Every Wednesday, we’re highlighting an auction bargain that we reckon was well bought. Thanks to our friends at Classic Car Weekly, and its roving auction reporter, Richy Barnett, we’ll bring you some amazing cars at much lower-than-expected prices. This week, it’s a very nice example of the unloved Jaguar S-Type – one of the most controversial of the millennial retro-designed cars.

• Car 1999 Jaguar S-Type 4.0

• Sold for £1050

• Original estimate £1000-£2000

• Barons 25 February

This is the version that you want. The ‘T’-plate gave it away as a very early example, but rather than being one of the more commonplace 3.0-litre V6s, this was a 4.0-litre V8. A bereavement sale, it was a four-owner car with plenty of history and said to be driving very well. Look around in the classifieds and there are still plenty of S-Types to choose from, but most of them are V6s at this sort of money, and there are plenty of shockers out there.

This one, being a V8 in good nick, was a smart deal by comparison. The condition was key to this being a good deal. While S-Types don’t suffer too badly from corrosion (bar the front wheelarches on early examples), they can be scruffy. This one was anything but, with very straight panels, good shutlines and no car park dents or bumper scuffs. The engine bay and boot were very tidy and the boot boasted a correct V8 spare wheel, the design being different from those on the smaller-engined S-Types.

The interior was in very good order, the leather both clean and wear-free and the dashboard and door cards equally good – as was the headlining. It’s the right time to buy an S-Type as a classic. The wise money is moving in now and picking up what’s one of the best bargains to be had in the modern classic movement.

Well bought Jaguar S-Type: The verdict

Nicely built, decent performance, plenty of specialists – and it’s a Jaguar. Like it or not, if you go back 20 years the classic magazines were featuring cars from the 1970s, so if we now come to the present day there is no reason why the S-Type shouldn’t be getting the same sort of treatment. It’s a misunderstood car – which makes it better value. There are plenty of people who still don’t ‘get’ the S-Type, but those who’ve wised up to its charms are the ones landing great-value buys – and ones that really won’t be losing any value either. In all, this was an absolutely terrific buy.

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