Brian Sanborn wrote:
>
> At 9/12/99 03:58 PM, George Richardson wrote:
>
> > Although parts
> >for Jags can be steep, the cars can be cheap.
>
> I for one would love to have a Jag. On the way back and forth from
> work.... I pass this beautiful black Jag sedan parked in a driveway of a
> country house. Like the one that Inspector Morse drives. One of these
> days... If I see any one outside.... I will stop and give him my name and
> phone number... if he ever wants to sell it.
I know the feeling--I've come close to buying three over the last
twenty-five years or so, an early XJ6, a `67 E-type FHC, and an XKS. I
was always just a little too late, or the final price was a bit too
steep.
I still remember a series of interviews with people on the street in New
York City, about what people thought about cars, and most held their
noses, whined, complained, except for one young fresh-faced woman who
said, "I hate `em all... except Jaguars!"
There's an appeal to the cars which can't entirely be explained. A
portion it, certainly, is styling--the cars are wonderful to look at,
and some of it, for aficianados, is the promise, not always the reality,
of blood and guts performance. If there are masculine and feminine cars,
the Jag is most assuredly a masculine car, regardless of the gender of
its owner.
If I had the choice today, pick one out, and buy it, I'd probably choose
a `58 or so XK150 FHC, such as Scotland Yard always seemed to drive in
British movies of the period. <smile> Or perhaps a 1949 Mk VII landau
convertible such as the one I stored for a friend in the `80s. Or, yes,
a post-`65 E-type would be nice, too. But, I've done clutch jobs on
those, and know that there is a limit to the patience of the most
patient of people.... <smile>
Nice cars, expensive to run, one cannot get around that. But, maybe not
so expensive as one might think--I looked at a recent Moss catalog and
found an aluminum cross-flow head for an A-H 3000 going for nearly
$8K... the Jag comes stock with one. <g>
Cheers, all.
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