Summer Fun for under £20k

[romft123]

SLK 350 Or SL350

[GrandTourer100]

ZX10R NIN said:

I'd take the 5.0 XK in portfolio spec:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403197...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403087...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403278...

I hear aluminium corrosion can be an issue on XKs. Is this to be expected of cars of this vintage and would it be an expensive fix?

[GeniusOfLove]

GrandTourer100 said:

I hear aluminium corrosion can be an issue on XKs. Is this to be expected of cars of this vintage and would it be an expensive fix?

It's not as common on XKs as X350 XJs, and it looks like bubbling under the paint. It can safely be ignored, it won't spread and rot out the car like steel corrosion. Repair is actually more like fixiing a scuff than conventional rust, they rub it back and spray it.

Plenty of cars with none on it, my leggy XKR doesn't have a single spot. They do get surface corrosion on subframes which presumably can rot all the way through but so does everything with a steel subframe when it's 15 years old (i.e. almost everything).

[GeniusOfLove]

GrandTourer100 said:

The 3rd one at £14k (94k miles) is stunning. Just thinking of resale, would tipping over into 100k+ miles affect resale vales dramatically (and also considering reliability issues at this vintage)? If mileage isn't a huge concern with these cars then there is a 2012 XK Convertible on at £12,995 on Autotrader. That looks awesome!

They take miles really well, I impulse bought a 130k 5.0 XKR convertible six months ago sight unseen from a trade auction for £9k. I put a new roof on it for £1700 (didn't have to do that, but I wasn't happy with the home brew repair to a separating rear screen) and it needed a new water pump which is an easy job, but since then I've done 6,000 trouble free miles using it as a my main daily.

I drove a 22k 2012 example the other day and it drove exactly like my car.

I'd be very very reluctant to spend big money on any of them, stick a few plates through WBAC or other similar services to see how worthless they are at trade in. Only ones that get the slightest bit of love at trade auctions are super low mileage late ones in wicked colours, the rest hang around for weeks or months.

Good news is a cheap leggy one is likely to be just as good, many reliability issues are related to age more than mileage anyway. Go find a private sale and haggle hard because his plan B is to sell it to WBAC for 50p.

ETA - with high milers the usual caveats apply, if it's a neglected turd it'll be obvious, but if it's great now and you look after it then it'll continue to be great for a long time. You see them turn up with 200k+ on them fairly frequently.

Edited by GeniusOfLove on Monday 1st April 13:37