The new Grand Tour opened with a brief we like: a sports car for under £5,000. James Engelsman bought a Nissan 350Z, Thomas Holland a Jaguar XKR, Francis Bourgeois a Mercedes CLK55 AMG. We cover all three. So we converted the three prices to dollars and asked our US model two questions: what does each price buy over here, and who got the most car for the money?
Best deal
$6,742
Thomas, Jaguar XKR coupe, £5,000
-28% vs the cheapest US coupe · 37 cents on the dollar
Thomas got the best deal. His Jaguar XKR came in 28 percent under the cheapest US sale of that car on record, for 37 cents on the dollar of a typical US example. Our model can only explain that price with a 180,000-mile car. Francis got the worst. His Mercedes-Benz CLK55 AMG price is one the US market actually pays: two US convertible has sold for less, with 143,000 miles on it. James sits between them, 17 percent under the US floor but the least car per dollar of the three at 43 cents.
Where each price lands
Every US sale of each car in the presenter's body: coupes for the 350Z and XKR, convertibles for the CLK55
James, 350ZThomas, XKRFrancis, CLK55cheapest US sale on record
The light band holds the middle 80 percent of sales, the darker band the middle half, the tick the middle car. The colored dot is what the presenter paid. Two of the three sit to the left of anything the US market has done. The third sits inside it.
The mileage it takes
Hold each price still. For every model year, the line is the mileage at which that year's car is worth exactly that much
Nissan 350Z
James paid $5,664. Line: the 2004 350Z base coupe in Daytona Blue. Dots: 118 US coupe sales.
Jaguar XKR
Thomas paid $6,742. Line: the 2007 XKR coupe. Dots: 141 US coupe sales.
Mercedes-Benz CLK55 AMG
Francis paid $5,394. Line: the 2004 CLK55 convertible. Dots: 46 US convertible sales.
Colored dots sold for the price paid or less; gray dots sold for more. Read left to right and the line climbs, because a newer car needs more miles to fall to the same price. Thomas's XKR needs 180,000 miles as a 2007, and nothing newer than a 2014 reaches his price under 250,000 miles. James's 350Z is a 2003 to 2006 past 225,000 miles. Francis's CLK55 is a 2003 at 135,000 miles or a 2006 at 180,000, and the one convertible that sold under his price, a 2004 with 143,000 miles, sits right on the line.
The deal, two ways
Left: how far each price sits from the cheapest US sale of that car. Right: the price as a share of what a typical US example is worth, so lower is more car per dollar
James, 350ZThomas, XKRFrancis, CLK55
Against the cheapest US sale
Share of a typical example's value
Below zero on the left means cheaper than anything the US market has done for that car. Thomas wins on both measures. James and Francis split them: James is under the floor but bought the least car per dollar, in the color the 350Z market likes least; Francis paid a price the market pays, for a car with more miles than the other two are likely to have.
What the cheapest cars have in common. The cheapest 350Z coupes in our record sold for $6,800 to $8,800 with 92,000 to 123,000 miles. Read their listings and the mileage is not what made them cheap: a collision on the Carfax and rust in the door jambs, a catless downpipe and aftermarket coilovers, a warning light on the dash. The cheapest XKR coupes tell the same story. One was declared a total loss and carries a rebuilt title, two have accident entries, three have aftermarket exhausts. Our model prices a car by its year, its miles and its build sheet. It does not see rust, a rebuilt title or a downpipe. So the line on these charts says how many miles a straight car needs to reach five grand, and the market gets there sooner with a rough one. That is what a £5,000 sports car usually is. The CLK55 is the exception in the other direction: its cheapest convertibles are simply old cars with 140,000 to 166,000 miles, and there the line and the market agree.
How we did it
Four steps, nothing hidden
The prices are the presenters' own, from the episode: £4,200, £5,000, £4,000, converted at £1 = $1.3485 on 13 September 2026. They bought UK cars; nothing here is a UK value.
Each car is compared with US sales of the same body only: 118 350Z coupes, 141 XKR coupes, 46 CLK55 convertibles.
"A typical example" is our model's value for the plain car at its median mileage, the same number the guide's valuation uses. For the 350Z that is a base coupe in Daytona Blue, James's color. Each model's spread is about ±19, ±17 and ±20 percent.
"Miles the model needs" is arithmetic, not a forecast: the mileage at which the model's value for that year and body equals the price paid. A line that leaves the chart means no such car.
Statomotive