Earlier this year I bought a 2004 XKR hardtop coupe with 99K on Ebay. Now I have 108K on this as I use it as my daily driver. This forum was instrumental in bringing my cat to 100%. My name is Bill, married with 1 kid, and I live in the Bel Air, MD area. I also desire to give back to the forum anything that I've figured out that is not already posted for others to benefit as well.

 

Welcome to the forum,

Good to have you here Bill.

 

Welcome to the site Bill good to have you with us .....

thanks for the compliments on ths forum, much appreciated

If you like forums, I think you'll like it here! Some of the best guys around and a really great mix of information, camraderrie and fun

I've manually upgraded you to full forum access so you can better view the site...................................

 

Bill, welcome to the forum. I think you will find a lot of really good guys here. Also, keep a look out in the "South" area. I try to schedule some get togethers periodically just so we can look at other Jags and to help put faces with the names around here. We did one this summer and had 8 Jags at a little burger joint. It made for some interesting faces when people pulled in.

Keep an eye out for a British Racing Green X-Type that has the Sport package on it (ie, the corner trim pieces are color matched, not chrome). You will know it is my car as the piece above the license plate on my car is color matched, but still has the chrome lettering on it (a true Sports package Jag has these letters color matched too). My son lives up in the Edgewater area which is just around the corner from you. I make it up that way periodically.

 

Welcome to the forum Bill.

Just a bit too far for me to make it for the meet. But if you get the chance Chris/Thermo is a great guys to help you out with any Jag problems.

Good to have you with us.

 

So Bill, would you give a thumbs up on the ebay method of purchasing in this case?

 

In general, no, but it worked for me. Let me put it this way... I would never recommend someone to purchase a car unless they see it and test drive it first (or have a trusted proxy do it).

In my case my expectations were low. I am a DIY and feel that there is nothing out there I can't fix. I'll do anything on a car (except mounting tires), house, computer, watch, or really anything that exists.
I've done my share of changing parts that didn't need to be changed, or buying tools I didn't need (but I like tools).

My concern was that the car looked like the pictures (it did) and would make the 700 mile drive from SC to MD (it did). On the drive I got a check engine light at 500 miles and a transmission fault around 600 miles - but it made it home and then I knew I would have a fun time learning all about a Jaguar XKR and bringing it to 100%.

Now, 6 months later, I know all about my Jaguar, after fixing every little instrumental panel light bulb, every filter, every fluid, every mirror spring, every CEL, every headlight issue, etc... My $15,500 2004 XKR is the bomb.

At 108K miles it runs flawlessly. Other than the front leather seats looking a little bit worn, it looks virtually new. The best part is, I treat it like a $15,500 car. I drive it every day, park it wherever, and drive it very hard at times (when traffic allows). It has been a great learning experience (as a car such as a XKR had many new systems on a car that I had not dealt with before like 5 mufflers, adjustable shocks, computerized tranny, xenon lights, kick down switches, sport buttons, etc...) and I learned about every one of them while fixing issues along the way.

So for me it worked great because I wanted an inexpensive XKR, had multiple spare cars while bringing it up to 100%, had the attitude that the more that's wrong with it the more I can learn and fix, and treat it as the daily driver it is now (which this is now officially the most fun car I've ever had). Incidentally, the car I bought on Ebay had much more wrong with it than advertized, much more. However, I would have bought it anyway.

Now if you had to bring it to a Jaguar dealer to fix every airbag code, light bulb, CEL, fixes, and maintenance; I suspect it would have cost another 20K; fortunately my labor is free and I like working cars when the weather is nice. Again, reading many, maybe even all of this xkr/xk8 forum helped bring my XKR to 100% as well.

 

what a great story and a fantastic attitude you have too Bill, thanks for sharing and for the kudos you give to this site and its members