My lovely wife took me over to the VAMC to be looked over and get a flu shot yesterday.

I counted twenty-three corvettes roundtrip.

I'm not a snob, but that's enough to form a tribe.

DuPont Registry has a clean 2007 XKR drop head coupe, asking price $50K. 11,xxx miles.

May be a tribe but a standard Corvette gets better gas mileage, has FAR less problems, is MUCH faster both in a straight line and in the corners than that bathtub you drive, while costing much less new and much less to repair. And they retain a VERY significantly higher percentage of their new price as they age. Right now 2005 Corvettes sell for 25 to 50% MORE than a 2005 XK8 and probably cost about half as much new. Easy to understand why they're a "tribe".

BTW what kind of nut counts cars?

I can buy a brand new, 0 miles 2013 Corvette for less than $40,000 which will run rings around that 2005 XKR.

The Jags XK8s and XKRs have got a very pretty design, but that's the only real plus they've got, which may be enough if performance and costs are not an issue.

All that said, I may buy an XK8 since I've already got a 08 Vette coupe and may be replacing it with a new convertible. Called today and Kerbeck's was closed due to Sandy. They are in Atlantic City, ground zero for Sandy.

There are quite a few XKRs on ebay right not. One in particular seems reasonable for the year, a 2009 with 12,500 miles for less than $49,000.

In the local paper a 2007 SL550 popped up for sale. 12k mi, one owner, silver ext, blk interior. $58,600. Not sure if thats a good price but a neat car. The one thing about a lotus 7 is that its not what one would consider luxury. Think skate board with a engine.

Gato,

perhaps the kind of nut that went in for surgery for kidney cancer less than three weeks ago, and was lucky enough to survive without losing the left kidney and is healing from an incision more than a foot long low on his belly. It was supposed to be laproscopic surgery, and then the Dr's found out it was growing on the kidney with its own blood supply (that had to be cut and cut to find the ends), not in it.

So, count me glad to be alive, and getting better every day.

IMHO: corvettes are like belly buttons, everybody seems to have one. Part of the fun factor is not seeing lots of cars just like yours, in different colors, every time you look around. If $$$ enters into the equation, buy a 662 horsepower 200mph Shelby GT500 and show any corvette except the ZR1 your taillights. And have a back seat.

I light up every time I see my Jag in the garage, just enjoying it...

Not sure what your intent is with the car. If it is a daily driver, you may be disappointed very quickly. Every car mentioned is fun but very impractical. I have owned many over the past 10 years however I drive a Ford F 150 4 door ecoboost everyday. My wife and I find ourselves in that car/truck 75% of the time (she drives the SL 550) as her DD.
Good luck with your choice. I have always be able to find a used GT or coupe with something remaining on the warranty or a transferable extended warranty. Typically if something is wrong with the car it will show up in a few months.
As mentioned all of the cars depreciate horribly when you drive them off the showroom floor. I bought a SL 63 that had a window sticker approaching $140K two years old with 19,000 miles for $80K that was in perfect condition. The XKR was over $100K and bought it for a bit under $60K with less than 20,000 miles. Do not be in a hurry and shop a while. You can find a deal and look for a car with some warranty left.
The last little car was the Z4M roadster I mentioned. It is a 2006 with 40,000 miles. I paid $22,000 for it. The window sticker noted $56K. Someone babied this cat. Not a scratch or dent. This car had a bumper to bumper transferable extended warranty that extended 10 months after I acquired it and it had a few bugs in it all fixed free.
Now if I can just find that perfect DB9 for about $80K or less....
Also bare in mind that if you get a AMG, XKR or M version you cal expect to pay significantly more for maintenance on the respective vehicle. 98 % of the time you will not be able to use the added performance unless you are a track guy.
Get a 2011 or later Z06 corvette. If they do not use the 427 in the new C7 you might have bought a bit of history and a investment.... maybe?? Look what large displacement muscle cars go for. BTW: you do not need gobs of carbon fiber or carbon ceramic discs. Just a bunch of useless money spent if you are not going to race. Might try and price one of those discs if you have to replace it.. OUCH!!

Well, WTF, this is probably the dumbest thing I've done lately but I just bought a 99 XK8 conv.with 90K miles, daily driver, delivered to NE Texas for $8,000. There's a 2005 in Dallas that I wanted with 62K miles but it would cost at least $16,000. I thought I'd get my feet wet with this one. I figure a couple of thousand to have it checked out, especially the tensioners.

BTW as long as I'm going crazy, anyone know anything about dropping American small block 6s or 8s in 280, 450 SLs? There's a Euro 79 280 SL with a sick engine that will likely go for less than $4000 and a 450 that will be as cheap or cheaper, not counting shipping.

I've never done but would think it could be done without any great hassles but wouldn't it be cheaper to fix the original engine as spares are usually so easily available?

Based on a minimal amount of net research, it is not as easy as it would seem. They make kits for the Jag XJs and they are a wonderful exchange when you put a small block chevy (as hot as you want) in one. They lose wt. and gain horsepower for fairly small money and you don't even have to modify the original body or frame at all.

Unfortunately such is not the case for any other Euro car that I am aware of and the clearances make a engine swap a real bitch, especially, apparently, in Mercedes. In that case you'd likely be better off going with the original.

Your viewpoint of the costs of repairing/replacing a Euro car engine are based on Euro prices. Over here it is enormously expensive to replace a Euro engine. For instance, one guy said it was going to cost $16,000 to replace his older XK8 engine. The early 90 ones were famous for losing a timing chain and killing the engine. In many cases, over here, the costs of major repairs/replacements to an engine in Mercedes, jags, etc FAR exceeds the current value of the car, and that is still true even after it is repaired.

Actually I was "thinking" (a dangerous trait in my case) of the older XK8 jags. They would be a helluva car if you could drop a hot small block in them if you could do the swap for $10,000 or less.

I doubt I'll buy that 280 because it is so far from me (Penn, over 1200 mi) and because "thinking" about fixing one is a lot easier than doing it. I don't have time or the desire to do half of what I should be doing around here as is. OTOH there are 3 hours left in auction and bid is $2550........nice looking car, too.

I just looked at a 2004 XK-8 convertible with the 540HP Shelby GT500 engine and 6-speed manual conversion. The gentleman said Shelby did it for him (using a wrecked 2008 GT500 for driveline), a bit less than $14000. I believe the operative word would be "wicked".

Gatogordo

Merc spares in RSA were reasonably priced and are even cheaper over here but I hadn't thought of the cost of Euro spares in the States and of course, it's a bloody good point..... sorry about that.

I have a 2003 Corvette. The car runs great, goes like hell and still gets 30mpg on the highway at 70+. I would highly recommend the c5
vette

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Personally, I'd be very wary of any V12 engine..... they're wonderful things but helluva expensive to fix when they go wrong.

You're right about that.....but there's nothing smoother.....cept' maybe an electric motor.

Well, I am getting dumber by the day. I bought that 79 280 SL for $2725. I talked to dealer and he seemed like an honest guy (at least for a used car salesman ) and he said that several people in the dealership had driven it 50 miles or so. So it does run, however poorly, and, given that, the engine may be salvageable. It's going to cost me about $800 to get it hauled here, but even so, I figure it must have that much in parts. Time will tell......but I'm avoiding anyone wearing white coats for now.

It's a bloody good price and I'll be interested to see some pics and hear about it etc.......

One information resource you might find useful is www.benzworld.org that have an SL forum and lots of knowledgeable guys on it.

Does yours have a clip on hard top to go with the soft top?....... they're helluva heavy things but also helluva useful.

Hard top is on it, not sure of condition of soft.

The story, which I believe, was that a man was helping a local widow with an estate, not sure or relation of deceased, and when it got towards the end, this car was sitting in a garage and hadn't been used for a while. He got some low bids on it and she said something on the order of "Well, if that's all it's worth, do you want if for helping me out?" He took it, drove it a bit, let it sit covered in his yard in Penn for a year or so, needed some cash, then called this dealer who bought it and has had it sitting on his lot for too long, so to ebay it went. According to dealer, there are mostly illegible receipts where $6000 worth of engine work was done on car in early 2000s.

This is obviously not a cherry, not even a somewhat older grape, but I've always thought they looked cool and it has the more desirable manual transmission in it. Time will tell.

WTH.....here's a link if you want to look for yourself and then you'll probably know more about it than I do..... 79 280 SL

Congratulations on what looks to be a pretty good purchase.... As it says, the car is the Euro version with the more elegant chromework and that increases it's value...... especially in the USA.

Regarding the engine tap....... don't panic on that one because they all do that for the first few minutes of running from cold. It's something to do with the tappets having an oil way going through them and if the tapping stops after a few minutes of running from cold, it's not a problem.

I'm going from memory but the smoking engine could be rings or gasket but could also be gearbox oil going through a faulty breather valve and into the engine so before you tear her down, you might like to check that...... You'll be able to ask on that forum I mentioned for more detail but I'm fairly sure it's a common problem and a quickish/cheapish fix.

FWIW, the soft top lock/unlock mechanism is the rear of the car can be a bit tricky, especially if it hasn't been operated for a while so try not to force it..... usually a spray of WD40 down the hole (on each side) will free it up and make it work easier.

Do you know what part of the country it spent it's life in by any chance? - Somewhere away from the sea and with a mild climate will obviously mean less corrosion problems.

I reckon you've got what appears to be a good'un there and if it's any consolation, the value here would be more than 10 times what you've paid for it.

congrats, plus 1. It will be a fun project to put right, and something you can enjoy driving until they bury you.


A couple at church have one about that vintage, bright yellow of all colors!

Dave, thanks very much. I will check out the C5.
Peter.

Thanks for all the info, Steve and thanks to both of you for the premature "congrats". I'll know more in a couple of weeks when it arrives.

Still getting bids on transport (since the dealer won't load it until it is paid for......some people...... ) . The company who may be the cheapest lowballed a bid on the site and then added some BS about transport was going to cost more since I changed the delivery site. I changed the delivery sight (Walmart parking lot) because it is 30 miles CLOSER to the pick up sight and right off an interstate as opposed to where I live out in the middle of nowhere, BFE is down the road a ways. I really don't want to use those guys. I hate shysters.