When it comes to moving an old car off of a property that doesn’t want an old car in the way, donation is typically the first choice. This is followed closely by junking it, and cars like this 1978 Jaguar XJ6 are usually dumped off at the local pick and pull. Thankfully, it’s ended up with the prolific seller on eBay that specializes in donation vehicles, and it looks like a clean California survivor that was being worked on before it got kicked out of the garage. The Jaguar is listed here on eBay with one bid to $250 and no reserve. Is this clean sedan worth saving?

Sadly, this is not a hugely desirable car for restoration purposes, but it’s also fairly simple. Known for years as Jaguar’s bread-and-butter sedan for many years, the XJ6 entered the malaise era hard, with a 170 horsepower inline-six paired to a Borg-Warner 3-speed automatic transmission. High-performance this was not, but it was still a fairly well-appointed vehicle by luxury car standards and it was always in the running against similar models from Mercedes-Benz and Lincoln if you were a high-end shopper. Of course, like other imports from the era, it was saddled with fairly ugly safety bumpers.

You can see some evidence of “fiddling” inside, with the glove box open and exposed wiring under the compartment and the dash. The trunk photo below shows some of the removed parts, which you usually don’t hold onto if you’re planning on abandoning the project. The wood trim around the instrument cluster looks surprisingly nice, and the same goes for the instruments. The automatic transmission surround is also decent, and the seats are in good shape. Honestly, we’ve seen far worse sold as projects on Marketplace, so this Jaguar is starting in a better place than most.

This photo tells me there’s some hope for this Jaguar, as someone was actively working on it. Seeing spare parts in the trunk compartment doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a runner, but it suggests that it may not be as far away from road-going use as you might think, being a donation car. The tires still have some lift left and while the paint is faded, it looks good from 5 feet away. While this Jaguar will never be worth much, knowing you saved a car that may have been loved at one time is worth the time investment – and with a sale price likely to be safely under $1,000, how can you lose?