Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Spectre said:
Post pics. :D
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Very nice. Can't quite tell which of the dark colors it is (black, dark blue, BRG?) but the Dove (?) interior is in nice shape and the wood is fantastic.

The fog lights are missing (may not have ever been installed). Out of curiosity (not that I'd want to try to import something like that in The Green Era Of Obama), what are you guys planning on asking for it and how many kilometers has it covered?

Also, check the VIN number, that's not an 82. The center stack places it as an 88-92.

Edit: Just FYI: The ignition switch surround is wrong for the car and is off a 79-82 model - it doesn't match the rest of the dash set. Fortunately, it's a matter of seconds and a couple of screwdrivers to fix. :D They don't even cost that much.
 
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And things like that are the reason I could never own a car dealership. I'd quickly bankrupt myself building a personal fleet of ill-advised trades.
 
The license plates firmly mark it as an original 1982 model :)

It's done 180K km and asking price is 14K eur, which isn't too much for a Double Six that good. It really is immaculate, and green.

EDIT: Dutch license plate registry says date of first registration 5 jan 1982.
 
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Adunaphel said:
The license plates firmly mark it as an original 1982 model :)

It's done 180K km and asking price is 14K eur, which isn't too much for a Double Six that good. It really is immaculate, and green.
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Okay... sure he didn't pull the "cherished plate" trick?

If not.... he spent tons of money to update an 82 to the 87+ XJ12 spec. The air conditioning controls mark the climate control core as the Delanaire Mark III unit originally shipped with the XJ40 and factory retrofitted to the XJ12 from 87 on. The trip computer also was not available in 82 on any model, coming in 83 (IIRC). The wood is also (I am guessing) a reveneer as none of the Series IIIs had the idiot light panel veneered and this one does.

Makes me wonder what else he had retrofitted and at what cost.

Edit: I saw your edit. Unless he did a lot of the work himself, I shudder to think at what he paid for all the upgrades. That's damn near a total cockpit and rear electronics bay rewire to get the trip computer to work, let alone install the Delanaire Mark III. And at Euro dealer prices, too..... Dear god, he must have really loved that car. Real shame he felt he had to give it up.

It's a shame that it's such a hassle to import such a thing into the US or I would be asking for your father's contact info about now.
 
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Isn't it a lot more straightforward to import a car that was actually sold here anyway? I mean, when you get down to it, you're looking at an XJ12 with some badging.

Then again, knowing the government, the badging is all that counts.
 
The Series III XJ12 was only sold in the US for one year, 1979, and almost nobody bought it. CAFE bumped up mandatory fuel economy the next year and the US-market XJ12 got axed.

You can bring certain year XJ12s in, as some people have 'proven' to the government that they were substantially the same as existing US market cars (XJS, XJ6), which, of course, they are - but you have to prove it to the Feds at great expense. Even more exasperatingly, while you can certify a car for its entire run as a new vehicle, the Feds won't grant a blanket exception to all years of a specific model/generation.

Unfortunately, none of the 90-92 cars can come in and while I could import the car under the 25 year rolling exemption, it'd still cost a boatload of money and about six months of time. Of course, I could import a 79 and fit Federal equipment to it... but seriously, nobody wants a 79. All the jokes about Brit car reliability? Yeah, they're absolutely true for the 79s.

Fuck you, Mercedes. Fuck you very much. (Mercedes was responsible for this legislation, as they got pissed off when people started importing Euro Mercs and depriving them of their ridiculous profit margins in the States in the 70s and 80s.)
 
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Spectre said:
If the latter, one wonders if it is yellow....
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I wish, if I had a submarine, it wouldn't cost me $70 one way to get to the mainland.

Actually it would probably be much more expensive to keep the submarine in good, underwater worthy condition. But at least if I had my own submarine I could choose were I was going.
 
Spectre said:
Okay... sure he didn't pull the "cherished plate" trick
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Very sure, because it's impossible. Dutch license plates are sequential, based on the date the car was first registered in the Netherlands. There's different series of them, each with their own era. It is possible to get an older license plate when you import an older car, so you won't get a 40 year-old car with a brand new license plate, but with one that is consistent with the era. But those rules still prevent you from getting a too old license plate for your car.
 
That really is interesting. And you're sure it doesn't have dodgy paperwork?

Maybe it's had a fire at some point and has been repaired with whatever suitable has been possible to source. I mean, one does not just simply rock... into updating an interior.
 
Psirus said:
Source?
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Here's a link to part of the information. Specifically, what pissed Mercedes off was all the people importing Gelandewagens (which Merc couldn't bother to import themselves until very recently).

However, Mercedes recently did it again with the Canadians:

http://www.canadiandriver.com/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=56498.0

Ottawa sued over car import rules

GREG KEENAN
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
February 28, 2008 at 1:48 AM EST

Two vehicle leasing companies have launched a class-action lawsuit on cross-border vehicle shopping with a new twist, alleging Transport Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency were participants in a conspiracy to keep vehicle prices high.

The two arms of the government have been named along with BMW Canada Inc., Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. and Mercedes-Benz USA LLC in a lawsuit that alleges actions they required of people or companies trying to import U.S. vehicles into Canada reduced competition and enabled prices of vehicles sold here to be 20 per cent to 35 per cent higher than similar U.S. models.

The auto makers, Transport Canada and the CBSA imposed restrictions on vehicle importers that created additional fees and charges, said a statement of claim filed with the Ontario Superior Court.

Fournier Leasing Co. Ltd. and Canadian Auto Associates Ltd. are seeking damages that total in excess of $1-billion.

?These additional charges, fees procedures and restrictions prevent more competitively priced Mercedes vehicles from entering into the Canadian market, thereby enabling the Mercedes defendants to charge higher prices for new vehicles sold and leased by them in Canada,? the statement said.

For Mercedes and BMW, ?these additional fees and charges are not payable under Canadian law,? the lawsuit said.

The charges have not been proven in court and none of the defendants in the lawsuit has filed a statement of defence.

JoAnne Caza, a spokeswoman for Mercedes-Benz Canada, would not comment. BMW Canada spokeswoman Stacy Morris said the auto maker was not aware that any such lawsuit has been filed.

The two luxury auto makers were among the first companies to offer cash incentives in Canada last fall when the Canadian dollar hit par against the U.S. currency. The rise of the loonie enabled Canadians to potentially save tens of thousands of dollars in the U.S. on such luxury vehicles as those sold by BMW and Mercedes Benz.

Luxury vehicles are believed to represent the bulk of the record 189,738 vehicles imported into Canada last year.

Transport Canada is named in the suit because of its role in certifying vehicles imported into Canada through the Registrar of Imported Vehicles program, which maintains a list of vehicles allowed to be imported and outlines the modifications necessary to make sure vehicles comply with Canadian regulations.

Among the requirements is one that importers provide proof to the CBSA that any repairs required under recalls have actually been made.

The auto makers forced importers to pay ?artificially high fees and charges? for information about recalls, the lawsuit alleges.

BMW Canada's website says importers require a letter of admissibility from the company that costs $350. The fee for a letter saying the vehicle has been repaired under any recall orders is $500.

?There is a process. The law is quite clear that if you follow that process, you're entitled to import a vehicle into Canada,? said Brian Osler, one of the lawyers for the two leasing companies.

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/ser...usiness/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080228.wrautos28
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Also, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_import_vehicle#United_States

This avenue was increasingly successful, especially in cases where only lower-specification models were officially offered on the US market. For example, Mercedes-Benz chose to offer only the lower-output 380SEL model to Americans in 1981, ensuring a huge demand for the much faster 500SEL available in the rest of the world. BMW had the same issue with their 745i Turbo. The grey market was successful enough that it ate significantly into the business of Mercedes-Benz of North America and their dealers. The corporation launched a successful million-dollar congressional lobbying effort to stop private importation of vehicles not officially intended for the U.S. market. An organisation called AICA (Automotive Importers Compliance Association) was formed by importers in California, Florida, New York, Texas, and elsewhere to counter some of these actions by Mercedes lobbyists, but the Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Act was passed in 1988, effectively ending private import of grey-market vehicles to the United States. No evidence was presented that grey-import vehicles' safety performance differed significantly from that of US models, and there have been allegations of improper lobbying, but the issue has never been raised in court.
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Unfortunately, most of the references from that time are not online, but if you can get to your local library and they have back copies of the Los Angeles Times, one citation is "Wheeling-Dealing Gray Market Hits the Skids: Bad Publicity, Corporate Action, Legislation Put Brakes on Car Conversions" from the 11 July 1986 edition.

Adunaphel said:
Very sure, because it's impossible. Dutch license plates are sequential, based on the date the car was first registered in the Netherlands. There's different series of them, each with their own era. It is possible to get an older license plate when you import an older car, so you won't get a 40 year-old car with a brand new license plate, but with one that is consistent with the era. But those rules still prevent you from getting a too old license plate for your car.
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Okay, so it's an 82 (not even an 82.5) and he spent tons and tons of money on it.

public said:
That really is interesting. And you're sure it doesn't have dodgy paperwork?

Maybe it's had a fire at some point and has been repaired with whatever suitable has been possible to source. I mean, one does not just simply rock... into updating an interior.
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Interior fires are extremely rare on a Series III (thank god), but even if it had had one, chances are that it would have been repaired with the 'correct' 82 parts or similar ones out of the far more common XJ6, which didn't have the MkIII system. He would have had to remove the entire lower interior right down to the firewall to convert, plus the engine bay work and modifications for the plumbing. If he had it done at a dealer or garage with new parts, the cost of the work was probably close to what the asking price is now.

There's a lot of money wrapped up in that car - he must have cared for it dearly. Must have been heartbreaking to part with it.
 
My neighbors are awesome. I didn't have a car so I was lent their CLK430 to get to work.
 
My car passed it?s annual safety check (MOT Test) today with no problems or serious cash spent.
Got it hand washed before and it just needed new windscreen wipers.

< ------ is very pleased. :mouse:

.. also,


Adunaphel said:
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* snips *
XJ auto porn
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Man that is a lovely car, always really wanted a V12 XJ. :mrgreen:
 
Spectre said:
It's a shame that it's such a hassle to import such a thing into the US or I would be asking for your father's contact info about now.
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Just import it as farming equipment. :p
 
Been surfing youtube and Alfa Romeo. Found the sound of a GTV6 and started thinking "how can i live without that in my life?":/
 
i'm still wondering why would anyone would buy a Silverado in Honduras.

On a unrelated note, the current Hyundai accent has crappy seats.

I'm still thinking about putting that ?engine start ?button
 
So it seems a friend of mine has bought one of these:

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Apparently he was fed up waiting for a reasonably priced clio sport to appear.
 
Guess what I 'got' to drive today:

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Hint: "Behold the awfulness!"
 
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