Boys and their Toys: Bye-Bye Jaguar XKR

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A bittersweet day today! ?

We said goodbye to my most loved car to-date – the Jaguar XKR. It was back in July 2014, when I first located the car of my dreams and subsequently parted with £33,220 for a car that was just five years old and had just 30,340 on the clock. OK, I had to take the train all the way to Sheffield to the dealer – sport’s car specialist, TopCars, but my extensive research into selecting this car proved it was a bargain, and well-worth the train journey there! Hey! They even picked me up from the station!! – and I got to drive it all the way home via the M1. 30,340 on the clock with only two previous owners – what a ride!! 😈😈

Well, that was then, this is now! – Thursday, November 25, 2021!

We’d always knew we probably wouldn’t keep the car forever, although the romantic side of me, always hoped, this particular model would become a ‘collectable’ – and I’d maybe even get my purchase price back. Really? Maybe a bit too much of a romantic notion for sure! Over the seven years of ownership (the longest I’d ever owned a car), I saw the price gradually drop and drop. No great surprise there then (it’s a car!) and the reality of recovering my purchase price was becoming a fantasy.

And then along came a thing called Coronavirus. It changed the world in every possible way – even (and maybe quite bizarrely) the value of used-cars. Long-story-short: A lack of availability of NEW cars (caused by a lack of chips for those cars) pushed everyone towards buying used, sending demand through the roof and supply through the floor. As every economics student knows, that only pushes prices one way – UP!

For the record, when the car was informally valued some 15 months ago, I was informed it was worth, typically, £14000… maybe £15k…and at a push with the right buyer £16k. It’s very much a niche car, and given its planet UNfriendly credentials, finding the right buyer was going to add to the challenge if I ever wanted ‘top dollar’.

We let things slip (well, I did) preferring to focus on our next electric car for Ann. That research confirmed that prices generally, were DEFINITELY on the rise for used cars, which in turn, prompted me to revisit the XKR prices.

I’m glad we did. Monitoring them for the past year-or-so confirmed what we all now know, they were (still) on the rise! More specifically, the XKR’s value had risen significantly.

Time for some serious legwork into the potential for selling! For reasons that I can’t quite recall, we didn’t act on this particularly quickly. Having seen prices rise and then rise, they now appeared to be dipping downwards. OK, difficult to know whether this was just a blip or a general trend, but I wasn’t prepared to wait to find out.

From a suggestion just over a year ago of £14k, the market now suggested ‘early 20s’. Time to strike! I trawled the various websites that offer cash-for-cars, and although I’d put WeBuyAnyCar towards the end of my preferred purchaser (not sure why!), they did initially offer the best price. But we all know how they work: they offer a top-end estimate-price and then beat you down on the day, because of various ‘jobs’ that need ‘sorting’. In my head, the closer to £20,300 I get (allowing for their various admin fees), the happier I’ll be! 😀

I was confident enough that because of the immaculate paint job, a very recent service and an MOT pass, that it was probably going to be the best car they’d seen all day… week… month… maybe even, year! 👍

10.02am: Here I am (early for my 10.10 appointment) at Kettering’s rather lack-lustre WBAC’s ‘office’. Time for the valuation! As it turned out they offered: £19700.25. Being the THIRD owner brought the value down a smidge and a minor imperfection on the driver’s door also contributed to a lower-than-I-anticipated-figure. Still, all-in-all, that’s a good result in my book! Just over a year ago, I wouldn’t have got anywhere near that – and probably never would again! Like so many things in life – timing is everything! 🤔

So, in less than 30 minutes, it was all over! I’d covered just 6759 miles in those seven years or ownership, and the car had been cherished at every point 💖💖. 37,099 miles on the clock, 7 years, 4 months, 22 days (386 weeks or 2702 days) of ownership, there was my once pride and joy waiting for its next journey…

Indeed, a bittersweet day! ☹️😀

Surprise, surprise! On Thursday 9th December, 2021, the XKR first appeared for sale in AutoTrader HERE, and then a few days later the same advert appeared on eBay for £26,995.

The seller was ‘Blackrock Motor Company Limited‘ based in Rochdale.

Update: On January 18th, 2022, the car was still for sale, but had been relisted HERE – The price had now been reduced to £26,495.

Update 2: On February 11th, 2022, the car was still UNsold, and the price had been reduced again – this time to £25,995.

Update 3: On March 9th, 2022, the car was reduced again to £25,495.

Update 4: On or around March 30th, 2022, the car advert disappeared from both eBay and AutoTrader – looks like it had finally been sold!

Four months later then, this really IS goodbye!!! 😪😪

Update 5: On 14th November, 2022 a quick valuation by WBaC revealed its current value… just £13,435! Ouch, that’s quite a drop (and makes me even more sure that I sold it at the right time!) and I really feel for the poor sod who now owns it 👍😁