. The high point was nine and I still have two. I am trying to cut back. So then, last March we bought a beautiful, I know redundant, black 2002 XK8 coupe and WOW, what an amazing car. We had always loved Jags and now we fortunate enough to own one. That should have been sufficient. What more could I ask for? Well, I just happened to be perusing online auto sales sites looking to see if there were any XKR coupes close by and affordable...
There it was, a XKR coupe, just thirty miles away. And to top it off and make me unable to resist, it was a XKR 100 coupe. Yup, we now have his and hers Jag coupes. Now I am going to have to sell a Mustang.
Maybe I need help, or at least more wax...
Bill

 

I've been looking for probably two years!! Plenty of high mileage XK8s out that, but I was looking for a 2001 or 2002 with low miles. Finally found a 2002 red convertible at a Jag dealer in San Antonio with only 38K miles. My wife and I flew down from Little Rock, was picked up by the dealer at the airport and drove the puppy home! I've now bought several cars remotely without first seeing or driving them in person. In this case, I wanted to buy from a Jag dealer (or someone with a lot of good eBay feedback -- Texas Auto Direct in Houston is a good source). I was a bit leery of a distance buy from a private party or from some "used car lot" that didn't know anything about the car or that I could trust not to pound sand up my butt. The Jag dealer did a complete safety check on the car and corrected most of what was found wrong (very little) -- even replaced a tire that looked bad. In a long-distance buy, once you drive away and they have your money, it's all over. As a result, I wanted the car to be in the best shape possible for the drive home. In my case, no surprises and a pleasant trip home. I'm used to larger Lincolns, so it will take a bit of driving to get use to the XK8's smaller cockpit and ride, but so far, so good.

 

I've sold three cars (2002 Expedition, 2005 MINI Cooper S, and a 1929 Model A Fordor) on eBay and have bought four (2003 Navigator, the MINI, the Model A, and my Jag). The pro of buying on eBay is that there is a large selection and thus lots of competition...driving the prices to the point where they're competitive (e.g. reasonable). Of the ones I've bought, the Navigator was a snow-bird trade in down in SC to a Mercedes dealership. They wanted to dump the car (obviously, as it wasn't Mercedes) and knew that they needed to price it well to sell...I got it for about $7K less than blue book and was happy as a clam. My MINI was being sold by a guy who had originally bought it for his wife, but some medical issues came up and it sat in his garage for several years...and he wanted to dump it. I think it was listed for less than 10 hours before I did a BIN on it. It too was about $8K under blue book - not including all of his mods. Like the Navigator, I was happy as could be with it.

In contrast, the Model A was advertised as "perfect"...but when I got it, I realized that it barely ran and...I never noticed why the driver's side window wasn't up in the photos - it was broken! I was so pissed that I almost swallowed the $1200 shipping cost to send it back to the guy, but instead I fixed it and dumped it back on eBay (this time it actually WAS running and fixed) and sold it for a huge loss. My Jag was likewise advertised as "MINT"...but as I've discussed on here before, it does have some issues that I am having to repair...but the fact that it's 1 of 30 XKR-100 coupes makes it worthwhile.

Selling cars on eBay hasn't been an issue (yet, of course!) I sold the Model A after I fixed it with no problem (other than figuring out a way to get it on the back of the guy's tractor trailer!) the Expedition was easy as well...just drove it to the train station and the guy picked it up. The MINI was likewise easy, and went to a great family. The latter two cars were in top condition, and the MINI (in particular) was simply immaculate. I did have to really talk it up in the description though as so many cars are listed as "immaculate" and "perfect"...and yet from people's experience...they aren't. Mine was, and it ran like a charm...I just got tired of getting my teeth knocked out each time I drove it and wanted to get back to owning another Jaguar.

Interestingly, my worst car buying experience (thus far) has been with a Jaguar dealer. I traded in my X-Type for an S-Type and while the dealer was supposed to pay off my loan on the X-Type, they let it sit for two months...and meanwhile I was still paying car payments on both it and the S-Type! I ended up shelling $700 out of pocket for payments on the X-Type, even after it was traded in and I no longer owned it! Needless to say, it took a bunch of phone calls to both Jaguar and to my wife's uncle (the GM of a Jaguar dealership on the west coast) to finally wrangle the Jag dealership I was dealing with to conclude the deal. What a pain!

Not to stray too far from the actual point of this thread...I'm in VA and I bought my Jag from a dealer in Ft Lauderdale, FL. It cost me $650 for shipping from FL to VA (another nightmare story...) I spent about three weeks looking for the "right" Jag (my wife first vetoed the Lotus I was going to buy, then she vetoed the Masteratti that was next in line...) and I finally found this one. Although I wasn't planning on pulling the trigger at that point, I couldn't pass it up and with only 30 made...when would I see another? Happy as a clam to own it!

Dave

 

Great story, Dave. I actually have my '04 Expedition up for sale right now on Craigslist. In your experience, do sellers get a good deal on eBay or do people expect to get the car for less than the real value? I might advertise the Expedition on eBay but set a reserve price close to what I'm asking for it.

And you're in Southern, VA? I'm near Raleigh. I go up to VA a lot for my job. We have offices in Richmond and Norfolk that I travel to. I was in Richmond the last two days and Norfolk last week.

 

That's an "it depends" kind of question...as with any auction, I've seen some cars go for more than market value and I've seen others go for less. It really all depends on what's appealing about the car and the right buyer. Figure that when I was looking for a Lotus, there were normally 10-15 listed at any one time. The local dealership only had three on hand...so I had a much better selection than going to the local dealer. However, of the ones listed, a good number of them normally had salvage titles (they weren't/aren't built with certified bumpers...go figure) so that drove prices down...if you were willing to buy a car with a salvage title. Out of the ones that were listed, maybe 1/3 to 1/2 had clean titles, and of those, only a couple were from private parties. I'd spend a bit more dough buying one from a private party with all the paperwork than one from "Joe's Auto" that he got from an auto auction...you don't know the gremlins hiding behind the tires on something like that.

I think that overall, buyers are looking for the best deal possible. However, that's pretty much the norm anywhere...I don't know of too many buyers who walk into a dealer and say: "Hey, the guy down the street wants $1000 less for the same car, but I want to buy yours..." So yeah, they're looking for a good deal.

However, there are a lot who are looking for a good deal not just in price, but in value...is the price good AND is the car a decent car? With the two of those factors combined, that's when bidding gets into the normal pricing range for most cars. Like I mentioned in the earlier post, there are always a lot of cars on eBay so pricing does need to be competitive. You'll probably get a lower price for the vehicle on eBay than you would from a local buyer simply because of the amount of competition out there. That said, while the price might be lower, you get a lot more traffic - hundreds of thousands of people access eBay every day...the same can't be said about local advertising.

So it's a toss up...you might not get as much as you want/need, but you might get it sold quicker...it's a call you have to make sometimes. One nice thing is that if it doesn't make reserve...well, you can either relist it or not list it...but you know you gave it a shot.

As far a VA, I live in Hampton Roads, so your trips to Norfolk probably take you within a few miles of where I live!

Dave

 

I have a friend in Hampton! He's stationed at the Air Force base there.

It's funny that you mentioned Lotuses and Maseratis. I was looking at those, too. I really really wanted an Elise. My wife and I even went and drove one. Last winter I was seeing them in the $20K to $25K range. Then when spring came along the prices went up. After driving it and looking at the amount of space available, we decided that it really wouldn't be good for a long trip. Then I saw that Maserati Spyders were selling in the $25-$30K range for 2003's and I got really interested in them. I only found two available within 500 miles, though. I realized that they might be really expensive to repair, so I started looking at the Jags.

 

Ironically, I was all ready to pull the trigger on a Lotus Elise until I was showing my wife photos of the inside (she hadn't been inside one) and she asked where the back seat was...ahem...well, that was "curtains" for the Lotus idea!

The Maseratis I was looking at actually had a back seat (about the same size as the one in the XK) but after she learned about the fuel efficiency (9 mpg estimated) and the cost of repairs...there went that idea too. And the rest, as they say...is history!

Dave

 

I had been looking for over six months. I wanted:
No.1 Coupe
No.2 Red
No.3 an R
I watched Cars.com for six months and was willing to go any where in the US to get what I wanted. Only one a bit over priced ever showed up.
I was finally going to purchase a 2003 Coronado Blue R coupe from Dallas I had been watching the price drop on eBay, but before I went to the credit union to see about a loan I thought I'll take one more look at Cars.com. Sure enough there was the car of my dreams with 20's to boot. It was only five miles away at the local used car dealer on consignment. I took it for a test ride at lunch and call to buy it 30 min. after returning to work. It was owned by a local female back doctor who was going though a divorce and was selling it for the price of the note.

 

That's a sweet looking car. You should start an album in your profile and post some pics so I can drool over it. I love the look of the coupes, but I also love convertibles. I can't afford both, but I can fantasize.

 

Wow! I hope I am that lucky. I've been looking for 8-9 months and haven't really found the 'one'.

 

Bought mine last weekend, 2002 XKR-100, still haven't even taken pics of it yet. Little over 300 miles round trip. Was looking for a black XKR convertible and was considering one in California or Michigan when this one popped up. Bought it three days later.

The drive back was great!!! Beautiful weather! Even got a bunch of compliments from the cop that pulled me over in Illinois (no ticket)!

 

Kwittcamp
We're having our Heartland British Auto Show this Sunday in the Village of East Davenport. We would like to get more XKR's and 8's. There has never been any in the show except for the new ones LuJacks Auto Plaza show. XKR's and 8's are few and far between. If you can make it come on up.
Doug
2001 XKR Silverstone

 

Doug,

Here are some pics of the car when I picked it up.

Kevin

 

Miami Beach to Tampa. 5 hours one way.

 

It looks to me like oftentimes, they find you instead of you finding them.

I had a similar situation in that I had been seriously looking for close to a year, but never actually bought. Then one day, up pops one on autotrader.com that was 4 miles away; the seller was an individual, andthe price was perfect.

Saw in on a Monday, drove it on Tuesday, had it inspected on Wednesday and owned it on Thursday.

It's not the color I wanted, but that's what happens when they find you.

 

I flew from Central VA to Minneapolis MN bought my 2007 XK and drove it home 1200 miles. AWESOME drive home!!

 

Did a 600 mile round trip from the very south of Ireland to the north. Spent 5 min looking at it and bought it. Not my perfect car but it was like new with full service. Perfection is a black XKR with cream leather!