Just Joined the Forum - looking for help on buying a car

[Mark Gordon]

I agree with the above opinions that at $90,000 US, that car is WAY overpriced. Personally, I wouldn't even bother dickering with him about a lower price. If the seller claims that that car is rust-free, that's an out-and-out lie. If you see that much surface rust, you can be sure that plenty more lies hidden beneath that lovely respray.
I have a friend who has a beautiful Series 1 Coupe that will be going up for sale soon. As I recall, it's a '63. I realize that you want a Series 1 OTS as a project car and I understand your thinking; the process and satisfaction of having done it yourself is reward enough for finally spending more than the car might sell for. Good for you! It will keep another E from the junkyard. However, as a comparison, Eric's car is a solid Hagerty Condition 1 and he's only selling it because he is going blind (macular degeneration) and for the past few years has only been in it as a passenger. On a recent outing, the brakes apparently felt spongey and it has one small ding on one of the wings. It's going to a local Jaguar specialist to fix those issues and any other problems that the shop might find. I can guarantee that this one truly is "rust-free" and when sold will be ready to enter in a concours competition. I can't give you a selling price, but it will likely be in the $125-150K range. That should give you an idea as to how out of line the green OTS is.

[MarkRado]

Tony,
I forgot to mention that I would not consider the green car at any price

[abowie]

Since 2010 I have restored perhaps a dozen of these cars either by myself or with the business I work with. While I in no way consider myself an expert, from the pictures, this car looks like a good restoration candidate.

It looks to be pretty complete and to my eye the photos don't show anything that makes it an immediate no go. The fact that the engine can be started implies that a whole lot of it is intact and this backs up the story that it has actually been well stored for period of time.

The issue of matching numbers can easily be dealt with by shelling out and getting a Heritage Certificate.

The bodywork on any car of this age will be rough and there will be filler and poor quality repairs from the 70's when the car was worth nothing. In this particular case the floor actually looks pretty original and that is a good sign. What I can make of the body itself from photos looks straight with reasonable fit and lines. You never know what you'll find once you take the paint off though, but they're all like that, even the shiny "restored" ones in high end showrooms. Rust is inevitable and you will always end up repairing or replacing panels on any sort of restoration of a car of this age. This is just part of the process. My most recent personal restoration required me to buy around $AU15k or so of new panels. While on paper this seems a lot it only added 25% to the cost of bodywork and maybe 12% to my total restoration expenditure.

The problem though is that at $US90k it is expensive. However you need to look at that in perspective. The problem is to find another one as good for less. 10 years ago my 3.8 roadster 881824 was bought as a driver in California for under $US40k. It looked no better or worse than this car. At that time you could buy them by the dozen, and the guy who brought mine to Australia did exactly that. These days all the good ones have gone and the market is well aware of what the cars are potentially worth once restored.

What Tony says he wants is a restoration project to keep him occupied in retirement. If you are looking at doing this the E Type is probably the best choice out there. You can buy them for reasonable money (as opposed to millions for Ferraris or Astons etc) and restore them well while not overcapitalising. When you are finished you have a car that is beautiful and enjoyable to drive. There are very few other cars that allow you this.

For Tony's sake once he has paid freight, converted to Aussie dollars and paid 5% import duty and 10% GST this car will cost $AU150k landed. So depending on Tony's skillset and depth of pocket, with a full resto the car might be worth less than the current market. My view on this though is that owning an E Type is quite different from owning shares or property. I do it for the fun; and the value of the car, while nice, isn't my primary goal although I am miles ahead of my friends who buy new cars, boats or horses. Tracking the Hagerty value of a putative car isn't the same as looking at stock prices, and selling a classic car is a difficult process that can take a long time and offers uncertain monetary outcome. So to say that the base cost of acquiring the car is too high is sometimes an oversimplification.

[AussieEtype]

As I said in your other thread, also remember that Aust being a RHD country, a LHD car (even one converted) to RHD will be worth less here than an original RHD car.

If the car will be coming back to Aust I would be looking for a RHD car.

Garry

[JJC]

Tony: Lovely British Racing Green E-Type. I assume you have an open check book, a bottomless bank account, don't intend to drive this beauty for at least 7 to 10 tears, when you think it will be done......but actually no, it won't....always be something.

No ?? Move on......your baby is out there some place....be patient.

JJ

[bhcarclub]

There's obviously a range of conditions for cars like this, so depends whether you're looking for a fully restored or project Jaguar XKE. If you're in the Southern California area you should check out these guys: www.beverlyhillscarclub.com/buy-jaguar.htm.

[Gfhug]

This smacks of rampant advertising, especially as it’s the OPs first post

[Robbiee]

Indeed
The clue is in the name of the poster