I do not know much about this car, it was my grandfathers. What I do know is that it was a demo car. From what I can tell it was one of the first years this model was made into a convertible. It also has a 5.3 V12 and is in great shape, it has less that 20K original miles and has been kept indoors. Any input would be great, thanks!

 

Looks to be in great shape. Just an FYI, this is not an XJ-SC. The "C" denotes the cabriolet model, which had removable t-tops in the front and either a hard or soft top in the rear (See attached photo for mine)

The convertibles are simply called "XJS" along with the coupes.

1988 would be the first year in the US for a full convertible from the factory, although some were made by the couch builder Hess and Eisenhardt in 1986 and 1987.

Given the low mileage and good cosmetic condition, assuming the car is in full working order, I would venture it would be worth somewhere in the low to mid teens, maybe $10-12k optimistically. Unfortunately, XJSs have yet to really appreciate substantially. And other than the low mileage, there is nothing very unique about a 1988 convertible to help boost the price.

Can you elaborate more on what you mean by a "demo car"?

 

thanks for the clarification! Pretty obvious I'm new to the Jaguar world! My uncle tried to do some research on the car but was basically told there was no record of the car. As far as the demo part goes, I don't know much more than it was bought as a "factory demo" and had about 3k miles on it. It is a 88 model but was purchased in December of 89.


The car has been sitting for a few years so I'm going to give it some TLC and start driving it a little. I just wanted to get an idea of the value to see how much I should realistically put into the car without throwing my money away!

 

The XJ-SCs are v12s in the USA and rare! Prince Charles spent over 100k pounds to restore his!

The clean low mileage verts are going up in price and a lot of collectors are looking for clean, orig, unrestored survivor cars. A great heirloom/investment car.