Ladies and Gentlemen,


I’m sad to say I am offering Esme, my 1985 Vanden Plas, for sale or trade.


Esme is in pretty good shape throughout, though showing some signs of age. She runs well and almost everything works (the exceptions are the right hand fuel gauge and the windshield washers). The body is straight with only two small dents and two very small rust spots, one behind the front right wheel and one at the lower right edge of the back window. She is rust-free underneath (it’s very dry in eastern Colorado and she wasn’t driven in snow.) Some weathering can be seen on the top surfaces of the paint, especially the bonnet, but the paint still has shine to it. The windshield gasket needs replacing. And there are an assortment of little stone chips and door dings from suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune for 32 years. The interior is in very good shape. Flaws there are limited to a short (~3 inches) seam split on the driver’s seat, some wear evident on the passenger seat, some puckering of the headliner in a few spots and some crazing of the dashboard varnish. *Anything not mentioned is in general perfect.* All in all she is a presentable car which one can feel proud to drive and which draws lots of compliments.


Mechanically she is in good nick. She has nearly 99,000 miles now. When I bought her, two years and 14,000 miles ago, she wouldn’t pass smog but I went through her systems pretty thoroughly and finally solved the problem by getting the fuel injectors ultrasonically cleaned. She passed Colorado smog two years ago and just last week (June 2nd) passed CA smog, so she now has a current CA smog certificate. Last fall I bought four new Goodyear tires and had her aligned so she drives straight and smooth. Battery is new as of this January. New AC compressor and R134 conversion last year, now air conditioning works great. So do all power accessories, cruise control, trip computer, original radio and tape player (with the exception of a few dead LEDs on the display). Even the power antenna works.


I drove her from Colorado to California in January when I started a contract job out here. I’m parting with her because I can no longer take care of her as well as she deserves. Out here I don’t have a garage to park her in and don’t have the comprehensive tool set I had back in Colorado with which to keep her properly maintained. And, frankly, while I’ve been using her for my daily 20 mile commute since January without incident, I feel like I really should be driving a car that’s a bit tougher.


I am asking $4,000. Sure you see them advertised for half that, but those tend to need a lot more work. I would also be interested in trading for a ’95-’97 XJ6 (I still have a ’96 XJS back home and I love the idea of a sort of sedan version of that car). Or something else interesting, though it has to have four doors. Cars I consider interesting, aside from Jaguars, are older American luxury cars and just about any car with a straight six. Car comes with a clean Colorado title and a CA smog certificate good until the end of August. Esme and I are currently in Ventura, CA. I can be reached at 720-438-0533 or by email at mgbeda@yahoo.com.


I will post pictures tonight. I hope she gets a good home.


-mB

 

Here are some pictures, just ones I already had. I will take more. In the one called "dent" you can see the small dent over the right taillight (the other dent is under the front bumper).

-mB

 

Here there are a bunch more pictures, mostly interior details:


You can see how generally nice this car is.

-mB

 

Added a bunch more pictures to that flickr link, including close ups of the two tiny rust spots, so you can see how tiny they are. And some pictures of the rust-free underside. And a bunch or just general pictures. I also attach here the close-ups of the rust spots.

-mB

P.S. I've been trying for ten minutes to delete the picture that's too dark to see. I give up. Just ignore that one and look at the other two.