And the price was acceptable as well. In fact I got greedy and actually wanted to have it. But I just thought to leave it and wanted to learn a little more about the XJS weak spots in case I was going out for inspection. So I just bookmarked the advert. A few weeks went by and I didn't do anything further to study the XJS. When I clicked the bookmark again the advert showed up being sold. Bummer. Still I kept the bookmark. Again a few weeks went by and I clicked the bookmark again. It was still listed as sold. So I checked the RDW register (Dutch official road register) and could see the new owner still had not registered the car on his name (after all these weeks). Perhaps the car deal did not went ahead and they still had to update their website. So I gave the car dealer a call to find out. I was told indeed that it was still for sale. That's good news but by now I was almost going on summer holiday and said I will contact him again after my leave. On the same RDW register I noticed the car had quite a bit of previous owners:
The car was imported from Swiss to the Netherlands in 2004 and had since 2 business owners and 11 private owners. That's quite a lot. The car itself was from 1979. So who knows what happened in between 1979 and 2004. This itself was not a good sign to me. Still I was interested to at least see the car. So after my holiday leave I called him. Turned out it was 99% sold again to a customer. I gave him my mobile number just in case the deal would not go ahead after all. We are now again a couple weeks further and still the car is not registered by the new owner. Typical. By now I also learned a little more about the different XJS series. When I realized it was a 1979 model I of course could see immediately it did not had the correct bumpers, but also the interior was completely different. It was upgraded to a serie 3 model.
Next to this one I found another one of my interest located in Belgium. When finally the owner contacted me I was informed it was sold as well. Strangely enough also this one is still offered for sale.
As I continued my search I spotted one in Almelo which was owned by a Jaguar enthusiast who was cleaning out his collection. One downside, it was from 1990. In the Netherlands we have (again) new tax ruling on roadtax. This is resulting in cars with a first registration date from 1988 (despite 25 years old) now have to pay the full amount of roadtax (which obviously builds up strongly pending on the weight of the car). Cars before 1988 can apply for a transition roadtax which only costs € 125,- a year (independant weight but they have to be benzine - Diesels can not apply for this rule). Cars older then 40 years do get the classic status and will be roadtax free. In any case I went to see the car, if it was really in good shape I could decide not to worry about the roadtax and get it suspended in the winter months, meaning not paying roadtax. The guy was a real car nut and heavily into Jaguar, we must have a talked cars for about an hour with coffee before I started inspecting the car. Luckily he owned a car lift so I could do some proper checking. He was the fist owner when imported the car from German into Netherlands. This was in 2004. The MOT was also expired since - he had to many cars to drive, it was simply part of his collection. He neverhtheless had maintained and serviced it well. So the car was technically in a very good shape. Unfortunately optically there were quite a bit of areas of attention including some nasty rust spots. After careful reconsideration I decided not to go ahead with it. This car was another good example of good looking on the photos but in real failed to convince me. I definately wanted not to puruse with cars registered after 1988.
The first series XJS I did not fancy due to the ugly bumpers and dito interior. The last series I did not fancy either due to the rearlight styling. So I definately had to pick the 2nd or 3rd series, which had my prefences due to the HE engine as well and the improved styling. This narrowed my searching drastically as I only had to search 1983 - 1987 models.
Still there were plenty other offerings but many did not met my other criteria as for budget and mileage. Else some adverts simply showed poor exemplars. But I found another interesting one located quite a bit away in Hannover. Meaning about a 4 hour drive for me. When I made contact with the guy it appeared he was a Russian. On my request he submitted extra photos and provided more details about the car including the paperwork. With this I could reveal a little more history about the car but it wasn't entirely clear since when he owned it and if it was ever used on the road since. Unfortunately both his German and English was not very good and I figured it was a little tricky. Still I thought to make an effort and visit the car. I was intending to get over in the weekend and asked if he had access to garage or a carlift for inspection. This was possible. Due to other personal commitments I had to wait one week and informed him accordingly.
In the next week I stumbled upon another XJS in the Netherlands for which I made an appointment for a quick check after office hours. Not sure if I had overlooked it before or if I neglected it for some reason (potentially the chrome plates on the wheelarches which hugely puts me off) it did look interesting to me nevertheless. The pictures looked ok (but I know from experience that reality might be different), mileage ok, age ok, color ok, intererior ok, price ok. Clearly the technical state was unknown. The advert mentioned only the gasmeter was broken. As said, I quickly made an appointment for a visit and test.
I can now already reveal it's actually the car I bought, so I also informed the Russian guy in Hannover that I was not coming over in the weekend.
More on the actual check, test drive and car purchase in one of the next blogs. For me this must have been one of the quickest car purchases as I normally take my time and compare as much as possible. In the end one would like to get the best value for money.
No comments:
Post a Comment