Decent article on the beloved XJS
 

https://www.autoclassics.com/posts/n...jaguar-xjs-v12

Just read the series of articles. It seems that the author was very honest about the challenges of owning this model. It looks as though the tide is finally turning for the XJS. Hold on to yours! Or buy yours before it's too late!

Thanks a bunch, just sold mine!

Just a matter of time Steve...

Getting short of that!
Exponentially.

Source required, thank you very much.

When talking about the very first XJ-S cars, and showing a photo that is completely and utterly bereft of any wood whatsoever.

This is just a random opinion piece by someone who saw a couple of high prices for early-model survivor cars. The XJ-S or XJS is not going to ever reach E-Type levels. Ever. For which we should be thankful.

Two things can be happening to XJS prices in general. The top end is increasingly expensive, and the bottom end is increasingly uncommon. For whatever it's worth, however, neither of these necessarily point to a rise in overall prices. In other words, people may pay more for a really rare, low-mileage model, and junker parts cars may finally be essentially all rusted out, but your average car may not see increased prices.
That said, there are some for sale here in Japan that make me wonder just how optimistic the seller is. Up to the equivalent of US$45,000.

I've seen them here in Oz asking in the 80-90K AUD. Either dreamers or there really are people with more money than sense.

Here is how I look at it, there are three good reasons why the XJS will not reach E-Type values:

1. Production volume - 115K vs 75K
2. Production span - 21yrs vs 13yrs
3. The E-Type is one of the greatest car designs in history, frequently considered in the top 5 or top 10 all time. The XJS, though I love it, was controversial at launch and not as universally embraced.

Fundamentally, the E-Type is just a rarer car, more historically significant, and from a more classic era with less regulatory interference.

There is one good reason why the XJS will slowly narrow the gap:

1. It's actually easier to keep and preserve an E-Type.

I will bet the number of sorted, desirable, and drivable XJSs are falling at precipitous rates. They're just going to get rarer in a somewhat accelerated fashion over the coming years. I can't predict when, but there is going to be a day when we'll see an XJS sell for some outlandish price and we'll say, "I remember when you couldn't give one like that away."

Cheers

75,000 units over 13 years? That's pretty impressive, actually. Not too different from the XJS total, really. In other words, the E-Type isn't that rare a model, really, in terms of numbers produced. Certainly rarer in terms of cars remaining, of course. But yes, Point 3 is the biggie. Which is why the Countach commands such high values even today. Nothing beats looking iconic....

Can you expand on " It's actually easier to keep and preserve an E-Type"? I'd have assumed it was the opposite.

i bought a E type coupe,FHC a 1967 , in 1970 paid $750.US sold it for $800. 1971..

YUP i remember when!!
OK my 1st car 1949, a 1934 FORD V8 Roadster, guy wanted $20. dollars , i only had $18. bought it and it ALL opened a new life for me! at least 100 cars later!
today a good condition 34 Ford roadster can be $100K/ some $150,000.

where is the reality in this car business????

I believe while the Series I is the ideal, the Series II also gets very good prices, and it's the bloated heavy V12 Series III that can be had for slightly more reasonable sums.
Open to correction, however.

The Series II and III E-types are sorta the red-headed stepchild. Unfairly so, IMO. But.....as the prices of the Series I go higher and higher
I predict the more affordable Series II-III cars will start looking less and less red-headed :)

We're seeing evidence of such trends elsewhere. Mid-70s Porsches and Corvettes were once looked down upon as being an undesirable vintage and were almost dirt cheap. Nowadays....not so much.

American muscle cars have become quite expensive so car crafters of ordinary means are finding the more ordinary variants pretty attractive. Pontiac LeMans versus Pontiac GTO, for example. Even station wagons and rather prosaic family sedans are catching on.

Cheers
DD

My guess, if you don't mind me jumping in, is that the XKE is easier to keep and preserve because it is so much simpler than and XJS. No power accessories, no climate control, no fuel injection, no sensors, no black boxes.

Cheers
DD

While that makes sense, and I've often thought older cars, being simpler, would be easier to understand, things I've read lead me to believe my ideas may be misplaced, and a lot of modern (past several decades) technology actually makes things easier. Calibrating multiple carbs, for example, is apparently a hell of a job. Certainly there's less to break, but what is there is harder to keep in tune, is how it appears to me. (To say nothing of getting parts, which might not be that bad for something as cost-effective to restore as an E-Type.)