The 2015 Jaguar XF was the last of the X250 line, with the X260 running from 2016 until now. As far as I can tell, Jaguar stopped making the supercharged V-8 XF R in 2015 as well, making this 510 hp British saloon a bit of a unicorn. For sure, it’s a sleeper. It’s a five owner car that’s made its way around California, Arizona and on to Vegas – there’s a joke there somewhere about it sleeping around but I refuse to make it.
The 5.0 liter supercharged V-8 runs through a six-speed automatic transmission. Depending on the review, the car sprints from 0-60 mph in the low to high four second range. Wish I could be more precise, but web info says the sedan tops out at 155 (limited), 174, and 186 mph. If you own one and hit top speed let me know. We’ll keep it between us.
The Jaguar XF R has heated and air conditioned seats, heated mirrors, Bluetooth and a rearview camera but isn’t all that luxurious otherwise. It’s listed as having the “special edition” package, and I’ve spent too much time trying to figure out what that is. Car will be gone before I do! If you know (Scott?) let me know.
The 2015 Jaguar XF R sold new for perhaps $80,000. There are a dozen available on Autotrader and even Carvana has a pair. Not many at this mileage point – either far more miles and a handful with less, but comparables suggest this price of $35,998 is not that bad. It’s not as good as the way lower mileage XFR I saw last fall, but all prices are up. Also, I tried to explore Carvana’s warranty plans and while they show lots of things covered, couldn’t find anything on a mileage cap or the term of the warranty. Sometimes I get tempted by CPO’s and wonder if there are other aftermarket warranties that are good, and yet I can’t find them as extensive as MaxCare. If this car is for you, it’s still available in Las Vegas here!
Always looking for low-mileage CarMax unicorns and was surprised to find this 2013 Dodge Charger R/T Max with only 378 miles. About 40 miles a year. Doesn’t even need an oil change yet! Yes, I know all about the “all the rubber and seals and gaskets and plastics have rotted” notion, and think some of that is legit and some is not. My theory is anything that needs to move and/or lubricate to stay fresh may be need to be replaced – any part that doesn’t know or care if the car has been moving much over the last nine years should be fine. Even better, ANYTHING THAT ROTTED WHILE SITTING GETS REPLACED FREE BY CARMAX UNDER THE 90 DAY, 4,000 MILE WARRANTY! So what’s the risk of buying a damn near new old car? Mostly just overpaying, but I’ll get to that later.
I was also surprised at how well equipped this 2013 Dodge is – choosing “Max” for the R/T model originally cost another $6,000 and added mirror-mounted puddle lamps, rain-sensing wipers, adaptive cruise control with forward collision warning, a rear parking sensor, rear cross-path sensor, SmartBeam headlamps, the navigation package, the Beats audio package, power adjustable pedals, heated and ventilated front seats, heated steering wheel, Bluetooth, rear view camera, power tilt-and-telescope steering column, blind spot monitoring, and 245/45R20 all-season performance tires on 20-inch chrome wheels. If it had Apple CarPlay and seat massagers I would snatch this up!
The leather interior has nary a crease. Pristine as the day it rolled off the showroom floor to its one and only owner in Channahon, Illinois, southwest of Chicago.
The 2013 Dodge Charger R/T Max was powered by a 370 hp 5.7 liter V-8 motor and only a five speed automatic transmission. It ran to 60 mph in just over five seconds. Not an SRT-8 by any means, but no slouch. The engine bay looks as sharp and clean as the interior.
For me, there are two downsides to buying this car. The first is the car sold new for probably $37,000 or so, and nine years later has depreciated almost not at all. Depreciation is what makes unicorns affordable. This car isn’t so special you’d want to also mothball it away to preserve the ultra low mileage, and not so unique that you’d want to overpay for it. CarMax has a couple Charger R/T Max’s for $10,000 less with 40,000-70,000 miles, and even a 2014 Charger SRT-8 Superbee with the 470 hp motor at 70,000 miles for “only” $33,998. All of these old school V-8 American muscle cars have MaxCare available for another five years and up to 150,000 miles. Not bad.
The second downside to me is I just cannot own any sedan that’s also used as a police cruiser. Years ago I drove a rental Crown Vic for a bit, and found that as I closed in on highway traffic EVERYONE slowed down and blocked me thinking I was an unmarked police car. Not helpful. (But for fun, once, my buds and I drove down the George Washington Parkway outside Washington DC in the Crown Vic with the flashers on and chuckled as everyone got out of our way. We were young and stupid. ) Anyway, if this low mileage 2013 Dodge Charger R/T Max is for you, it’s coming soon to Tinley Park, Illinois – halfway between Channahon and Chicago. Here’s the link if it’s the car for you.
In 2012 Porsche introduced the third generation 911, designated the 991. But Porsche also still sold in 2012 brand new second generation 911’s – the 997 series. So I’m never sure until I check out the interior of a 2012 Porsche 911 which one it is. Both of these 2012 models are in fact 997’s, just like my old 2008 model I picked up from CarMax for less than $40,000! Except these two are stupid fast convertibles that sold new for $170-200,000, depending on options. Only about 2,100 911 Turbo S convertibles were sold worldwide. A unicorn? Autotrader shows only five for sale, all for more money and lower miles, and none offer MaxCare for another five years and up to 125,000 miles of coverage on a 10 year old race car. Also, there’s a live auction underway on Bring a Trailer for a similar 2012 car – ends on May 25, 2022 and it’s at $63,000. I’ll bet it doubles in the last hour. (5-26-22 Update – the BaT car sold for $121,000. I was close.)
Not much in the way of features inside. Sports chrono. Navigation. Decent audio. No rear view camera.
The 2012 Porsche 911 Turbo S was rated at a ridiculous 523 hp from the 3.8 liter six cylinder, and sprinted to 60 mph in under three seconds. Top speed was just under 200 mph. The car is AWD and runs with a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic PDK (Porsche Doppelkupplung) transmission. This particular model is a four-owner, accident free car currently in Irving, Texas. Find it here.
My frustrated search for a successor unicorn for my 2010 Mercedes S600 (going on sale soon!) continues. I’ve become enamored not only with V-12’s, but with the latest and greatest technology – mostly some autonomous driving capability for long distance driving. Bought and returned the 2018 Cadillac CT6 Platinum (aka Clotmobile – it’s still on sale here at my Dulles Dealer) and came close to buying a 2019 BMW X5 50i. Different approaches, but both blew me away with the comfort of driving extended distances relatively hands free. But neither were real enthusiasts cars, although I tried to convince myself the Cadillac’s 400hp six cylinder and the BMW’s 456hp made up for that. Neither really were worthy of Cars and Coffee, and nobody came up to me at the gas pump with a “whatcha got there?!”. Sleepers both.
I’ve boxed myself in because while there are unicorns in my traditionally sense (deeply depreciated, low miles, expensive to fix but not my problem with MaxCare), once you tag autonomous driving onto an enthusiast car we’re talking $65,000 and up – no longer a bargain. My deal was instead of a three year old Camry we could be driving eight year old Mercedes for the same price, more fun, no risk. Well, CarMax doesn’t have a search feature for autonomous driving (the term too vague right now) so I dutifully plug in my big four – Apple Carplay, autonomous cruise control, heated steering wheel, and seat massagers – and of the 51,365 cars on lots today, only 75 meet my criteria. Half of them Ford Explorers and F150’s! Today, not even a Stinger GT2 available – an enthusiast car that comes with all that. So what’s the best I can do today?
A 2017 BMW 550XI Gran Turismo (GT)! A car that Car and Driver tagged as a model nobody asked for. But it’s really quite a car if you want a hatchback German sedan or can get over its awkward (to me) profile. (Bracing myself – good chance one of the blog readers owns one and loves the lines. My apologies.) Loaded with a 440hp twin turbo 4.4 liter V-8, AWD, heated and cooling seats, Apple Carplay, auto cruise, seat massagers, heated steering wheel, and a panoramic sunroof, once inside you won’t even know it looks kooky to some from the outside. And it’s less than $40,000! Note – the car made its debut at CarMax for $37,998 and almost immediately shot up to $40,998 – then this week backed off $1,000.
Thought just for fun I’d throw in a 2015 Honda CrossTour EX-L for comparison. The Honda only has a 278hp six but cost lots less. That said, it has a rear wiper! So what’s a Gran Turismo – or GT? Motor Trend says a “GT car fit between a sports car and a luxury car. It should have a big engine, a comfortable ride, a luxurious interior, and elegant bodywork. Not just fast, it needed to be able to handle like a sports car when the proper situation arose but coddle like a luxury car the rest of the time.” The BMW 550XI GT fits the bill, although it could be better looking.
The BMW has a handsome interior, although as a 2017 it’s infotainment screen is smaller and a little dated now despite this 550 model being a new gen. I dig the pre-coffee stained seats. Usually I have to turn them that color myself.
The trunk space looks useful. Maybe this is for folks who want to haul stuff but not lug around a larger SUV like the X5?
I like the motor. Thought I would need M models to be happy (I drove, and loved, a stupid fast 2020 BMW X5 M50i once) but the “base” twin turbo BMW V-8 is remarkably powerful. Test results put it at a mid to upper four second 0-60 mph sprint. This car sold new for perhaps $75,000 and is under $40k today. There’s an awful lot of features available for a five year old car, and if I could get over autonomous driving and the shape, I think it’s a bargain. Maxcare available to 125,000 miles and 60 months. Find this two owner, accident free, low mileage car here in Golden, Colorado.
I can’t help it. I’m captivated by CarMax offering these final year Panther-platform 2011 Mercury Grand Marquis LS sedans. Only 248 spilled over into the 2011 model year. CarMax has had maybe a half dozen since I started blogging. I didn’t blog on all of them so I’m catching up. I have a theory that all 248 of these unicorns will be on their lots at some point so from here on I’m documenting them!
CarMax lists the car as “fully loaded” and gives it a 9 out of 10, but there’s not much going on in there by modern standards. Heated mirrors? CD? Not even Bluetooth. Under “Technology” only cruise control is listed.
Not too many column shifting old school sedans out there anymore. Something satisfying about the “ka-chunk” of pulling it down the PRNDL. Saves console space so kids can stand on the transmission hump and stare out the windshield as the miles go by. Oh wait, that was my generation.
Gargantuan trunk that will hold tons of luggage or multiple bodies. Old joke. I got nothing more.
The down side – an anemic motor with only 224 hp and 275 ft-lbs of torque. But it will last a long time? Only $19,998 and 40,000 miles. If you really want this car it’s here in Irving, Texas. Amazingly, MaxCare is available for another five years – until the car is maybe 16 or 17 years old – and another 110,000 miles!
Tradition has it that “May Day was celebrated by some early European settlers of the American continent. In some parts of the United States…….small baskets usually filled with ….treats and left at someone’s doorstep. The giver rings the bell and runs away.”* That’s the best excuse I can come up with this May 1st to post this sort of small European basket filled with treats capable of a fast getaway. A bit of a stretch. A bit of a unicorn.
* Per the historical expert Wikipedia.
The 2013 Mercedes SLK55 AMG, sometimes called the Mercedes Miata, is a two-seater with a naturally aspirated V8 motor. The car was produced as the SLK from 1996 until 2015, after that it was renamed to the SLC model in accordance with Mercedes badging changes, and switched from the V8 to a six cylinder, becoming the SLC43. Only Mercedes itself knows how many SLK55’s were made – I just lost an hour reading Mercedes enthusiast forums where owners themselves are trying to track how special their cars are. The best I can tell is someone is tracking motor numbers by VIN and thinks there were around 3,500 total.
(If you want to see a bit of history, here’s the link to one of my first blog posts ever in 2017, on a 2007 SLK55 selling for $21,998. That would have been a steal – and still under MaxCare!)
The basket of treats mentioned above really includes only seat heaters, Bluetooth, rear view camera, nav, and a Harman Kardon audio system. It’s a handsome cockpit, but not opulent. Analog car like my M3.
The seats do have the very nice Mercedes Air Scarf feature, heating the neck and shoulders (or top of your head if you’re tiny). The seats are also the same color as my M3‘s – not sure what Mercedes calls them but mine are “fox blood”. Creepy name but better than red. Included this picture really to show that unlike the M3, there’s no back seat. No matter how unusable my M3 back seat might be for humans, it’ll still hold two guitar cases and a gig bag. Also, most cars with bolsters this big tend to show wear and tear over the years – these seem fairly fresh.
Hardtop convertibles lose trunk space, some more than others. The protective shell above has to be in the “down” position before the automatic folding process tucks the roof and rear glass into the trunk. With the shell up, it’s easy to fit a large suitcase in there. Even down there’s room for a carry on (or amplifier!) back there. (Side note – I never read the instructions for my convertible and got my roof stuck half closed. Thought I was going to have it towed. Realized I left a six pack of soft drinks in an area of the trunk I didn’t think mattered and it got wedged. Thought about reaching in there to dislodge it and worried I’d be that guy that lost his arm in a freak convertible accident. I got the roof to raise and was able to secure my Diet Cokes. So glad I didn’t have it towed to CarMax and have them ridicule me for years.)
Kudos to CarMax for the rare photo of a convertible with the top down. A little less of a “pug” look. The upside of this being a two seater is unlike the BMW M3, there are no permanently raised headrests looking goofy all the time.
The SLK55 AMG is really about the 5.5 liter hand-built V8. It produces 415 hp, 398 ft-lbs of torque, and per Motor Trend will hit 60 mph in a spectacular 4.2 seconds. (The car in the Motor Trend review looks identical to this one inside and out – how cool would it be if it was the same?) I can attest there’s just something awesome about a high-revving naturally aspirated V8 that can’t be matched by a turbo. The car sold new in the upper $70,000 range. It’s now half that nine years later, and MaxCare is available for another five years and up to 125,000 miles. Find it here just outside Chicago in Schaumburg, Illinois.
