The waiting is the hardest part
Given that we know our I-Paces are doomed, owners really want to put this episode behind us and move on to new cars. But Jaguar has us in an indefinite holding pattern, and it’s frustrating.
In December, a Jaguar representative told me that a process specialist would reach out “within in the next few weeks to come to a final resolution.”
“Welp, here we are… Jan 2nd, and nothing from JLR on the buyback process or timeline,” wrote user copyNothing on the I-Pace Forum. “I hope this isn’t indicative of how things will proceed, but I’m not holding my breath that things will be easy.”
I’m not holding my breath, either. My last four emails to Jaguar—December 16, January 7, January 23, and February 12—all got the same reply: hang tight. “We do not have a current time frame for when a process specialist will reach out to you, but rest assured one will be following up with you shortly,” a Jaguar Land Rover case manager told me in an email.
A few I-Pace owners in California, which has the nation’s toughest lemon law, have reported progress with the repurchase. In the middle of January, I-Pace Forum user pan+kro posted that their buyback had been approved by JLR, and they expected to get around $38,000 for the car. This leads to another burning question.
How much for this gently used I-Pace?
The process would be less nerve-wracking if we had an idea of what Jaguar would offer to buy the cars back. As with every car, each day makes the I-Pace worth a fraction less than it was the day before—after all, each time you drive your car, it depreciates in value. But mileage isn’t the only factor in determining the value of a used car.
I headed over to Edmunds.com and discovered that my I-Pace would fetch $24,428 in a private sale. Ouch.
To determine a used car’s value, Edmunds takes historical data, dealer transactions, consumer feedback, and depreciation trends into account, along with mileage. Unfortunately for me, none of those data points work in the favor of I-Pace owners. Indeed, the battery defect is a major culprit in depressing the value of 2019 I-Paces. I asked Edmunds how Jaguar might come up with a fair valuation for the buybacks, especially as its actions are responsible for helping to depress prices.
