I'm thinking that my Jaglessness will be temporary. I haven't even sold my XK8 yet and I'm already searching for XKRs. This sounds kinda crazy, but I love convertibles and I want to get another convertible. I borrowed my son's Saab 9-3 convertible last week because my wife and I drove to the beach with a couple of friends. All four of us fit in the Saab, but obviously that wouldn't work with the XK8. I drove his Saab a bit when I first bought it for him, and I liked it back then. After driving it last week I started thinking that I could sell the Jag, buy two Saab 9-3 convertibles, and still have money left over. His is a 2003. I paid $4200 for it about a year ago. (I got a really good deal). It runs great, the convertible has an automatic tonneau cover, the leather is immaculate, he's had no problems with it since I bought it, and he drives it from Raleigh to Baltimore about twice a month.

I'm seeing 1998-2003 Saab 9-3s on Craigslist for anywhere from $2500 to $6000. Of course, the $2500 ones have 180,000 miles on them, but for $5,000 I can get a 2002 or 2003 with less than 100K on the odometer. The red one below is an 01 with 95,000 miles and it's in really nice shape. It's not nearly as pretty as my Jag, but it's still a convertible, and it gets better gas mileage than the Jag. If I could sell the Jag for $11,000 and buy the Saab for $5500 I'd still have another $5500 to put into a car for my daughter. Of course, I wouldn't spend that much. I could buy her the black one below, which the owner is asking $4200 for. Let's say I get it for $4000 even, I'd have enough left over to pay for my daughter's insurance for a year. I'd still have the Expedition which I use for work sometimes when I need to haul stuff, but for the most part I could drive the Saab and save money on gas.





Anyway... that's my thinking. It would be kinda funny, though, when my son and daughter are at my house at the same time. We'd have three convertible Saabs parked in the driveway at once.

 

I know how you feel. With three kids I had 7 cars under my name. Now we just have the 3. 4 before the Jag was totaled. Good luck down sizing.

 

We need to downsize the vehicles in our stable as well. Two drivers, four vehicles. All my wife wants to drive now is her XK8. Her Lexus RX330 SUV just sits unless I take it out for the weekly romp to keep the fluids moving and the tires round. I've claimed her S-Type as my semi-daily driver. I drive my beloved 1999 Dodge Ram pickup when I need to do truck things like hauling lumber, various supplies, or equipment, maybe twice a week. I'm going to sell the Lexus. My wife will bitch and moan, but that's the price that must be paid when she never drives it any more....

On Monday she took off in her XK8 on one of her solo trips to and from Tampa to visit her elderly parents. No room in that car for her approximately 147 suitcases, cosmetic bags, and shoeboxes supposedly required for her week-long stay, but she claimed that she had an easy trip during the entire 11-hour drive. She loves that car too much and is too stubborn to admit that the S-Type is by far the preferred vehicle for that trip (that's exactly why we purchased the S-Type back in December 2008 - a luxurious, comfortable, great-mpg rear-wheel-drive sedan to get her to and from Tampa on these solo trips she makes six or seven times a year)....

 

You see, that's the kind of positive thinking I love hearing from you. Your ability to turn a bad situation into something fun!

But you will have to stick around, you're the only other Pastafarian I know.

9-3s are fairly good cars - just don't lose your all keys (about $2000 if you do), and plan on pulling the front exhaust pipe and oil pan every 80k so you can scrape the coked-up oil collecting in and around the pickup screen (almost impossible to find a used SAAB engine because of this.) Also buy every dashboard cupholder you can get a good deal on and plan on a new info display every couple years (fractured characters.) (check my sig')

 

Saabs: I had a 900 Turbo back in the day, circa 1983 I think it was. Loved it. It was as good as anything in the snow, and that mattered as we used to schlepp up to Vermont to ski.

But I never (NEVER!) was able to defeat my instinct to get off the gas when the rear end was trying to swap places with the front end, which of course is exactly the wrong thing to do with front wheel drive.

This caught up with me in the end. I sort of backed it into some woods at maybe 40 mph on one occasion and it came out looking like a Jeremy Clarkson experiment.

Too bad about Saab. They were good to have in the industry.

 

Best wishes to you Sam, you have contributed a great deal of help for the forum members.

 

All I can say about Saabs is they aren't as fugly as they used to be.

But...if anyone wants two Suburbans and a T&C van I can get to looking for a realllly nice lo-mile XKR.

 

Sorry you're leaving us, Sam, but it sounds as if you've already started hankering after an XKR, lol.

Having to make a choice between your health and your toys is tough

Thanks for all your videos

 

It will be interesting to see how long it takes to sell the car. It took me about a year and a half to sell my 1995 Corvette since I was holding out to get somewhere near the price it deserved. I started the process about the same time the crash came in 2008 and found that there was not much of a market for expensive "toys". But what with the economy going gangbusters now under the new leadership (yeah-right) your car should sell instantly.

I hope you keep lurking around the forum in any case. Your diy videos are invaluable. My guess is the next videos we will see from you will be how to do things on the next generation XK

Doug

 

Hi Rev Sam, thanks for all the videos. I bought my 03 XKR last month, from a guy in Raleigh, I guess our cars are cousins. I have a question after watching you video on installing another antenna on your Jag. You used a dipole FM antenna from Radio Shack. In the process of doing the install you added a matching transformer to your car antenna and the dipole connections.

I am planning to install a SiriusXM radio in my XKR and will be installing a direct connect modulator with it. I do not really want to pull the radio to connect the modulator to it and thought I could do it at the power antenna end where the cable plugs. I could not see the cable end of the car antenna, where it plugs into the power antenna assembly, from watching your video. Do you recall if it was just a standard RCA type male push plug connector? Good luck selling your Jag. I am still waiting to get some offers on my 01 XK8 that I have for sale.

wcnesta

 

I'm sort of a Glass Half Full kind of guy. I once had a 16 year old daughter, then another one and then a son. Now they are 32,31 and 28 now. Things just keep changing. I didn't get my Jag until they were all out of the house........so I didn't have to worry about one of them driving it.
I see an XKR in Sam's future, just don't make it too new or we'll have little to talk about.
Good Luck Sam and we'll hear from you again soon!

 

No it is not. It's a special connector that I've never seen before. The connector on the back of the radio, however, appears to be the standard antenna connector on most radios. Pulling the radio really isn't that difficult. I have videos on my youtube channel which show how to do it. You have to remove the whole center console, though, but that's easier than it sounds. The hardest part is removing the J-gate surround, but now that I've done it about 20 times I can do it in about 30 seconds. I have a video which shows how to do it.

 

It is a shame you selling the jag.
Being selfish, no more of your videos on here.
I will miss your expertise and humor.
But you have my heart felt best wishes for your health and the bills.
Keep smiling, but I am sure you will.

Bob

 

Thanks for your reply I had a hunch it was probably something different. I watched your video on removing the center panel and it looked simple enough. I guess I will give it a shot. Thanks again wish I had the Raleigh weather here in Connecticut as I would be tooling the highways with the top down listening to my supercharger sing LOL. Thanks again for the info.

Best regards
Bill

 

Hey Sam, If it truly is the super high insurance caused by insuring your driving aged children on your Jag - you might ask your insurance company this: "May I restrict a child from driving my Jag? My son is 18, and yes it was going to cost a bundle to have his rated to drive the Jag - in fact they WOULDN'T rate him for that car at all! The company - "Progressive" had me sign an exclusion document that specifically states he will not have any access to my XKR. I was able to rate him on his car (1990 Mazda RX-7) and my Ford truck and that was pretty affordable- no pun intended. Just a thought.
-Max

I'm in Missouri - perhaps that makes a diff.

 

Jag 69 suggested that. I called my insurance people and they said that North Carolina doesn't allow them to exclude an individual. All licensed drivers have to be insured on on vehicles in the household.

 

I finally got an ad up on Craigslist. If anyone has any feedback please let me know. I put up a different ad last week but I didn't have any recent pics at that time. I got a couple of hits, but I was surprised at the lack of interest. When I sold my BWM Z3 a few years ago I had five calls the first day and sold it within three days. I would have sold it sooner but my wife and I were taking it out of town for the weekend.

Here's the ad: 2003 Jaguar XK8 Convertible

If I don't get many hits from that I think I'll post it on cars.com or autotrader.com.

 

Rev. Sam, I look at that ad and get a feeling of deja vu....seeing bits of all the adventures you shared with us [eyes welling up].

 

this:
"I did this one day with the top down. I could have gone faster but it was scary as hell."
and the pic following would not install confidence in your treatment of the car if I was a buyer. Keep in mind that most of them won't know you as the guy from jaguarforums who posted 101 videos detailing his care for the vehicle. They'll more likely assume that you abused it.

You have two photos of the driver's seat that perhaps due to the lighting show every crease and wrinkle in the leather. People looking at cars with 100k miles should expect such wear, but you might be able make that appear more subdued with different lighting, or perhaps an inexpensive leather restoration kit might help.

 

Sam, craigslist is a fickle thing. I actually found my jag on there, but the owner said they hadn't had much interest. You might do better by paying the fee to auto trader.com or cars.com and get it up there. Ebay, I believe changed their policy as well where you just pay a flat fee on vehicle sales.