Idea

When studying the subject of "interesting and affordable post-war limousines", we not only looked at the Jaguar MK IV, V, VII, VIII and IX but also several Mercedes models from the fifties such as a 220 S and 300 S Adenauer, as well as a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud 1 or 2.

After carefully studying the market, the exclusivity of the offered cars and their technical reliability, the Jaguars MK VII-IX seemed to be the best choice in terms of suitability for daily use, design, uniqueness (scarcity value), long-term maintenance of value and availability. Finally, our preferred choice was a MK IX, also because of its really cool picknick tables.

Over months, we studied the available cars all over the world via Google which gave us a good overview of their condition and respective prices: fully restored ones in excellent condition are being offered at 25.000 to 35.000 Euro (some fully restored exceptional cars have also been traded at over 60.000 USD or EUR), cars in a good, original condition are priced between 15.000 and 20.000 Euros. Objects fit for restoration and ones with technical "challenges" are being offered at 5.000 to 15.000 Euros here in Europe. Everything else is usually not worthwhile.

As a next step, we looked at some of the cars. The first one we saw stood in Kerpen. The car was technically in perfect order. However, the body and the paintwork were not the original and badly restored. So it was not really a good bargain for nearly 20.000 Euros. The next one was a beautiful, original white MK VII near Amsterdam, which was however not in driving condition and nothing had been done on it since 1969. The technical risk was too high for us for 15.000 Euros.

A further MK VII was offered near Eindhoven in Holland. Also a solid car, but with many small imperfections in the paintwork, leather and on the technical side as well. Also this car didnīt seem like a really good deal for 18.000 Euros. In any case, looking at these cars enabled us to get a really good overview of the cars available on the market, their respective condition and price.

The cars offered via ebay in the internet were significantly less expensive. There, we saw a German MK VIII being auctioned for 15.000 Euros in relatively good condition. Just before the auction, the owner of the car had wanted to sell it for 19.900 Euros via www.mobile.de.

Since the MKs of the fifties are relatively rare in Germany, the left-hand-drive ones can be found mainly in the USA. They could be found over and again at ebay with relatively low starting prices but a "reserve price", below which the owner does not have to sell the car.

Often, this "reserve" was not met at the end of the auction. One usually does not find out whether the owner sold the car nevertheless.