Hey guys im in the market for the lovely STR...i really like the 03 STR but i find the facelift of the 05 to be better looking and more aggressive...im looking to spend about 14k which should be sufficent for the 03...however is it realistic to find an 05 for around the 14k or below budget?? ive seen alot of 05 for 16+ and ive recently found a beautiful 05 with 60k miles on autotrader for 14k but the ad was taken down and i dont even know if it was real...havent found any since then..

is it realistic to find a 05 for the price of an 03??

 

Possible but remember sometimes you get what you pay for. I personally would spend the extra couple grand for a lower mileage (maybe less beat) STR.

 

I'd avoid paying $14k for an 03. Like Joyce says...beat the newer less mileage car STRr down to $15 k?

 

Another poster had this rather perceptive comment:

"There is nothing more expensive than a cheap Jaguar". Like Rick, I would go for a later model and pay a little bit more now than a whole lot more later.

Mike

 

I love it! So true though.

 

I've been in the market for a while and finding 03-05 STRs are going for around the same price. Or at least it seems I'm finding almost as many 05s as I am 03s in my target price range of under $15k in nationwide searches. Just waiting for one closer to home.

 

This summer I spent about a month and a half looking. I found all kinds of low mileage cars at that time. I found 03's with 8K, 12k, and 15K miles. One very clean looking one with 25K miles ended up going for under 13K but I could never get the guy to agree to an inspection which is a must.

Still, an inspection at a Jag dealer is a good idea but mine missed some important stuff including something that's going to cost me about $800 to fix. So it's no panacea.

I decided on a low mileage, clean 05 with 14.5K miles and ended up paying $21.5K. I saw plenty of others well above that price and one with 30K miles for 2 grand less. It's still available, reds and nice looking. You go much below that and you're trading away something. Miles or condition. Mine had a years warranty left as well. I've used it 3 times in 3 months to the tune of about $1,100 if it was out of pocket. So now my purchase price is $20.4K and potentially dropping for the next 9 months. I really didn't want to pay that much either but sometimes you can cheat yourself being too "frugal".

BTW, the dealer selling mine never stated that it was a select edition car so it pays to check with Jaguar.

Bob S.

 

I happlily paid 13k for my 03 with 41k because I have the full service history and thought its a cool history. This one lived at a dealership as a loaner car and even came with a fleet management device. It irked me and puzzled me that I couldn't get it over 75 until I found the OBD plug and disabled it.


Moral of the story: regardless of the year it's worth paying a little extra when you can prove it's been taken care of.

 

So they had a performance limiter plugged in the OBD socket?
Interesting.

 

Yes, it was piece of hardware, I'll post more info about it tonight if your interested.

 

My 03 has 45k miles and full service history. Paid 14.6k for it and haven't been happier. I like to find my used cars with 30k-50k miles on them. I try to stay away from older cars with less than 30k only because you know they sat most of the time.

 

Please do... That would be an awesome thing to have for the wife and eventually kids...

George

 

If it plugs into the OBD socket then it's easily removed is it not?
I think today's typical kid will easily get by that one.

Or am I misunderstanding how this thing works?

 

With less and less people working on their own cars and stuff, I bet today's typical kid wouldn't know what an OBD socket is, much less think to look down there. Then again if you raise a gearhead well then...

George

 

The cable has an OBD pass through, you remove the one in the bracket and it has a 6" female plug that goes in the bracket, unless you know what to remove you will not find it.

Since it does interface with the cars network it does give you real time position, user settable governer.

mine was set on 50% TPS and VSS limit was 70mph.

You can set operating radius.
and other neat features.

 

That's really cool. I wonder how many people were given S Type R loaners, unbenounced to them that they were artificially neutered, and walked away with the impression that the STR sucks lol....

 

Who knows, but great for me!

 

oooh operating radius sort like those shopping carts that jamb?

What does it do outside of the radius?

Pretty neat. Kind of scary too though.

 

thanks guys...im going to take the advice in this thread..going to continue my search for an 05 and possibily drop alittle extra cash over my budget only because i find the 05 so sexy.

With that said...id still be more then happy with an 03. cheers.

 

Definitely interested! And anything you know about how it works. Are you set up to experiment with it?