I bought my XKR sight unseen, from a dealer in Melbourne (a few states away). It still had 4 months warranty so I was pretty relaxed. Seeing it roll off the truck, it was a fantastic looking car and I could barely believe it was mine. The only issue was quite a bit of road rash on the front quarter panels and a few stone chips on the bonnet. A good clay fixed the road rash, it came up like new.

I saw the F Type before I bought it, that kind of took away a bit of the fun I think.

 

A bit like Mahjik, I ordered my P450 before I'd seen an F-Type in the flesh, let alone sat in one. It was only after I ordered it that I went to the local main dealer and sat in the MY20 version, really just to confirm to myself that I hadn't made a terrible mistake! I was almost the same with the Nissan 200SX I bought new, though I had sat in one for a minute beforehand but not driven it. I can be a little impulsive like that, when it comes to cars. In fact, of the last 5 cars I've bought for my personal use (4 brand new, 1 pre-owned) I only test drove one of them before buying it (and that was the 106 GTi I bought new back in 1997). The only other car I test drove before buying was the Alfa 156 my father and I bought through our business, back in '98.

As I was getting the MY21 car, there was almost no way of seeing one in the flesh before it was picked up. The nearest main dealer didn't even have one in their showroom for well over a month after I had mine.

Don't regret it for a moment, even if I can't drive it anywhere near as much as I'd want to.

 

For me, it was the day I picked mine up. My first sit was when the dealer went over the cockpit functions. The first drive was bringing it home. It was during the winter, but no snow on the streets at that time (streets were cleaned up but snow everywhere else ). I figured if it I didn't like it, I'd just trade it in on something else (had my eye also on a Cayman S).

 

I've purchased my last three vehicles on-line. Two from a dealer in New York (Range Rover Sport and my F-Type) and one from Seattle (XJL). I had the RR shipped. It arrived looking better than the pictures, however it had a dead battery. I had also specifically asked the dealer if it had been a "smoker's car" and was assured it was not. It was and took a while to get the smell out of the leather. The dealership here in Troy, Michigan replaced the battery for me under warranty so all was good. I drove to New York to pick up my F-Type as I was trading in my XF on it. First time driving my F-Type was through New York City! But again, the car was exactly as described and I've had no issues with it since picking it up. Normally, third time is a charm. Well, not so much with the XJL. Flew to Seattle on a Sunday morning (Jaguar dealership was open on a Sunday) and took an Uber to the dealership. I had asked the dealership to have everything ready as I was driving straight back to Michigan and needed to be home in 3 days. The car looked great. However, it took quite a while for the dealership to get the paperwork ready. Then I was hammered to try and get me to buy all kinds of add-ons that I had already indicated I didn't want. Finally, after about 4 hours, I was ready to leave with the car. Got in and turned it on and tried to set the navigation. Nothing. As in not even showing up. Went in and asked the dealer why the nav wasn't working. Puzzled look and he came out and tried it. Spent another 2 1/2 hours while they determined that they had somehow deleted the programming from the car for the radio and navigation, and then uploaded the correct information. During this time, the dealer casually mentioned that the temporary license was only good for 3 days and only in the state of Washington. Full well knowing that I was driving it back to Michigan immediately. When I confronted him with that, his response was to "fly under the radar". I did make it back without getting pulled over, but then the car had to sit for almost a month while I waited for my Michigan plates to arrive. So, I've had two great experiences and one not so good. Would I do it again? Absolutely. But ask a ton of questions and ask for pictures of everything. And don't buy from the dealer in Seattle...

 

Back in the late 80s, I began looking for a Toyota Supra (mk2-82-early 86). Everybody smoked back then. I'd always ask the seller or dealer about cigarette smoking in the car. The answer was frequently no but I could always smell it from 10 feet away when I got there. I pressed one private seller why he lied and he told me "Well, you asked me if I smoked but you didn't ask about my wife. She smokes like a chimney." From then on, I made it a point to very carefully phrase my questions. Finally, the 35th one I looked at was a non-smoker car in my price range. I still have it today actually.

And I can't imagine everyone who has bought a car without even having sat in one. My uncle used to buy a new Buick every other year or so. One year he ordered a new model before they had any in stock and traded it back in after a few months because the seats were intolerable. Lost a lot of money on that trade-in. The seats are always make or break for me too. If a seat doesn't have enough lumbar support, or its too wide, or the foam squab is too hard or too short, or the headrest isn't adjustable enough, or anything uncomfortable, I have to live with my disappointment and move on to select something else. Even the XF, I had to find one with the Portfolio package because the base seats did not have adequate lumbar support. I'd suggest if your local dealer never has an F-type for you to at least sit in, look for a Cars and Coffee or a local Jaguar club's monthly meeting and see if someone will let you sit in their F-type. Just make sure to take everything out of your pockets first.

 

Bought my 2014V8S sight unseen and happy except that year much of the interior soft plastic parts get disgustingly sticky to the touch. I didn’t know about that until after I got it. I was able to get Jaguar to defray 80% of the cost to replace some of the parts. And I scrubbed most of the rest clean with vigorous scraping using household ammonia.
so be forewarned.

 

I bought mine sight unseen last spring. I trusted it because it was a jlr dealer and had a cpo.. pics didn't show scratches the length of the car down the bottom passenger side trim, that they hid well in person with over waxing, and the car made it through cpo inspection with a random purple pulley that was poorly installed. It shot off my snout right into the intake tubes 12 days later. Thank God my local jlr dealer (5 minutes from my house) warrantied the work.