eBay find of the week: Gray grand tourer or lead balloon?
As an avowed bottom-feeder of the classic car world, it’s always fun to see what 16 years of depreciation will do to make interesting and desirable cars affordable. Today, my eBay find is a 2000 Jaguar XKR Convertible.
Back in the day, one of these beauties would have cost nearly $90,000 (coupes started at $79,465 and convertibles at $84,715) plus options. The Buy-It-Now price, $14,950, is less than 18% of that price for a seemingly clean example with only 49k miles.
The standard XK8, which this car is based on, was already an elegant, modern homage to the famed E-Type. The XKR was styled a bit more aggressively (larger wheels, mesh grille, some additional hood vents and a tiny rear spoiler) but kept it all classy in an understated British fashion. Kids may find the DVD-based navigation graphics “quaint” in an Atari 2600-retro way, but the rest of the interior follows the English wood and leather theme perfectly.
Not so understated was this model’s performance. Thanks to its 370-horsepower supercharged 4.0-liter V-8, Car and Driver clocked one from 0-60 in 5.2 seconds and noted its top speed was electronically limited at 156 mph. These were heavy luxurious cars. Long-term maintenance costs won’t be cheap, so consider this a mild bargain on the front end.
