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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Four Months Later - We Sold The Jaguar


JP Brown holding his license plate - new owner 78 year old Earl Harder with the keys - 6 days after a heart operation - and Earl's father in law

The Jaguar at its new home in Southern Georgia.



Four months ago - JP gave me his 1991 Jaguar XJS V-12 to sell for him. It was sort of a challenge to see if I could sell a high ticket niche item. The car was in excellent condition with only 55,000 miles on it. JP bought it from the original owner 9 years ago.

I started by taking lots of pictures and listing it on my web page.

Click here for original Jaguar story from my blog - Jaguar Story

Then I listed it with Craigslist.org and Cars.com. I got plenty of good calls and a few tire kickers came to ride in it. Frankly - some just wanted to ride in such an exotic car. Craigslist is good for pulling in sincere buyers. Cars.com gets people calling you from all over the nation. Some of them just gets thrills talking to someone that has the car. If every person that called to say they were bringing the money tomorrow - I would have a wheel barrow full of $20 bills.


The NADA books says it is worth $7000 to $21,000. The car was in such great shape - it should sell at the upper end of that. I listed it first at $16,000 - slowly dropping it to $14,000. The sale slowed down and JP stored the car in his Georgia summer home around Christmas. We decided to wait until spring. 

Then - a guy called from Cincinnati 3 days in a row - claiming he was flying to town the next day. When he wilted - Earl Harder from just across the Georgia border called. He was really nice - an we talked on the phone for an hour. He had turned down a Jaguar a year ago - and regretted it. He was not going to be denied. Last Sunday he took it for a drive. He said he would buy it after his heart operation. I was shocked - but he seemed sincere. The heart operation was Monday. Earl wanted the car as a reward coming out the other side. 

After the operation he called - and today we delivered the car. I followed JP in the Jaguar to Georgia with my Prius. It is beautiful pecan farm country up there. Earl lives on a lovely homestead. I could very easily live his life style. He had lots of sheds and lots of toys in them. 

JP signed the title and Earl gave him the check. Normally I would deal only in cash - but Earl was different. He certainly was not going anywhere. He was also eager to take it for a ride on this beautiful day - sunny - temperature in the 70s. 

We looked around the ranch - Earl told me about his golf carts - scooters - motor homes - pickups - mowers - sweepers. All along I thought I was the only guy that pulled my lawn sweeper with a golf cart. So does Earl. 

JP still has tons of cars - a VW Passat - a new VW Beetle - and old VW convertible - a beautiful red MG Midget - and now an old Rolls Royce in parts. Wanda has read the riot act to him - no new cars until the Rolls rolls. 

The Jag sold for $10,300 - a real bargain for such a beautiful car with 55,000 miles on it. We really liked meeting the new owner and wish him many year of happy motoring with both his Jag and his heart. Good buy Earl. Goodbye Earl.  

My last ride in this 285 horsepower beast.


I loved this pole building. It was made of simple upright pine poles - a 30 year old metal roof - the side planks were rough cut pine - real 1 x 8's - painted red. All the pine was cut from the site.

The 90 year old in-laws live in the plantation house. I loved the sheds all over the place. 



NADA says the Jaguar is worth $21,000 in top shape. This Jag was even better.



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