The Hunt Part II

After office hours I had an appointment to check the car. I arrived well on time before the seller showed up. The car was parked at his parents appartment in a basement. The story was he no longer had the required space to park it in a garage. He had a new Tesla which required to be parked in the garage with the needed chargers and such. This was the mean reason it had to go, lack of space.

When driving the XJS outside the powersteeringpump made an awful squeeking noise. The car was not even washed or cleaned. Mud at the skirts and dirty wheels

At first sight it looked reasonably ok. I was told he only used it occassionly and only had it for 1,5 year. Not very long. I had already checked this and noticed on the RDW register it only had 1 business owner so far! and 0 private owners:

This was also a key reason for me to have this car inspected quickly before making an appointment in Hannover. The owner had it registered on his company. He was definately not a mechanic nor had anything done on the car. He simply was a liker of the XJS and used if for an occasional spin. He informed me he had bought it on an auction (Catawiki) and was by surprise the highest bidder. When purchased the car got a new MOT and also got new front tyres (Vredestein classic - good choice!). Furthermore as a safety precaution he had something done on the brakes. This was all done by Kimman (Dutch Jaguar specialist). This all sounded good and was useful information.

When inspecting the car I could not find or see any nasty (rust) spots. Although I could see some parts were resprayed - likely small parking damages or such. Example of spray on the black rubber:

Furthermore there were a few little spots/dents but nothing worrisome.

The car looked very Original and complete (except for the radio and toolkit). Clearly a car that was not messed with or very little as far as I could tell. The advert did also mention the previous 12 years it was stored in a showroom as a eye catcher. Effectively the first owner must have had it from 1984 till 2015. But more on that later.

The interior also looked pretty good but clearly not very well cleaned. The drivers chair did had one small damage and was missing a button to move the back. Other then that it looked great and Original. Surely with a bit of detailling the interior could be nicely transformed.

Looking under all the carpets which revealed no rust or whatsoever:

Also under the bonnet it looked okayish. Unfortunately the gas struts were no longer working (sigh). I also reckon that the engine bay pictures in the advert looked more shiny but perhaps I was wrong

After a few more rounds walking around the car and checking underneath it was time for a testdrive.

The following items came to light:

1) Steeringpump noise and occassionly playing up.

2) Moving the gearstick into position (P/R/N/D) did not went smooth.

3) Engine idling high when running stationair in N.

4) The front right making noise, suspension? wheelbearing?

5) Airco not blowing cold air.

6) gasmeter not working (known already).

7) bonnet gasstruts failing

Unfortunately I could not inspect the car on a bridge to see how the suspension was or the exhaust. Or check for any kind of leakage at the engine. Nor could I perform a compression test. I told him that I first wanted to have some extra bits checked and that I would inform him the next evening on the next steps I wanted to take. All in all the car did look promising.

When arrived at home I first checked if I could find more history on the car since he mentioned he bought it on Catawiki. And surprise, I found it instantly. However this was him offering the car for sale! Bummer. From this I learned at least it was already for sale since June. Also the highest bidder was clearly to low, I guess it did had a reserve price as it was not sold obviously:

Now I have this advert it does mention the same history (sorry it's in Dutch):

133.000 km - goede staat van onderhoud - bronskleurig - 5.3 liter V12 - automaat - airconditioning - Nederlands kenteken

Merk:	Jaguar
Carrosserie:	Coupé
Transmissie:	Automaat
Brandstof:	Benzine

Met deze Jaguar is slechts ca. 133.400 kilometers (afgelezen) gereden. Deze auto is in zeer goede staat, zowel motorisch als optisch. Auto start altijd direct en is vrijwel roestvrij. Geen krassen op de lak, leren bekleding is schoon en onbeschadigd. De auto heeft 12 jaar lang als 'museum-stuk' dienst gedaan bij een Jaguar dealer die hem prominent in zijn showroom had staan. In die periode is hij goed onderhouden en regelmatig 'uitgelaten'. De voorbanden en het remsysteem zijn beide in 2015 vervangen. Alleen de brandstofmeter is defect, verder heeft de auto geen gebreken.

Motor: 5.3 liter V12 High Efficiency (benzine)
Vermogen: 299 pk bij 5.500 tpm
Koppel: 436 Nm bij 3.900 tpm
Transmissie: Drietraps GM400 automaat
Aandrijving: achterwielaandrijving
APK geldig t/m: 31-03-2017 (NL)

The next morning I did some advanced searching and I found the Original auction where the current owner was the highest bidder. That's obviously very useful to know when doing the price negotation. On top of the highest bid also a 9% auction fee had to be paid

And for the records, this one had the supporting information in English:

5.3 V12 HE - Automatic

The Jaguar XJ-S, XJS for the third generation, was a GT car by the British make Jaguar. The XJ-S was introduced in 1975 to replace the Jaguar E-type. The model was built in three generations until 1996, when it was followed up by the Jaguar XK8.

Very nice, genuine Jaguar Coupe 12-cylinder.

Year of production of the car is 27 Jan 1984. The car is in very good condition, engine and automatic gearbox are in good condition.

Odometer reading: 130,878

We bought the car from a Jaguar dealer's collection. The car has been stored in a warm place for 12 years.

Colour: Jaguar brown
Number of cylinders: 12
Cylinder capacity: 5343 cm3
Type of vehicle: Coupé
Drive: rear
Segment: Super Sport

Catalogue value: € 54,998

Transportation and costs to be determined later.

The car has no new APK/MOT. New APK/MOT can be arranged by agreement with the buyer later!

The car can be viewed and picked up in Schiedam, the Netherlands.

Another interesting thing to see is the auction estimate by the auctioneers. On the first auction in 2015 it was estimated to fetch 10k - 13k. On the second auction in 2016 the estimate is 12k - 16k.

In Google cache I found another advert by the owner, from this I could only reveal this information:

Jaguar XJS V12 automaat (1984) | Occasions - AutoWeek.nl

www.autoweek.nl/occasion/7KCWK/jaguar-xjs-v12-automaat

Jaguar XJS V12 automaat (1984), Brons, € 9.999, 134.000 km, Benzine, Coupé, 2 deuren, Automaat, KR-63-DF

The next thing I did was to call Kimman to find out more about the technical check up possibilities. It turned out this is something they don't do as the car was considered to old for their mechanics. In the end there was an older mechanic (chef werkplaats) around who could do this job but including a compression test it could become a lengthy job, meaning very expensive. As such I hold back for the moment.

Since the car had the Original dealer badge on the back I figured they must know more about the history of this car.

So I called them Friday afternoon after lunch to make an enquiry. The man who answered was at first not interested and told me he was busy with rounding up as he was leaving for holiday. I pushed a little and mentioned I was calling about a XJS from 1984 which was delivered by them. He then wanted to know if it was a 6 or 12 cylinder. When I said 12 he immediately asked if it was a brown one with chrome wheel arches. Bingo! Still he was in a hurry and spent only a few minutes with me revealling he was the first owner and that the car was mostly in good shape. The car had indeed some spots resprayed but this was not due to significant damage or such. He mentioned only one side on the back potentially required some welding. Also the automatic gearbox was replaced by a new one (I Always thought the GM400 were bomb proof). He was interested regarding the selling price though. Which I revealed to him, he considered it quite high, apparently the car was sold for much less. For more detail about the ownership and technical history I will have to contact him after his holiday as he had no more spare time at this stage.

The first owner more or less confirmed my findings and gave me confidence to buy the car without doing a further expensive check up. Clearly there were still the outstanding 7 points to be fixed. With all this information I called the current owner and told him the story about the first owner who revealed there was also a potential welding spot. I offered him a fair price without doing any further buyer inspection check up (which could reveal other malfunctioning/repairs - meaning devaluation of the car). He considered me an enthusiast and gave me luck without doing any further price haggling. So we agreed a time for the next day to do the paperwork and hand over the car.

So there you go, I'm a XJS owner since. And what happened next has already been updated on this blog.