Looking at my recently purchased 1998 XK8, I'm wondering how the 72K price tag was justified back in 1998?
IMO, doesn't seem like it was much car for the money.

What was it that was so special about this car back then?

DOn't get me wrong, I love mine.... for the price I paid today

 

Lots of cars have commanded prices beyond their usage value and the XK8/R was a great example. It was really at the cutting edge of the new all aluminum high horse power engines with the latest high tech electronic systems and with a body design that even 20 years later is still in demand.

The other reason is that Jaguar, and similar cars, are factory leased to corporate entities that are subsidized by tax incentives and that then put them in the 'previously owned' marketplace a couple years later at dramatically reduced prices.

My '02 listed new at $74k, sold 2 years later in the low 40's and I bought it as a 7 year old car with 40k miles for $21k.

It is now 14 years old, has 75k miles and in excellent condition worth, maybe, $10k.

 

You are in the US l presume, my xkr "with r features" was 214k aud. new, in 2000.
Second owner paid 75k in 2008 and cost me 35k in 2015. Have browse at Aussie car prices sometime, you will be entertained.
You pay way less than us but of course relative value between buying and selling probably similar.

 

Same reason you want to drive it 18 years later..

 

Hi Anthony, gosh I remember when these came out. They were a huge hit for their styling and engineering.

You have to put it in perspective. In 1997, 98 not many GT cars would go zero to 60 in under 7 seconds. Review after review in auto magazines were just overwhelmed by the sexy looks, the handling, and the power curve. Like I said before, nowadays everything has 400+ horse power, far from true in 1998.

It's competition was Aston Martin, and Mercedes. Both were much more expensive and featured equivalent performance. There are some good videos on utube test driving the XK8 vs the $135,000 Aston Martin.

After I purchased my 98, I must have read every archived review out there. The only negatives I recall seeing were the high price and no back seat. Every reviewer fell in love with the sexy looks bar none. I can't think of any cars below $125,000 that looked this good back then.

These were the follow on to Jaguar's XJS, a car that commanded equivalent sticker prices and in my opinion had nothing over the XK8.

Jaguar had set up a nice market niche this $70k was about what you paid for the prestige of driving a top of the line Jaguar.

Yes the price was high, I recall some talk about Motor Trend considering it for car of the year, but the price tag bumped it. Probably just an urban legend but in a way,I wouldn't be surprised.

Anthony, I think it all comes down to the time frame. Step back from what's out there now in 2016 and view it from a 1998 perspective, it'll make a lot more sense.

Watch, you'll be surprised at how many folks figure the price you paid is up around $20k to $30k+. The darn thing just looks so good. I suppose we all benefit from that market niche jaguar has established. Now if only the folks who really want to buy thought that way too...

Enjoy your ride,John

 

I was curious so had googled it. Two sources that point to an MSRP ('96 XJS) just shy of $62,000:
here
here

 

I test drove a the XKR when it came out, the MSRP was ~$86k on the car I drove. The XJR was ~$80k.

Considering a new XJ nears or tops $100k, I would say that Jaguar has beat car inflation vs it's competitors (price a BMW, Ferrari, Aston, MB, then and now).

Jaguar has always been a pricey car. In DC, the XK8 sold like hot cakes when released.

-dsd

 

Thanks all.
Tons of great info here.

In 1999 I was driving a new Chrysler 300M
Mid 2000's + drove nothing but BMW.
Jaguar scared me for some reason. They always seemed to be on the outside of popularity here in NY.
Being able to purchase this car with 40k miles for a few grand, and having the privilege of getting collector insurance no less, makes this a great choice.
Tomorrow, I change oil, and will put new springs, shocks and mounts and anything needed along the way.
Car runs great now, and I'm looking forward to feeling like the day this car first hit the road in 98.

 

Jaguar has and always will have a dedicated following who will be paying their prices. My car was $98,000 in 2000 when the first owner purchased it new. I'm the second owner and Bought it in early 2009 for $!8,000 a $80,000 depreciation over eight and a half years.

 

The mid/late 1990's was the tech bubble and there were lots of telecom and dotcom millionaires spending "on paper" money like they actually had it.

The Jag dealer treated you like royalty and the features like a aluminum VVT 32v V-8 were ahead of their time in 1996 and the car is still very attractive. Some car designs from the same time period don't hold up as well.

I know a guy who bought 3 XK'8 for himself and kids. The family sold their last one a last year for $10K which was one of the reasons I started the search for mine. I had no idea you could get one for that cheap, and I ended up actually paying less than 1/2 that.

 

I have the original invoice for mine - at today's conversion rate (which is not good at the moment), that makes around US$66.8k before tax, and US$78.5k after tax.
Dated June 1997.







Only thing I can't work out is why the original purchaser paid a lot of money for the "leather package" when I thought all the XK range came with leather anyway. That must have been a very expensive cow !!

 

The exchange rate in 1997 was about 1.65:1, so in USD we'd be looking at $84K Invoice, $98.8K mit tax.