Discussion
Update to previous thread regarding buying XJS. I have now viewed the White 1990 with 63 k miles. All mot's varified the mileage. Very clean inside and out. Evidence of sone paint work but nicely done. Bills to show work carried out. Previous owner bought it in oct 2001. Ful history up to 2003 at 62,000 . Then not a lot as the car has done some 1500 until now. Managed to speak to the previous owner on the phone. He hasn't used it much in the last 5 years but has had flid changed etc regularly but no official stamps in the book ( must have done it himself I guess). He confirmed the history and various jobs carried out which match the paperwork. Because he not used it he decided to sell. He told me he had no bites at 3 grand! (which is what he paid for it in 2001. Sadly he ended up contacting We Buy Any Car.com who gave him 500 quid for it!!!!. It was then bought at auction by the current dealer selling it. There is a tiny bit of headlining sagging but apart from that it looks very very clean indeed. Air con is ice cold too and I assume it is the latest regulation gas?? I think 6400 is too much considering the dealer says he can't put an offcial warranty on it but will stand by it fir a month should it need anything. Bit like buying private I think. Any thoughts anyone please???
Cheers
Cheers
orangecar said:
Well that tells me nearly every xjs for sale at the moment is over priced then!! Has anyone got some sensible advice please? Or an idea of xjs prices ?
Like many cars of it's ilk, a wide variety of prices on display. One would hope that the more highly priced examples would be the better ones, but that does not always follow with dealers.The previous owner must have been crackers to let it go for £500 quid though - its also an indicator of how much mark-up the car has, not that it is particularly relevant to how much you want to pay for it!
WBAC.Com generally sell unwanted stuff at auction, but I guess they may have buyers for more specialist stuff.
The only thing for sure is that, at £6400, that car has a MASSIVE mark up! Not many 3.6s of that age at that price these days.
IMHO for a 1990 3.6 XJS in fantastic condition I would say £4-5K BUT it would have to be exceptional.
But like with a lot of things something is only worth what you are willing to pay for it.
1990 was a funny year as this was 'around' the change over time for the face lift, so even though the exterior of the car will be the same as the earlier some of the switch gear will be from the facelift e.g. steering column switches, the rest of the switch gear will be as per earlier
I prefer the 3.6 to the V12. The V12 is a slouch unless you want to pay mega money tuning the 3.6 can be done cheaply. 3.6's came with sports suspension as standard and drive better let alone having a LSD.
You pays your money you take your choice
But like with a lot of things something is only worth what you are willing to pay for it.
1990 was a funny year as this was 'around' the change over time for the face lift, so even though the exterior of the car will be the same as the earlier some of the switch gear will be from the facelift e.g. steering column switches, the rest of the switch gear will be as per earlier
I prefer the 3.6 to the V12. The V12 is a slouch unless you want to pay mega money tuning the 3.6 can be done cheaply. 3.6's came with sports suspension as standard and drive better let alone having a LSD.
You pays your money you take your choice
Thanks guys. I thought about 5 k as it's value. Yes the fella must have been crackers but I think he just wanted out for some reason. Not as though it was costing him either. WBAC.com have just stuck a cap valuation on it. I have also heard as part of their job is to chip the price by 30% when they see it. ALL xjs wil be worth ghat kinda money of u are selling it through the trade so I am not too bothered about that. I am trying to understand what is reasonable. I wouldn't risk buying one at auction so there is always a mark up. I have seen a few priced higher if u look on car and classic. But u are right it is what u are willing to pay. Ian wondering what the price difference should be if u had two identical cars regarding history age and condition but one has 63k and the other 100k on the clock. Do u pay a premium?
Call me strange, but I'd pay more for the 100k one.
Why?
Cars are designed to be driven. Sure, stuff will wear as it's used. But being used will be 100 times better for the moving parts than sitting there rusting.
High miles means a car is being used. So any niggles will be noticed by the previous owner and sorted. A car you use three times a year can have all sorts wrong with it, but it doesn't matter because you hardly use it.
For example, old Ferraris are known for being troublesome. They're usually left sitting round, and then things break. I've heard of a Mondial which is used as a training car on a circuit, and used pretty much daily, and that has had hardly anything wrong with it, because it's used.
There are also many cars which don't do many miles because there's so much wrong with them - if something breaks every time you drive it, it's going to be sat around for a while before it gets fixed..... and so on, ad infinitum.
Tbh, I would never spend more than £2,500 on a pre-facelift car, whatever the condition. But then I vastly prefer the styling of the Celebration models anyway.
Why?
Cars are designed to be driven. Sure, stuff will wear as it's used. But being used will be 100 times better for the moving parts than sitting there rusting.
High miles means a car is being used. So any niggles will be noticed by the previous owner and sorted. A car you use three times a year can have all sorts wrong with it, but it doesn't matter because you hardly use it.
For example, old Ferraris are known for being troublesome. They're usually left sitting round, and then things break. I've heard of a Mondial which is used as a training car on a circuit, and used pretty much daily, and that has had hardly anything wrong with it, because it's used.
There are also many cars which don't do many miles because there's so much wrong with them - if something breaks every time you drive it, it's going to be sat around for a while before it gets fixed..... and so on, ad infinitum.
Tbh, I would never spend more than £2,500 on a pre-facelift car, whatever the condition. But then I vastly prefer the styling of the Celebration models anyway.
Edited by Dominicc01 on Saturday 26th June 10:52
Dominic01, I agree with you in some ways - cars certainly do deteriorate if they are not used enough. My own '92 Sovereign has demonstrated this, becoming "needy" suprisingly fast when I wasn't driving it enough.
That said, 63,000 miles is not a tiny distance, and 100,000 is not a high mileage for a car of this age. The difference between the two could easily have been made many years ago, if the 100k car did a big mileage when it was fairly new. Thus, it could be neither of them have been used enough for years. I do understand your point though.
I actually prefer the earlier cars, but hey - they're all beautiful!
XKracer, at the risk of going off topic (though it may be of interest to the original poster if he buys a six cylinder XJ-S), how would you go about improving the performance of an AJ6 equiped car for reasonable cost?
That said, 63,000 miles is not a tiny distance, and 100,000 is not a high mileage for a car of this age. The difference between the two could easily have been made many years ago, if the 100k car did a big mileage when it was fairly new. Thus, it could be neither of them have been used enough for years. I do understand your point though.
I actually prefer the earlier cars, but hey - they're all beautiful!
XKracer, at the risk of going off topic (though it may be of interest to the original poster if he buys a six cylinder XJ-S), how would you go about improving the performance of an AJ6 equiped car for reasonable cost?
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