XJ40 values on the up? (shock, horror)

[Partridge]

Just seen this. I know it's only done 20k, but how f**king much?

 

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C507781

 

I'm the biggest XJ40 fan out there, but there's no way I'd ever shell out 10k on old pud landlord shite.

Since getting my hands on actual Jags I've noticed any XJ40 that's better than basket case condition is now well over a grand. I blame the scrappage scheme for hoovering up all the shit ones and making their image less bad.

I'm half pleased because it means less will end up with casual owners who will bork good cars after 10 months by running them with no oil or something, letting their staffies chew the seats, putting England flags on the doors and getting dead scratchcards stuck under the seats. *Insults half of the country*.

 

I'm half tempted to phone up that dealer WUD U TEK £400 COLECT 2NITE OK M8.

[bub2006]

Frigging hell 10 large. Must admit price is slightly steep.

[carlo]

Anything on carandclassic.co.uk seems to be five times what it should be

[Jim Bell]

They're good, but not that good.

[chaseracer]

Blimey.  I thought they'd all smoked the short-oval on the way to becoming part of a Chinese skyscraper.

[Partridge]

Blimey.  I thought they'd all smoked the short-oval on the way to becoming part of a Chinese skyscraper.

There's enough of them around, but they're either wrecks or excellent and asking slightly daft for money for what is in reality, worthless, thirsty shite that in today's world, is as relevant as a cactus in a nuclear strike.  

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

There's enough of them around, but they're either wrecks or excellent and asking slightly daft for money for what is in reality, worthless, thirsty shite that in today's world, is as relevant as a cactus in a nuclear strike.  

 

But that description holds true for almost any even slightly interesting car.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

£10,000 does seem a lot, but then there are very few cars of this age left in this condition. The seller only needs to find one person who really wants it. I think it will take him a long time though!

 

XJ40 prices have been rising for quite some time now.  You can still get lucky and find a decent, serviceable car for less than £1,000, but they’re fairly rare these days. Most cars below £1k will be horrors. The ’40 really knows how to rust!

 

Really good XJ40s regularly sell for £4-5k now. They’re just not that many of them left and the cars do have a following. The XJ40 seems to be a car which divides opinion with many people hating them (I have read some very negative comments about XJ40s here) – but plenty of people who love them too.

 

I have an XJ40 in the same colour. I don’t think I could sell it for £10k though!

 

Here it is!

[Spiny Norman]

I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw that one, ten grand is dreamland money for one of these, no matter how nice it is. It's fair to say that like all old Jags prices probably are slowly on the way up, having bottomed out at the 'can't give them away' mark and now getting thin enough on the ground and old enough to be seen as 'classic' Jags.

Park one next to a current model XJ (which to my eyes looks like a big Mazda) and it looks every inch the proper old Jag.

 

Still plenty around at pocket money prices for the easily led shiter though, the ex Dome 3.2 Popular Plus one I imported from Edinboghorror a few weeks ago is going great guns, and I've only had to put £65 of fuel in it so far.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Ah, so it is you that bought this! I did wonder who it was on Autoshite who ended up with it.

 

I have seen you post about it on XJ40.com - my username is "David" on there.

 

 

Realistically I think he will struggle to sell it for £10k, but you never know. Very good XJ40s seem to sell at £5k - which is half that. There is a low mileage 3.6 litre Daimler that does the rounds which hasn't sold at £8k. I think it has pushed past the very very top price that is realisitically achieveable for an XJ40, unless an XJ40 fanatic wins the lottery or something.

That said, an XJR sold a year or so back for £8k, so £8k for the Daimler isn't imposssible, mad though that may sound. Even I'm not sure I see the advantage in these cars over a really nice one at £4-5k though, and I am an enthusiast of the things!

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Interesting Tayne. I do think that you're right and that sort of thing happens.

 

I find the reaction to rising XJ40 prices on XJ40.com quite amusing. A lot of the forum members resent it and want to keep the XJ40 really cheap. I can understand why this is, since many of them have several cars and this would be unaffordable if average cars were to rise in price significantly.

 

I have mixed feelings. I will never sell my own car (it was owned by my late father many years ago) so a rise in value is of no practical benefit to me beyond being good for my ego, but worry that if the cars remain as cheap as they have been in the last few years (a guy on XJ40.com actually tried to give one away a year or two back and no one wanted it - ah the humiliation!! ) that they all will end up being scrapped!

[brickwall]

Around here XJ40s have increased as good ones are becoming harder to get. I'd say they have increased in the 100s not thoosands and thoosands.

[Junkman]

10k is Lalaland, but the prices are definitely climbing for good XJ40s. They are starting to knock at the 2k door.

In exchange, S-Types are entering shiter territory. I prefer those anyway, for sheer comedy styling.

So skip the beautiful 4 litre sixes in lieu of a 4 litre V8 with terminally daft looks? You have my attention...

Then I saw what's underneath an S-Type's bonnet the other day, and...errr...show me that XJ40 again, please.

[Partridge]

Right now the media is full of stories about classic car prices being on the up.

I'm not going to pretend I know why but when a Countach goes for £300k at auction and then another makes £800k two months later the prices are only going one way.

This means that price of more normal old/classic cars will also be affected as those of us at the lower end of the food chain get in on the act.

The ideal time to buy an investment car is about 5 minutes before it goes from "old car" to "classic car".

 

Now either the XJ40 is in that transition or that dealer is going to start it off.

Let's imagine he finds an immaculate, low mileage, one owner, full history XJ40 which he buys for, say, £4k.

He then gives it a polish, a fresh ticket and puts it on the forecourt for £9995.

People on autoshite, XJ40.com, JagPervs.co.uk, etc say "WTF £10k 4 XJ40!" etc.

In a week, or a month, or two months someone (perhaps their late father owned an XJ40 in that colour) with money but no desire to do their own spannering walks in to that dealer and offers a cheeky £6k for what they see as the best XJ40 on the market.

They haggle and the buyer gets the car for £7750. The dealer then takes down the online ads.

At this point the folk on autoshite, XJ40.com, JagPervs.co.uk, etc say "OMG £10k XJ40 sold etc" and thus at least £1000 is added to the value of every XJ40 in the UK.

 

Now if you don't believe this is possible then please consider the Range Rover CSK.

There were only 200 made and a few years ago they were valued at £5-6k in good nick with the best on the country still not making five figures.

An enthusiast who spent several years and a lot of cash restoring one was forced to sell owing to a messy divorce, Graeme Hunt (google him) gave £9500 for the car.

GH then had the opportunity to write a "how to spend it" article for the Sunday Times "Classic cars, money, value, appreciate, etc Range Rover CSK, best ones - now £30k"

A lot of people laughed at this, then laughed more when GH put the restored £9.5k CSK on the forecourt for £32.5k.

Now only GH and the buyer know what it actually when for, but overnight the price of a rusty MoT-less CSK suddenly became £5k.

I'd say that one sale probably affected the values of all Classic Range Rovers as well...

You're right. Well that's my attainable dream out of the window then.

[Partridge]

10k is Lalaland, but the prices are definitely climbing for good XJ40s. They are starting to knock at the 2k door.

In exchange, S-Types are entering shiter territory. I prefer those anyway, for sheer comedy styling.

So skip the beautiful 4 litre sixes in lieu of a 4 litre V8 with terminally daft looks? You have my attention...

Then I saw what's underneath an S-Type's bonnet the other day, and...errr...show me that XJ40 again, please.

The big white chief at the company I freelance for owns an S-Type R...it's every inch the proper old Jaaaaaaaaaag.

[Junkman]

The big white chief at the company I freelance for owns an S-Type R...it's every inch the proper old Jaaaaaaaaaag.

 

I won't argue that for a second, and the post-facelift ones are even jaguarer.

They just look like a caricature, and what's underneath the bonnet is scarier than Angela Merkel's dopiness.

[forddeliveryboy]

If I wanted a biggish engined comfy upmarket saloon then an XJ40 would be my choice over a 124 300, much as I like the Mercs. Rather than feeling like a posh Pisshat it feels like a cheap, sensible Rolls. It's also properly British, not something you can describe a modern Jag as, soul-wise. I see those as rather like the modern Triumph bikes, bloody brilliant for sure, but not honed and designed for this country in particular.

[Junkman]

Make mine a Daimler, but apart from that, I will have to second every word you wrote.

[Bren]

An extremely rusty SD1 vitesse that had been stood but had a stainless exhaust sold for £1k despite needing at least five times that to make it good again.

 

A twin plenum that was taxed and MOT'd but getting a bit frilly sold for £3600.

 

Maybe things are on the up - good if you are selling, bad if you are buying.

[rml2345]

Prices for anything old with a bit of following are going up to the point that only the ones with deep pockets are buying. We were discussing climbing prices for old saloons there and the trend is up.

Like all bubbles, it'll burst eventually and prices will settle again. Besides which, cars are better used for driving than investing as too little of the former will diminish the latter.

[forddeliveryboy]

Yep, but some settle back more than others after a crash. It's all healthy market economics - stuff stagnates away for years, unrecognised by most, then everything goes up, but some crash far less than the rest. Who's to say it'll not be P6s and XK40s rather than silly Beemers which are worth decent money in the 2020s? The last thing I'd 'invest' in is a mass-produced BM. After all, they were on the up throughout the 80s and 90s - stuff which makes money is the fin de siècle metal. A really good '85 CX GTi Turbo is going to be worth £20k in a few years - you watch!

[chaseracer]

Perhaps I should hold on to the 300E...

[Adrian_pt]

Standard Jag curve. Happens (in a more or less silly way) to everything with the leaping cat (and the three pointed star). The trick is to buy when the market's down. XK8s and the 1990-on SL-classes are now under the 3k bracket for an MoTd example...

[dome]

Off topic but cracking photies Ian. She's looking good.

[Partridge]

Well, it's now been sold. Wonder how much it went for in the end?

[Asimo]

£3,250          

 

              

 

Does make most else seem poor value for money

[RobT]

I don't understand the hatred some people have for XJ40s. They may be more angular than previous Jags but it's still a Jag and I reckon they've aged rather well, very much a product of the 80s which is no bad thing IMO. Sorry but the S-type is gopping in comparison, trying to look ye olde worlde but just appears dumpy especially from the rear. I'd prefer a Rover 75 even if the interiors can be a bit chintzy!

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I don't see why some people hate them either. I think my Forty is a wonderful, beguiling thing to drive. It just glides down the road with the minimum of effort. They're tremendously relaxing cars. The way the XJ40 mixes a traditional Jaguar feel with modern drivability is genuinely underrated. The six litre V12 feels astonishingly sophisticated. The XJ40s Achilles heels are their tendency to rust and a slightly high fuel consumption. I love mine.

 

There seems to be a lot more interest in them now. I remember a time when XJ40s were worthless and China Tom and I were very unusual in having our XJ40s restored. There were very few restoration pictures out there to be seen on the internet and anyone restoring one had to discover the rust problems as they went along. Now there are loads of them. Lots of people are fixing XJ40s up as interest and values has increased, particularly on the continent.

 

I think I may love my old Sovereign just a bit too much!

 

 

 

 

[forddeliveryboy]

528 JRB, that's lovely - but I do prefer the underbonnet view to the interior one! After what had gone before I found the 40's dash vaguely American at times - my ideal is a S3 interior in a 40.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I agree with that. I particularly like the centre console of the Series 3, and the way the dash 'sits' high in front of you with all the dials set in it, if you see what I mean.

 

On my car, i like the paint colour and I like the interior colour, but I would never have chosen them both for the same car. They're just too similar!