Hi there everyone my name is Grant and I'm from new mexico and am contemplating buying my dad's 2011 jaguar xj convertible with over 100k miles on it for roughly 10-12k. It's in great condition, is parked in a garage when hes at home and at work, no accidents, has never been driven more than 10 miles in snow and has never gone over 75-80 mph, and has been serviced every year at the dealership though I haven't looked at the records to see what's been done. Would you guys say this is a decent buy I've been drooling over this car since I was 15 and am kind of worried that I'll buy it and then in a year or two everything will need to be repaired but my brother has alot of friends who are mechanics that have done all his repairs at a much lower cost than dealerships or brick and mortar mechanics. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I also apologize for my poor writing skills.
Thank You.
I think you should buy it. Anything that goes wrong you can guilt trip your dad to help pay for the bills. Sounds like it was well maintained and at least you know the history of the car for sure.
Let's assume the wholesale value is $20,000. Let's also assume that even if you had the cash, you really don't want to part with it, and that your Dad doesn't need the money. So, why doesn't he simply gift it to you? One reason is that it's above the 2020 $15,000 annual gift tax exclusion and he doesn't want to use any of his lifetime exclusion. So what to do?
If your Dad is still married, he and his wife can make a joint gift of $20,000 cash to you free of gift tax because each of them is deemed to use $10,000 of their annual 2020 gift tax exclusion.
And that's not income to you because it's a gift.
Thereafter, you buy the car from your Dad for $20,000.
Here's why I recommend doing it that way. If anything ever goes wrong with the car (and it will), you have no reason to be upset with your Dad because you really didn't pay for it.
This is consistent with the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America, namely, "... to insure domestic tranquility."
... contemplating buying my dad's 2011 jaguar xj convertible with over 100k miles on it for roughly 10-12k. It's in great condition ...
and am kind of worried that I'll buy it and then in a year or two everything will need to be repaired ...
Will you find a better one at that price? You know it has been looked after and is in good condition. It is a 9 year old car and many things could go wrong which will be fairly expensive to repair. However, they are fairly reliable cars. If you can afford the risk of stuff wearing out or breaking, then go for it. Mainly, XK wear parts are not amazingly expensive.
But once you have bought it, it is yours. You dad seems to be selling to you cheap. If it goes wrong later, you should not stress him over it
Awesome thank you all for the advice this is a really awesome community. I'm gonna pull the trigger on this one and start looking into smuggling cars to Australia.
