Hello,

my name is Ralf, aged 47, and I'm living in Wesseling, Germany, which is a neighbour city of Cologne.

Being fascinated by Jaguar cars since being a teenager I fulfilled a long dreamt dream three weeks ago and bought a 2002 Daimler V8 LWB.

Needless to state that any attempt to get that certain smile out of my face again is futile, isn't it? .

No matter if driving max. 30 km/h in a residential street or 160 km/h on the highway: driving the Daimler always is a joy.

Regards,

Ralf

 

Welcome to the forum Ralf,

The Jaguar smile - it could take surgery to remove it!

Daimler spec and LWB is the best combination. Follow this link XJ ( X308 ) XJ8 / XJR - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the X308 section for help, advice and information.

Remember to add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User ID button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.

You might also want to visit the Europe Region section by following this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/europe-42/ to find other members in mainland Europe.

Enjoy the Daimler and the forum.

Graham

 

Welcome to the forum Ralf,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.

 

Welcome to this friendly Forum, Ralf. Enjoy your car and practice the 'I've got a
jag and you've only got a BMW' look!!

 

Welcome to the forum Ralf, and congrats on the new ride, a Daimler, doesn't get much better than that....

I see you already found our Europe Regional Section. There are a few forum members in Germany.

Any chance we can get some pics of your car?

 

welcome aboard Ralf, good to have you here with us here at JF


Any useful information you may need such as how to post pictures, edit signatures, add videos, use the search facility etc, can be found here
Helpful_information


Check out the regional section for your area?
There are lots of members local to you with the same interests.
Regional - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum


I've manually upgraded you to full forum access so you can better view the whole site and all its features.


Please Jump on in and enjoy the site.................

 

Thank you all for your welcomes.

@Cambo351:

As soon as the weather gets better I'll grab the Nikon and take a some nice pictures of the Daimler. This car is far too beautiful to not publish photos of it

Currently it's raining heavily here ...


@Steven:

Before getting the Daimler I was riding a 1996 BMW 523i (E39) myself. And honestly, if it wasn't for a motor damage (cylinder #2 of 6 not working anymore, cylinder #6 with too low compression) I wouldn't have thought of buying a new car. Currently I'm trying to sell the Bimmer as spare part supply or to someone with the ambition to refurbish the engine.

So I'll spare the BMW riders, at least for a while

Regards,

Ralf

 

If the weather in Köln is like down here, you might be waiting a while.

You could do something artistic with the grey skies and water drops beading on the highly polished laquer?

 

Ralf, I'm sure we can forgive you for owning a BMW particularly as
1. You admit it
2. It has fallen apart !!

 

In any case I'm not too sad about what happened.

Maybe the powers of destiny struck the BMW so that my eyes were bound to fall on the most beautiful Daimler.

Here's one first photo of the car. Please excuse the low quality, it was taken with my iPhone.

Regards,

Ralf

 

Is that a UK Vehicle Excise Disc in the windscreen?

Graham

 

Hi Graham,

this is a German "environmental zone" badge.

To understand this: Many cities here have a problem with a too high concentration of fine dust (hope this is the right term) in the air. The European Union set a threshold for the maximum allowed concentration within a year. Often this threshold is exceeded in less than a year.

Believing that this problem is caused to a high extent by automobiles, especially cars with Diesel engines, most of the big cities here defined environmental zones and restricted access to them. For this purpose automobiles have been divided into three pollution classes which are distinguished by a colour code. And each car has to be labelled with a corresponding badge. The "dirty" cars (mostly old Diesel powered vehicles) get a red badge and in most cases are not allowed to enter the inner city circles or certain residential zones anymore. Cars with a yellow badge are restricted from certain streets or blocks. Gasoline fueled cars normally get the green badge without any problem, like mine did. These cars are not restricted at all.

 

Ralf - I don't know if you've researched the Daimler history - being born in Coventry the 'entente cordiale' always fascinated me.
There's quite a good Wikipedia entry about it
Daimler Motor Company
My imperfect German, unlike your excellent English, doesn't allow me to check the detail but I hope you find it interesting.

 

Ralf,

Fine dust is exactly the right term. In the UK higher emissions lead to higher annual vehicle tax but not, as yet, to any ban on entering city centres. It can only be a matter of time!

Daimler looks beautiful - even in an iPhone pic. My favourite colour combination.

Graham

 

Steven,

it's a very interesting article. I already read it a couple of times and this time I finally bookmarked it.

Did you ever visit Brown's Lane?

 

No, I live in France now but as a boy I used to cycle past the Factory on the way to school.