Cats famously have nine lives. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Jag is a cat with 192K on the clock and that eats up at least a couple of those. We’ll have to see if its price means there’s still plenty left to go around.
Think about all the things you could buy for $800. You could get a really decent TV for that much scratch. Or a smart phone. Or maybe even an entire Indy car.
Well, only kind of-sort of with the whole Indy car thing. In fact, while not a real Indy car, $800 would buy you yesterday’s 1984 Pontiac Fiero Indy Pace Car edition. It may never have set tire to yard of bricks, but it was one of 2,000 built in honor of the ones that did.
It also looked to be in pretty ass-tacular shape owing to a shot clutch and what looks to have been a hard-knock life. That however, didn’t stop 63-percent of you from saying “eight-hundred bucks? I’m in!” earning that project Pontiac a decisive Nice Price win.
Okay, it’s getting close to Thanksgiving, or what Canadians like to call “about a month and a half after Thanksgiving.” Here in the States this is an opportunity for self reflection, eating a ton of food, and to watch football. It’s also one of the busiest travel times of the year.
If you’ve got someplace to go—say to dinner with your politically polar-opposite family, wouldn’t you want to make that trip riding in the lap of luxury? Nae, don’t you deserve it?
This 2007 Jaguar XJ8 isn’t just the lap of luxury, it’s the whole damn sexy body of it. Grrrrrowl!
You might have forgotten that the XJ exists. It is after all the oldest model in Jaguar’s lineup, and to be honest, its current iteration, introduced in 2009, is a bit of a duffer.
That model, the X351, was intended to break the decades-old mold on what an XJ should be. That’s all well and good, but the car never really established itself as a new design direction. Today, they kind of blend into traffic—if you ever even see one at all, as sales of the big Jag kind of suck.
This XJ represents the immediate predecessor to the current car and it… well, it looks like a Jag. That means round lamps and a traditional chrome grille up front, a formal three-box design from the side, and sexy hips over substantial meats emphasizing the end that gets things done.
If you tend to like more modern styling then perhaps the current XJ will be your cup of camomile. Should however, you prefer more traditional fare, then this is one damn handsome car. The ad is light on the details, but the silver over ivory sedan is claimed to have been well maintained over its decade of decadent existence, and it shows in the pictures.
There’s no evidence of wear in the paint, and the generously proportioned alloys seem never to have met a curb. Up front, the Leaper guides the way. Underneath that sculpted cat lies Jag’s 4.2-litre AJ33 DOHC V8. That’s good for making 300 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque, enough to move the 3,730 pound sedan with reasonable alacrity. The seemingly svelte weight is owed to a body structure that’s made predominantly of aluminium. A six-speed ZF automatic with Jag’s weirdo J-gate selector does transmission duty.
That engine looks clean enough to host afternoon tea on, and the ad makes no mention of any mechanical maladies affecting it or anything else.
If you like the clean engine bay, you’ll go nuts over the cabin. There’s acres of leather in here, with beautiful burlwood to give the cows a break. Everything looks to be in as-new shape, and of course, it comes with pretty much every amenity Jag could throw at it back in the day. Whether around town or on a Tryptophan-tastic road trip, this would make for one cosseting chariot.
Here’s the thing though. This Jag has apparently made a lot of those kinds of trips over the course of its life. The car rocks a substantial 192,000 miles. That’s a lot in any car save a Volvo or Mercedes W123, and for a Jag that’s like half-past dead.
Jaguar has an unenviable reputation for poor durability, making every drive a roll of the dice as to whether you’ll get to your destination or not. Hell, I just saw a brand new XF stuck in traffic with its hood up, and it hadn’t even been sold yet, it was just run out of the dealer to fill the tank.
Still, this XJ couldn’t have made it this far, in this nice of condition, if it was a total turd, right? I mean, it must have dodged a bullet somewhere in its life. Doing nearly 20K a year can wear on any car. I’m guessing that this Jag is perhaps magical or something to have made it that many miles while still looking this sweet.
Of course, those miles are reflected in the price tag as this Jag is offered for an impressive $5,500, or a good bit below what lower-mileage examples command. The question is, should someone bite the bullet and go that low for a car with miles so high? Or, should feline fanciers spend a little more for a cat with potentially a few more lives still left in it?
You decide!
Williamsport, PA Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to EZBrzy for the hookup!
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