At $17,500, Is This 2011 Jaguar XJ 'Luxury Beast' A Beautiful Deal?
The seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice Jag has dubbed it a ‘luxury beast’ owing to its high level of spec and the supercharged V8 growling beneath the bonnet. Let’s see if it’s priced to make it someone else’s beastly burden.
Quite a few of you commented on yesterday’s 2007 BMW 550i suggesting it was a ticking time bomb that would require beaucoup bucks to unlock the correct wire to cut in order to defuse. I don’t think it was that extreme a challenge, and at a $7,200 asking, fully 90 percent of the votes agreed, giving the 550i a COVID hoarder-sized Nice Price win.
While BMW has thrived over the years, and today offers perhaps too many models, the same can’t be said for Britain’s Jaguar. Poor Jag does presently offer five models and a couple of engines in the U.S., but with sales declining by nearly 50 percent since 2017, it’s questionable how long anything but the F-PACE will continue to be sold here.
Jag has already culled its model line substantially, recently cutting the small XE, the XK, and finally closing the curtain on the long-running and one-time brand standard-bearer, the XJ. The XJ had an unenviable task of competing with the likes of Mercedes’ S-Class and BMW’s 7 Series, two model lines that epitomize class-leading tech and performance. With Jaguar’s meager budgets, the XJ always played also-ran to the two German competitors. Cars like the Lexus LS and, more recently, the Genesis G90 certainly weren’t doing the XJ any favors either.
That’s not to say, however, that the last generation XJ (2010 — 2019) was in any way a bad car or one that belonged on the island of misfit toys. In fact, I know quite a few owners who love them.
The owner of this 2011 Jaguar XJ has seemingly loved it enough to make it something very personal and special. To do so, they have adorned the car with enormous aftermarket wheels, window decals, and what I think is a 5.0 badge off of a Mustang — all in arrest-me red.
Yes, it’s quite a lot to take in, and the rubber bands that are wrapped around those huge red wheels probably make the ride a bit less luxurious than originally intended, but then we all have to suffer for our art, don’t we?
There apparently is plenty of luxury left over as the seller calls the car a “Luxury Beast” in the ad. It certainly looks pretty luxurious — what with its leather and wood interior and all the options you could probably want. It also should prove pretty beastly as the engine under the bonnet is a 500 horsepower supercharged AJ8 V8 engine. That’s backed up by a six-speed automatic with knob control and paddle-shifting capability. All this means that the seller’s nickname for the car checks out.
The car has 116,000 miles on the clock. Or maybe it’s 104K? Or, based on the photo of the mini TV instruments in the ad, it’s actually 112,525. All of those numbers are offered up in the ad, but I think we should go with the last one since that’s the only mileage with photographic evidence.
Over those miles, the Jag seems to have held up appreciably. The black paint pops and the leather interior seems to have all its stitching in place and shows only minor wear. This is a short wheelbase car so the rear legroom is only ample, not excessive as it is on the longer version. According to the ad, the car carries a Meridian surround sound system as well as heat for the seats and wheel. The title is clean and that expressive wheel and tire package is said to be all new. The ad also notes an adequately working climate control system and makes no mention of any mechanical maladies.
When this XJ was new, it would have rung up at well over $75,000. Now, it can be had for $17,500. That’s a substantial discount, plus there are all those red accents that make it stand out against the competition that you couldn’t get when it was new.
You’ll now need to jump into our competition and vote your conscience on whether this Jag is worth that $17,500 asking as it sits. What do you say, could this custom XJ bring that much? Or, do the years and the add-ons make that price a turn-off?
You decide!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to RevUnlimiter for the hookup!
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