I know that we are not supposed to revive old threads, but I stumbled onto this while doing a search and ended up reading all thirteen pages in one sitting. This was a well documented, epic quest, and we were all amazed and inspired by Bill's journey. I think that we all learned a lot from this thread, no matter what model of Jaguar we have. The ending of this adventure left a real bad taste in my mouth. I just felt that the end was a slap in the face to Bill, and by extension the rest of us fixers and tinkerers out here. I mean, all of our efforts revolve around "saving" old cars that others would toss away.

I don't know if the term "unroadworthy" was Bill's summation or that made by the "specialist". Bill did list a few specifics, but the only real failing is the alignment. We know that the car had sustained damage to the steering system, but Bill had repaired the steering rack and even put it on the alignment equipment at the shop and brought it into an acceptable range. It appears that the car was safe and drove okay. Are the rest of the bushings in need of replacement? Probably. The XK8 series has been around for twenty years, I would bet that most of our cars could use a bushing or two replaced, I know mine could.

I get the feeling that the new owner was feeling buyers remorse. I bet he thought that he was getting the best of the trade. Then he gets the car home and his "specialist" writes him up a huge work order. Probably the car could use some of the work, but maybe not immediately. Then he gets an estimate on fixing the convertible top mechanism, which we know will be expensive. Then he learns how shockingly little the car is actually worth on the market. Now the car doesn't seem like a good deal at all. It sounds like he then tried to "guilt" Bill on going back on the deal. Bill being an honorable guy, feels a bit bad about the whole thing. That's a tribute to Bill's character, but he has no obligation to try to satisfy that guy.

We all saw the final pictures of Bill's car. It was a good looking car, inside and out. It looked like it would be a great driver. It wasn't a rebuilt wreck, though I don't know if it had a clean or rebuilt salvage title. Still, that would have been evident on the title document. If you don't want to own a salvage car then don't buy one! I just sold my '70 Mustang that I bought with a salvage title. It had sustained damage to the tail light panel and trunk floor. It had been somewhat poorly repaired sometime in the past but that was the extent of the damage. Yes, it does limit it's ultimate value and sales potential but I went in with my eyes open and so did my eventual buyer. Come on. Wouldn't you buy and rescue a wrecked C type if you found one forgotten in the back of some old garage?

Probably the biggest sticking point with relatively late model Jaguars is that needed repairs and maintenance will often exceed the cost of buy in and actual market value. That is what makes these cars accessible and attainable. Experienced owners know that you aren't going to make any money with these cars. Most of us will do as much work as we can ourselves to keep the costs within reason, after all it is a hobby. The truth is, all cars cost us money but how many reward us as much as our Jaguars? Sorry for the length of this post.