will a xjs ever become a classic collector?
 

I own a 92 v12 convertible with 133k miles on her, very nice car but-poor fuel mileage-poor performance-expensive and hard to find parts-list is endless. The reason for the question is engine replacement to a ls fuel injected performance engine, now if this becomes a collector then doing this would be very smart. The reason I still am the owner of this is because you do not see another one on the road and this one was very well kept and a beauty.


thanks in advance
Mark

Someday I think they will be collectable but I think they will need to be in original condition. A good amount were made but I really do not think there are that many left that are in excellent low mileage condition. Good to see another Wisconsin member...


John

I think YES, they WILL become a classic collectable BUT not to the same extend as all the coupés and converts before.

E-Type, XKx, XJ-C and co will always be worth more as they were built to a lower number and have a larger following. The XJ-S is still in it's "mid age" time...

Just a matter of time. The XJS draws crowds everywhere it stops. V12s undoubtedly will be the most valuable. Believe it or not, there was a time when you could not give away an old E Type, and Jaguar could hardly sell the last few mark III versions.

Moreover, decent XJSs are becoming rarer and rarer. I think there may only be about 1,500 of them on the roads in the UK. Give it 10 years and there will only be 200, if that.

Got to remember that true art is often not appreciated in its own era; loads of examples of painters dying impoverished whose works now sell for millions.

Greg

Will the XJS be collectible? The answer is it already is collectible but due to the large number produced and so many early ones being coupe only with the V12 the laws of supply and demand are still on the side of the buyer.

If you add in the fact that the XJS was never as well received as the earlier Jag " sports " cars and with the high overall cost to restore a car like the XJS, I am confident that you will not see any sharp increases in the value of these cars but rather a slow and steady increase that will not keep up with the cost to perform needed restoration work.

My prediction is that the trends in demand and therefore pricing in the current XJS market will continue into the future with very limited produced models commanding the most followed by the 6.0L and the last 4.0L.

As long as it is less expensive to purchase a low mileage very well kept example of the XJS vs. rebuilding the V12, repainting or replacing needed interior leather parts etc. you will not see an appreciable increase in the value of these cars.

There is another factor that needs to be taken into consideration when looking at the collect ability of the XJS and that is the XK8 has now become comparable cost wise with the XJS.

The XJS still provides an excellent opportunity to be part of the exclusive Jaguar sports car community for pennies on the dollar. The XJS look has continued to mature and to my eye looks better today then it did even 5 years ago when I purchased my first one. I would just be very careful how much money you put into restoring one.

All this said, unless you have a XJS that was owned by Keith Richards or a Koenig etc., if you feel like putting a v8 motor in one or if this seems to make the most sense for your situation then why not.

IMHO, all XJs will become collectable and (relatively) valuable. It's an inescapable conclusion that all cars eventually fall into that classification. The only issues are How long does it take , and What price do they eventually achieve? With a 21-year lifeline and a multitude of differing variants, there's a general truism that in like-for-like categories, Convertibles will be worth more than Coupes (or Cabriolets), Manual cars will be worth more than Autos, Very early & Very late cars will be worth more than the middle years, and Performance variants (XJR-S etc) will be worth more than mainstream variants.

When will it happen? Well, it's arguable that it's happening already. Values generally are on the increase, the bottom has already been reached. Early Manuals are much sought-after, as are the last Convertibles. So keep up the maintenance on your car because that's the way that you keep the value up.

In the UK, according to records for cars that are licensed for road use or registered as being kept off-road, the figures for the end of last summer were:

XJS - all variants

Licensed for Road: 4213
Registered off-road 3455

That's higher than I thought it would be!

Paul

I have had my 90 XJS convertible V12 for about 1.5 years. It is a finicky car, but a very nice car. I see few other XJS cars running around Albuquerque and when my Ms. Kitty goes out, it always turns heads and gets compliments. There is nothing so elegant as riding around with the top down and it makes me feel rather 1%. So, yes I think XJS will be the collector car someday, but not sure when.

for some perspective on a different car, not that it indicates anything for XJS...

My 74 yr old father bought a 1928 Alvis 12/50 when he was 20, in 1960. It was 32 yrs old (like many XJSes are now), cost NZ 60 pounds at the time. It was rusty, worn out but original. At the time Alvis of Coventry still made cars, and made some spare parts for their 20s cars (renamed, Alvis is still UK's largest maker of military vehicles). Dad spent all his time and money restoring the car in his early 20s, before kids/marriage.

Good 12/50 asking prices (in UK pounds ) are around 25-35,000 pounds. There is a superb sports model with Brooklands racing history asking 67,000 sterling (oddly enough, it is still for sale...)

Our 12/50 is possibly worth 50,000 NZD (about 25,000 sterling).
The last 12/50 I am aware of that was restored in NZ, was 10 yrs ago and cost about 80,000 NZD despite A LOT of the work being done by the owner, including building much of the body. At the end, it was worth about 70,000.

I have all the worn-out mechanical components for another 12/50. It would cost me over $ 100,000 to restore, and be worth about 60-70,000 at the end of it.
This is a model with about 600 survivors world-wide.
Sure, an 85-90 yr old car with 4 cylinders, 50 bhp, 0-60 in your dreams (about 2 minutes), good 4 wheel drum brakes, but no seat belts/ABS/airbags, no water pump, no radiator fan, difficult parts availability, no dealer network, wife hates it, get wet and cold in bad weather, hood takes 5 minutes to erect,.. has limited appeal. But rest assured, it is one of the great little true 'Vintage cars'. Sort of a 3-series from the 20s.

So how will the XJS fair in 25-50 years? Not as scarce as a 12/50. Who will want a V12 in 25 years when Ford ecoboosts make hundreds of horsepowers now? I don't know...
But, God, thank you for Jaguar and its V12.

It is NOT an investment, unless you are banking on smiles and just, well, knowing what you have..

100% agree that old cars are not an investment, even if they end up being quite valuable. IMO, what will happen to the XJS is that, in about 20 years time, almost everyone who has them and cherishes them will be gone. At this point the numbers will crash. At that point, the few remaining very good ones will be valuable for the lucky few who have inherited them and had the knowledge to keep them going properly.

Even E types are not paying investments for most owners. Just for the lucky ones who happened to own them starting 5 years ago and have sold into the present boom. Recently an utter wreck that sold for 80,000 UKP and will cost another 125,000 to restore to perfection, was sold. I doubt the owner has done all this in the hope of making money.

Incidentally, Al, I owned an Alvis TF21 for years, great car, haad it servciced by Red Triangle (then but not now, owned and run by ex factory personnel). They had spares for practically everything ever made!

Greg

Lucky man, Greg! apart from the 'heavy' look of the stacked headlights, the TF would be my ultimate 'modern' Alvis as a daily driver - 4 wheel discs, 130bhp, 100+ mph..
Why'd you sell it?

Al, I loved the Graber headlights! The car had triple SUs and would do a real 125MPH. 5 speed ZF box. Cooling a problem on them solely because of the beautiful vertical aerofoil-section radiator grille that tended to flatten out and blank off the rad at speed. This I learned about upon seeing a factory prototype with a different grille at Red Triangle. Had one made!

Long sad story on the sale. But fun was had, oh yes, fun was had!
Greg

I am sorry what? They ran from the 80s into the 90s.
First, even if you are 40-50 right now, that puts you in your 60s-70s which is actually a prime time for many people to get the car they always wanted or keep the one they have.

Secondly, I would argue that a huge portion of collector cars are owned by people that weren't even born when they were released, how does that play into prices dropping when people who care about them die?

I mean, I guess I will consider you are talking about people who were in their 50s or 60s when they bought an XJS new and some of them won't sell them or may will them away to someone who won't sell it for the correct price, but I don't think this is a large enough number of people to create a boom that will drop the numbers and make XJSs suddenly available.

Most of the people who have them now like them and are getting their hands on them while they still can.

classic hoarder car yes,

I agree, SS, I bought mine at age 66 and plan on enjoying it for many years to come and leaving it to my son who, although, is not a big British car fan, appreciates classic cars and plans on keeping it hopefully for his son.

I keep thinking about selling this car then I remember all the cars I sold in the past and wishing I had kept them. Its under the covers for winter....

Most people don't realize the old XJS is the same basic platform as a $250k Aston Martin. The 6.0 l v12 and heavy IRS & chassis is the same cross referenced part numbers and everything. probably the best bargain buys on the market right now.

I can't help laughing every time I hear, or, read that statement in regard to the number of XJS produced in the 21 year period between 1975 and 1996. It also makes me wonder where people get such a crazy notion.

Fact:

Total XJS production from 1975 to 1996 = 115,413
That averages out to about 5,496 cars per year.
Attachment 101039

I fail to see how that amounts to being a "large number produced".

By comparison, just for the 1969 model year Chevrolet produced 243,085 Camaros, and Ford Popped out 299,824 Mustangs.

Think about that for a minute. In a single model year, more than twice as many Camaros were cobbled together by Chevy, than the total number of XJS which Jaguar crafted over a period of 21 years.

That, gentlemen, qualifies the XJS as a low production car in just about anyone's book.

Yeah, but to be fair Chevy and Ford had big machines to build their cars on whereas Jag only had a couple of blokes with a hammer and chisel and one with a penknife for whittling the dashboards.
And a shrine to Lucas, The Prince of Darkness.
Different scales.

Prices have begun to creep up....

Yes, but also look at the *other* end!

For one example, Aston Martin built only about 900 DB5s and it took that company from 1951 until 1987 to even hit a total of 10,000 cars! (or something like that....I'm just mentioning it for comparison)

And many valuable collectors' cars from Ferrari and such were built in mere dozens or hundreds as well.

Only (something like) 80 of the hyper-money "L88" Corvettes were built.

So, in comparison, the XJS @ 115,000 hardly seem 'low production' t all, does it? :)

Cheers
DD