Yeah after over 3 years it's time to sell the jag, been on craig's list for two months, only one lo ball and i have cut my price by 50%.
any thoughts of a better way to get rid of this thing. yes i still love it but have other projects to get into now.

 

Post a link to your ad please.

 

sorry i don't know how to, it's on craig's list, sf bay area, cars for sale, 99 the only purple convertible i have ever seen, low miles, etc

 

Since I was intrigued by the purple, found the listing after a few minutes of looking. I overlooked it at first because the lead picture is of the speedo. It could just be my limitations, but you might want to lead with a picture of the car (and maybe mention 'rare color' or punch up the text description).

Nice looking car (say, picture #5, perhaps?).

 

here ya go, good luck!


https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto...944969701.html

 

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/6944969701.html

Looks like a very good deal. If I was closer....

 

Put it up on ebay. Craigslist is not where you sell a car like this.

 

Put it on bringatrailer. It’s a unique color. It might fetch a pretty penny.

 

Being into vintage Corvettes myself, I always get a kick out of how sellers make a big deal out of their Corvette's rare color and of course they always have memorized from the Corvette Black Book the statistics of how few were painted that color, as if it somehow makes it more valuable. The reason a particular color is rare is because very few people liked it enough to order that color in the first place. And while styles change and color popularity goes through cycles, for the most part, there's usually not any greater demand for a particular color today than there was when the car was built.

Since purple IS a rather polarizing color, a strategy that might work is to advertise where a college has purple as one of its colors. It would appeal to a current student, particularly a student athlete or cheerleader, an alumni or even professor. Put a for sale sign in the window and drive it around SFSU or park it on campus if you can do it without getting towed. Maybe they have some sort of campus classifieds or social media. But if the local academics don't want it, here in Fort Worth, Texas Christian University is a big football school and with wealthy parents and alums who could easily afford your ask. However, realize that you couldn't give away a purple car in Waco where TCU's big rival, Baylor wears green and gold.

 

Right, or change the time of day to late afternoon and make it clearer like... But, of course, wouldn't do this unless it actually looks like this.

 

I like the color. It looks plum-esque. I believe Bentley used a similar one on the Azure convertible and Continental coupe.

 

ok, its not purple....it has a french name like eggplant of something like that, burgundy would be close, but it is nicer in person. its a jag ,they all came in beautiful colors with nice names, this is one of them, on the window sticker is the actual name which i don't have in front of me, my son is selling it for me and its in the trunk, i am owner #2.

 

I think that colour is called Amaranth. I think it is a beautiful color.

 

OK I took a look at the ad. Consider doing these things to improve your chances of getting interest.

• Take photos in the sun with an uncluttered background.
• Take photos with the car cleaned and prepped as if a dealer would be selling it. (The wheels/tires look like you have been off-roading it.)
• Take the time to center the car in the pics. You would be amazed how much of a difference simple balance like that makes to people. (The goal is for people to enjoy looking at the pics.)
• Only include photos of the car with top down. Nobody pictures themselves in it with the top up. Let them live the dream. ;-)
• Use the cover for the top if you have it.
• Take interior shots with top down too.
• Only use photos with the antenna down. Don't emphasize old tech.
• Do include a pic of the window sticker.
• Don't include random pics of the valet button, door handle, etc..
• Don't leave clothes/hats laying around in the photos. Makes the car look neglected.
• Don't include photos that emphasize how small the back seat is.
• Don't include pics of tire tread. (All I saw was how much I did not like the tire choice and would have to replace them.)

• Don't state "needs nothing" then show pics of a car that has paint dents/scrapes all around.
• Do include whether the tensioners have been done. Anybody doing research will assume negatively if you don't clarify.
• Do list the major maintenance items instead of "full stack of service records". If suspension is refurbed say so for sure.

I think when anybody is buying one of these cars they are trying to calculate "what's it going to cost me after I throw down for the purchase" so anything you can state that mitigates that mental cost is going to help.

If I were in the market for one of these I would probably pass on this one due to the amount of paint/body work needed and unknown maintenance needs of the current presentation.
A better presentation could change that opinion.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

I had actually been in the market to buy a car a couple weeks ago and ended up buying an XK8 in LA.

I had found your car on craigslist before buying the car that I did.
Although your car is one of two cars that I found in that purple color that i wanted quite badly ( the other one being in Orlando, FL ), I couldn't justify even contacting you over the price.

I ended up buying an XK8 for $2250. It isn't perfect and needs a little work done to the transmission, but I can tell you that even if I had to pay someone to rebuild the transmission the car would still come in for less than what you are saying is 50% off your original listing price.

There are also many other cars in the area that are listed between $3,000 - $7,000, both private and dealer. I think when your price is competing with a car at the dealership, you might be a bit high on price.


I am a brand new owner of an XK8 so I could be missing something completely, but it seems like a lot of users on this forum think that the current resale value of an XK8 is above ~$4,000 - $5,000 and as a buyer I wouldn't even consider looking at one above $4,000.

 

I agree with all of the above. Your photos are what I would call 'honest'. The emphasize the damage and its every day use. However like any sales pitch your selling an idea. Unless someones ideal is a second hand car with dents, dirt, damage and clothes in it etc

Its good that your being open about the damage but that is all people will see. Would you even visit a house for sale if there were photos of the house with windows broken, not been cleaned and laundry in the room?

My advice would be to take a look at adverts on proper car selling websites. Take a look at their photos. Purple, or whatever it is, is not every ones ideal colour. However the 3 dials and no sat nav is a plus to anyone who knows their Jags. " Reduced price, by $3000, to cover cost of minor repairs" "Low mileage" "unique and rare colour" "no rips or tears in leather interior" "Runs nicely" "A thrill and a joy to drive"

So as above. Clean car. Empty car. Emphasize the good bits. Take photo in luxury location or neutral location, outside a big posh house with fabulous garden or by a lovely beach or up in the mountains. Sell an idea. People arrive at sales for these cars with "I want one" eyes. Dont ruin that before they even turn up.

 

If you really want to give it away I'd be glad to take it off your hands! Seriously though, first time buyers of older Jaguars are real cheapskates. Your car may be a good one but at just under six grand it is priced way above most '99s and right about where the 2003's are. Even though your car has low miles, the big question is the cam chain tensioners. That and the A drum of the transmission. And the nikasil cylinders. How are the suspension bushings?

As a first time buyer I bought an XJS for a song. It has a good body, paint and engine, but needed, and still needs a lot of things. I haven't been able to use it as a real driver. I lucked out with my XJ6, it was in good daily driving condition. It rewarded me with a couple of good years of trouble free driving but now it needs some work.

When I buy my next old Jag I realize that I'll have to pay more to get a better car. I'm thinking that I would look for a 2003 XK8 because of the better tensioners and transmission. If the important maintenance items are already done, emphasize that in your ad. Forum members are more knowledgeable than the casual buyer and will realize that a car with the work done is more valuable. The color is a personal choice and won't appeal to everyone. Good luck on your sale. Interested in an XJS?

 

I would say that you got steal rather than it being indicative of realistic value. Also we must remember that this XK has only 47k miles.

 

Anything is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. That being said I don't have much experience in seeing these cars sold recently to see what their current worth would actually be.
As a buyer i wasn't willing to pay more than $4,000 for a working car that is 20 years old and made out of poor materials. ( Every single plastic part on these cars just disintegrates to touch, and the electronics seem to be poorly made as well ).

These cars are pretty and are Jags, that makes them worth more to us as people who enjoy owning Jags, but that doesn't change what the cars are actually worth on the market. It is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.

I think the car that I bought was likely over priced for having the issues that it has. It is an economical purchase for me in particular considering I am willing to do the labor to remove it and install it, and possible even rebuild it all myself.


Without a ton of maintenance and paperwork to back that up, a low mileage car would be worth less to me as a buyer than a medium/higher mileage car would be.


I think people have been giving him lots of good advice on what he can do to improve his craigslist listing. I can't really add much to that as I think they have covered everything that I was thinking when I actually viewed his listing as a potential buyer. My best advice would be to clean the car up, take better picture. Definitely change the first picture of the listing to be a side profile of the car, I think i accidentally skipped past your listing more than 5 times before i ever actually clicked on it, thinking that it was just a parts listing for a speedo.

 

Amaranth purple is a Rover colour from the late nineties, it was most commonly used on MGFs I think TVR used it too. For some reason it seems to deteriorate more than other colours on the MGFs. Coincidently I saw another XK8 for sale (in UK) in the same colour recently