I have a couple of dozen (about 50 really) CarMax unicorns tagged but wanted to open with a sampling of what’s on the lot today. Again, my bar is $35,000 or less, 60,000 miles or less, an enthusiast car, and relatively exclusive. Your standards may vary. So here they are in no particular order:
2007 Mercedes CL550 – The “big coupe” from Mercedes – the two door version of the S-class, originally a $100,000 car. You can read the review from the link below. It’s the third generation CL and has everything a top of the line Mercedes should have – in 2007. What I like? It’s big, exclusive, comfortable, well-appointed with Distronic auto cruise control, cheap, low miles (driven only 3,400 miles yearly), and you can get a warranty for the next five years. I like that with only 34,000 miles CarMax will likely give an affordable warranty to 75,000 miles – but I would take all they offer that I could afford. What I don’t like? No bluetooth. Ad says rear view camera but I doubt it – CarMax photo spread almost always shows a shot of the rear view camera in action if it has one. Rear view photo of the car doesn’t show one. I don’t like less than 400hp but 382 ain’t bad. I also don’t like that this car is not transferable and is 3,000 miles away from me. I would give it serious consideration. I’ll bet it’s gone in days, although there’s also a 2009 CL550 on the lot at $32,998 that hasn’t moved in a week. We shall see!
Car and Driver Review CL550
2011 BMW M3 – The “benchmark” sport coupe per the review below, and the best everyday sports car I can imagine. I’ve owned a 3-series. Everything is in the right place. M3’s are tough to find in my unicorn category. Once a $70,000 car, most are close to the $35,000 unicorn limit, have 70-80,000 miles on them and are 8-10 years old. I have a hard time paying that much for that old with that mileage. So I like the balance of price and mileage here. I like the SMG transmission and 400hp. I’m not a big fan of the hard top convertible only because I own a convertible. Otherwise it’s the best of both worlds. Don’t know why, but the hard top convertibles sell at a discount over the hard top coupes. If you like these then you’re in luck! A little short on amenities but you can’t have a bad day in an M3.
Autoweek Review – 2011 M3
Continue reading “First Five Fabulous Unicorns”
Let’s start with the Jaguar unicorn ($35,000 or less, 60,000 miles or less) that got away not once but twice. You can find the details in the search for my next car here but I’ve found two 2010 Jaguar XKR’s with low mileage, under $33,000, and wimped out both times. This is the car that I rue regularly. I’ve added the CarMax purchase order and MaxCare warranty at the bottom of this post so you can see how a deal might look.
But in the meantime, the search continues and I’ve tracked the cars below that I hope are of interest to you. Today there are 101 Jaguars on CarMax lots nationwide and 14 of them meet my unicorn standards – and have V8’s. I’ve included a pair of XJ’s, a quad of XF’s, a lonely XKR, and a few cars that were once on the market and gone….for now. I started the post last night and this morning the XF and XKR are gone. While editing this morning this ridiculously low-mileage 2010 XK surfaced in Las Vegas. I welcome suggestions on making this more relevant for the reader, and please sign up at the bottom if you’d like updates. Continue reading “Cool Cats – Jaguars Across the USA for $18-33k, Including an XKR!”