I have to travel to Eastern Washington on Monday for a work trip. It's a 400 mile drive and I've decided to take the Jag to make the trip a little more enjoyable. Instead of crossing the state on I-90, I'm going to go on State Road 20 which is a much smaller highway that crosses the Cascade Mountains further north and goes over the Sherman Pass at nearly 5,600 ft. I've heard that this is a beautiful drive, but have never done it before.

I was a little apprehensive to take the jag at first. My normal commute to work is 4 1/2 miles. I bought the car last September, and in the intervening 8 months, I have only put about 1,250 miles on it. I will probably be driving that much again in the next two weeks. I was worried about what if the car needs service or has any problems while I'm gone. However, other than some frozen lug nuts that had to be drilled off the I got new tires, the car has never given me any trouble whatsoever. I'm taking it. After all, car are bought to be driven, no.

I'll see about taking some photos of the jag up in the mountains.

 

Take the Jag and enjoy yourself. I'm leaving on what will probably be a 1,500 mi road trip to Oregon and Washington in my 97 XJ6L that I got at the end of March with about 143,000 on it. I've put over 3,000 miles since then. I've been driving it everyday since I got it with no overheating, leaks or indication of trouble. Runs great. Sure, anything could happen. I drove my 07 F150 with about 70,000 mi. bought new, truck to Vegas and back, in 2010. On the way home outside of Santa Maria the a/c compressor seized up. Couldn't just take off the belt due to the use of the serpentine belt. I've got the 200mi. extended towing with AAA. Strung two tows together and brought it home. Between the wife and myself we have six 200 mile tows. A little piece of mind if needed. Enjoy your trip, I will enjoy mine.

 

I don't think you should have any worries about using the Jaguar, they are designed for long trips and fast roads.


Last year we did 2860 miles going to Germany for holidays. However, I'd try to use the car a bit more around home if you can. It's always better to find a problem near home than 1000 miles away !

 

Well, I got her washed and added a quick spray wax. I've checked all the fluids and I'm hitting the road. I hope the clear weather holds.

 

I just completed a 3900 Mile round trip in a week in my jalopy. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Well, an awesome drive over the mountains today. I did just under 400 miles crossing most of the state of Washington. I had to go for three different mountain passes, one at 5400 feet, one at 4000 feet, and one at 5600 feet. The car climbed up those mountains like it was going over flat ground. Also, it didn't matter uphill or down the temperature gage never moved above the halfway mark. To top it all off, I averaged 24.0 miles per gallon. In a 390 hp full-size sedan, gotta love it!

I'm going to try and post a few pictures here, but I'm doing this from my phone.

 

Lovely looking car, same colour as mine.

 

Thought i might provide an update in case anyone's looking for my car beside the road somewhere in the backwoods of Oregon! I left on Monday morning from San Jose to the coast of Oregon around Newport. First gas stop in Redding Ca. 312 mi. down, averaged 23 mpg. Stopped for the night in Medford, total of 467 miles the first day. Stopped in Eugene for gas, 321 mi. averaged 24 mpg. Arrived in Depoe Bay 115 miles later. Total mileage so far, 738 miles. Going to spend three days in the area then onto Washington state. Car has run great, a/c on, no problems, knock on wood! It's been a beautiful drive, once you are north of Redding Interstate 5 takes on a different character and is much more scenic and enjoyable.

Since I have driven this car quite a lot and every day I have a pretty good feeling on how it is running. Luckily I bought the car from the owner a little garage in LA and it was his own driver so he has done a lot of work kept it in good shape. This is a big car and my wife has filled up the trunk and half the backseat! She brings along a ton of craft projects to work on. Right now I'm listening to the waves crash outside and relaxing. More updates to follow.


Driving by Mt. Shasta




On the road to Newport




In front of the Luther Burbank gardens in Santa Rosa earlier this year.

 

Awesome! Thanks for posting that.

 

..........but I'm afraid of getting it dirty !!! LOL

Can't wait for my first trip ! In the meantime, I'm looking for excuses to go to town.

 

I am LOOKING for a reason to put my Jag on the road. The longest trip that I can justify is visiting family in Alabama. But that's only a 4.5 hour, 330 mile drive from Atlanta.

 

24 mpg at that elevation and on those switchbacks is excellent mileage. I'll keep this highway on mind on future road trips. Thanks for the pics.

 

I am glad that Mr. White took his car and that he enjoyed it. It wasn't my intention to hijack his post with my trip updates. I just got home a couple of hours ago and I will add my trip update in a new thread.

 

Well, in my first 8 months of ownership, I put about 1,250 miles on my Jag. In the last two weeks I have added another 1,350.

I drove from western Washington to eastern Washington. Up to Kelowna, BC, Canada for a weekend and back to Eastern Washington. And finally, back home to western Washington. The car drove beautifully the whole time and made the trip so much more fun.

All that extra power sure comes in handy when needing to pass someone on the small back roads.

 

I got my first Jag just recently and I think i might drive with it to the south of france in april for a week . I better do some miles around the home area too and check on everything . She has more than 200,000 miles