At this very moment, I'm bored. So bored that i decided to write down the story of how I got my Jaguar which may or may not make you smile at how tricky you have to be with wives sometimes.
Before I go into all that, I need to tell you a little bit about me. This will help you to understand what is said later. I'm 61 years old now and in my early days I was in the Royal Navy as a helicopter mechanic and then, after that i joined the Army in the Parachute Regiment. One day, a jump went wrong and my spine was badly damaged. My Army career was over and I became a civvie. I saw dozens of doctors with an eye to fixing my spine problems but it's not looking as though it can be repaired. I still have full use of all my limbs and I'll stack my legs up against anybody's. It's just that they won't support my body. To walk around I need a wheeled walking frame to take the weight while my legs sort out the moving along bit. The docs all say that this is all going to deteriorate until I am in a wheelchair but I tell them to stuff that idea where the sun don't shine and just do more strength exercises to combat the decay.
So that's where we are and, as you can probably tell, I don't dwell on it much and just get on with life as it comes.
So, back in 1995, on the 16th of March (my birthday), I quit the rat race and officially retired. My wife also took the plunge and retired as well. We had worked out that with my pensions and her pension as a nurse we would be just a few quid less well off retired as we would be if we carried on working so what the hell?
Now, I have always fancied a Jag. My desire started with the massive Mk 10 and then moved on to the Mk 2 and stayed there for a while but, strange as it may seem, I never fancied an E-Type or anything post 1997. I didn't know what it was called at the time apart from XJ6 but the X300 shape drew my eye and heart.
The problem was that we are not made of money. We don't need to worry where the next meal is coming from or anything like that but spending £3,000 to £5,000 on a car just because I wanted one was silly but, having the dream and spending a wasteful 10 minutes daydreaming about colours and driving one made me smile.
The thing is, I knew we couldn't afford to own a Jag. My wife knew that we couldn't afford to buy a Jag. So all I had to do was convince myself that I didn't want one. The easiest way to do that was to go to a local Car Supermarket type of place where they cater for all kinds of cars from days gone by.
I saw 3 Jaguar XJ6 shaped cars there and I wouldn't have bought any of them after seeing the body damage on them. But the reason that I was there was to try out the car shape. What I mean by that is that I needed to be able to get in and out of the car by myself bearing in mind my damages spine. It wasn't to bad. The seat was a little low but a cushion would fix that. So that meant that I was buggered. I had gone to the garage to get rid of the idea of Jag ownership based on not being able to get in or out and that simply wasn't the case. So now I became even more of a bore to my wife, lol.
But one day, she said to me, "Let's go and have a look at these Jaguars" so off we went. I couldn't seem to get through to her that I didn't want one of the cars in the garage (because of the state they were in) and she was worried that if she agree'd to me getting a Jag that I would run down there as fast as my legs would take me and buy the first one that I saw.
Weeks passed and I am still determined to get a Jag. I'm looking on eBay, Autotrader and all kinds of places for a decent car at the right money but it's all still a dream 'cos I wouldn't dream of spending so much money on a "toy" without her agreeing to it. She would be the same, mind you. She would never spend anything over £100 without running it past me first.
It was while browsing eBay that i saw it. For the price asked, it was the perfect car. But how could I convince 'er indoors that it was a good idea?
Then I had a brainwave and after a lengthy phone call to sort out the minor points, our third son turned up for a visit.
You have to understand that although he is 38, he is still her baby and can do no wrong. Anyway, the chat got round to cars, as we had planned, and the fact that I wanted a Jag. He piped up then with the perfect comment.
Harsh but fair, you might say.
"How much longer is dad going to live or be able to drive? Are you going to deny him his one wish? Just tell him he can have one and let him search but that you have the last word before buying"
After he had gone, she went into the kitchen and then walked past me to go upstairs. Just before she closed the door, she said, "Choose wisely". Well, it was like when Adrienne says to Rocky from her sick bed .... "Do one thing for me .... WIN" and the manager says, "What 'r we waiting fer?"
It was a whirlwind journey after that and I went to see the car on eBay and took it for a test drive with no problems at all. I checked all the places I had been advised to check on Jaguars of that age and scoured the paperwork looking at mileages and stamps. I decided that it was the car I wanted and told her so. We looked at the masses of pictures that the seller had put up and all the info about the MOT and Service History etc and she said to "Do what you think best" but at least she looked happy when she said it. So what I did was give the seller a small deposit to show I was serious after arranging a deal. He would drive the car to my front door from his garage about 30 miles away and if it got here in one piece, I would pay the balance. He did, it did, I did, and I now owned a Jaguar.
The upside is that having driven it and been driven in it, she is delighted with the car and tells all the relatives that I made a really good choice.
So that's how I became a Jaguarist on my 61st birthday.

 

Nice. I got my first Jag and car for that matter kinda by accident. Here's the short (very) version. I was looking for my fist car on Craigslist without any money, found one cheap Jag, found another, found a third, looked at it, got a loan from my grandparents, and with it a 1989 Xj40. I really didn't do my research, but I didn't care because I had a Jag. The current x300 was more thought through and boring, but it is a better car.

 

Nice story 5tevie, well the part about your wife and your Jag that is, the part about your damage, not so good.

I agree, treat yourself now whilst you can still enjoy it.

Funnily enough I worked in B/Burn for a while in the 80's, although I had an SD1 Vitesse at the time, the run over the tops to R/Dale was always a daily pleasure. Except in winter with 6 foot of snow, when I would have to bunk down in the staff room.

Best of health for the future.

 

Apparently obtaining a Jaguar is something that always has a story with it. Thank you 5tevie for sharing with us. I like the angle of using your son to bring your wife round to the idea. Well played

I've been in love with Jaguar since I was a small boy. I still have my 1977 XJS (HotWheels) I uploaded a picture with this story.

3.5 years ago or so I was driving on the road around our town, Eddyville, Kentucky (USA). I saw a beautiful blue Jaguar (97 VDP) sitting beside the road with a forsale sign on it. It was missing a headlight and had some minor cosmetic damage. After several weeks of pining over it I finally broke down and called the number on the car, only to find that it was someone from my own congregation. I asked out of curiosity what he wanted for it. He told me he was asking $3500USD. I looked at the car again and thought maybe it wasn't time to buy something like that. I'm a single dad taking care of three sons. I live on a Methodist vicar's salary. In the U.S. it's not much, I don't know how it is in Britain. BUT, we have all we need and we live within our needs. This car was not really a need. I had a ratty old minivan that I had literally driven the wheels off of taking kids back and forth to activities, teaching foster kids to drive, visiting etc... The minivan had shown a check engine light since the day I drove it off the used car lot. I'd spent tons and borrowed more to keep the thing running. It's transmission mainseal had blown. It was getting more and more expensive just to keep it around, but at least it was paid for.

A week or so later the owner of the VDP called me and said he'd knock 1k off of the price if I was interested. He really wanted to sell it and if I wanted it, he wanted me to have it. This was $2500USD which is what in Pounds? Isn't that about $1500GBP? How could a man turn that down? I took my hat in hand and went into my local banker's office. He thought it was a good price and a good investment and gave me a signature loan for the amount. I bought the car that afternoon.

I put a lot of TLC into that car. It needed new coils, but those were TERRIBLY expensive. I found a way to seal the cracks and cover the coil body in silicone tape which made them work properly. I found a junkyard that was not too proud of it's Jaguar X300 headlamp and let me have it for a song. I did some work with 3M spray adhesive and reattached the headliner. The clock was so far gone that I cut, shaped and finished a piece of walnut to cover the LCD. I put new brake pads and rotors on it here on the carport. Tie-rod ends etc... All of this over time mind you. The car needed the work and I am thankful to be able to do it. I got it running well and even had an appointment with the local prison for the paint to be stripped and redone (they charge only the cost of the paint as a means of offering a skill to rehabilitate the prisoners).

Fast forward about a year and a half to just after our huge ice storm in 2009. It was so devastating it has it's own wikipedia article. There were crews in the area doing clean up. Our church had crews of men out working to clear the yards of people who could not pay for the work to be done or were not physically able. We took on 60 homes here in our county and there were hundreds of people from all over the nation working. I was driving one afternoon with my son and his girlfriend. We were on a backroad in the county. We crested a hill just in time to see a tractor with a root rake on its front end. (A root rake looks like a medieval battering ram with long, large spikes jutting forward.) The tractor was in his lane and mine too. I swerved to miss the spikes and went off the road. I came back on the road to miss the oncoming tree. The violence of the turn caused the car to do a 180 and we backed into a ditch. Not a soul was hurt except for the VDP. Her front tires were flat and drug off the rim, they were full of dirt. The front bumper had been pulled off and up by the ditch and her left rear hip (driver's side here) had been caved in. Not pretty, but we were all safe as houses.

The insurance company totaled the car out. They gave me the blue book value for her which was about 7k. In the intervening time we were able to surmise that the damage was really mostly cosmetic. She was going to need new tires on the front and a realignment as well as a new windscreen washer bottle, but for the most part all was well. She still would start and run just fine. Insurance offered to let me buy her back for 900USD. By this time she was almost paid off as it was. I took the 6100 from the insurance, obtained a salvage title for the car and if you are following the math I am well ahead of the curve by now. My oldest son and I did the repairs on the car and she was in shape to run, but cosmetically damaged. I was looking online one evening and saw where a used car dealer in Nashville had a 1995 XJ6 for $4400USD. By now my oldest son was traveling back and forth to college and work and needed a vehicle. I needed something presentable as well. I went down and looked at her and she was too good to be true. Ship shape inside and out and solid as a rock.

It's now two years later and all of you have helped me through the most difficult problem I have had with the 95 since I bought it.

My son drives the blue one and I drive the green one. He will go into the Navy on May 11 of this year. He'll soon be making more than me and be able to buy the pick-up truck (lorry) he so desires. In just a few more months my second oldest son will be old enough to drive and he is perfectly content to drive the blue VDP until he can afford the Corvette his little heart is set on. LOL

If you kept track, I went from no Jags to two Jags with $700 in them and a little cash left over for spare parts. I like to think of it as a story of providence.

It's always fun when people ask me how a preacher ends up with two Jags. I always tell them I have a rich and generous boss.

 

LOL, nice one.

Another good story.

With these older Jaguars it seems that we 'older' folk all have a slightly more roundabout route into ownership.

Always interesting to hear.

My parts car for example.

I live out in the wilds of Brittany, if I see 1 or two XJ40's per year that's as many.

However, one day whilst pootling around I stopped at a local fishing village for a flask refill of hot water (carry my own tea bags, long story elsewhere), when I came to restart the car, nothing. Cranked fine, have spark, just no fuel. The dreaded link lead was fried.

I walked a couple of miles to get reception on my cell phone and called for recovery.

We got the car back to my local village garage and I explained to the mechanic what was wrong with the car.

Called Jaguar for a price on the pump (owch it was more that the car was worth) so no way could I afford to repair it this way. I was pretty miffed, and thinking that I would have to source one back in the UK.

The mechanic and I went for an aperitif in his garden at the side of the garage, to discuss which of his cars he would lend me off the lot until I could get the parts to him from the UK.

During this time our wine merchant arrived and joined us for a chat.

It came up about my problem, and after a few moments he said that he thought he could help me.

He had recently bought a wrecked XJ40 from a customer and was planning to swap out the engine + trans and fit them into a 72 S1 man, but had realized that the electronics were going to be 'complicated'.

And as these things take time, he offered to lend me his fuel pump.

Great, roll on 6 months and I was getting ready for a holiday in the UK, during which I would source a replacement pump.

I mentioned this to the wine merchant, and he told me not to bother as his wife didn't think he would ever do the engine swap and would I like the whole car for spares. A minimal price was agreed and we hauled the car to the garage. To keep it under cover.

This all happened a few years ago, and in that time the spares car has paid for itself ten fold.

Now I still have the problem, that there is a totally rust free S1 Man with OD sitting under a tarp in a barn with my name on it waiting for the day that I am able to take it on.

 

Interesting story , I wish you have a healthy life . Should you need help this place is a great community to help Jag Owners

 

Two further stories of Jag ownership that are far more interesting than mine. It seems to me that the person that owns a Jaguar that was over 10 years old when he took possession never seems to have bought it just by going into a garage and saying, "Here is some cash. Give me that Jag"
BTW, is it frowned upon in the Jaguar community to call a Jaguar a Jag? Should one always refer to it as a Jaguar and, more importantly, how should it be pronounced?
"Jag you are" or Jag whaar"?

Cheers all,
Steve

ps ... JackJ .... In the UK, a pick-up is a vehicle with a hefty engine and just one row of seats. Behind those seats is a flat bed open area for carrying stuff (if it has 2 rows of seats it's called a "Crew Cab") but a lorry is a totally different thing. A lorry is a commercial vehicle used for transporting goods. Think of a lorry as being half way between a large pick-up and a semi-trailer with the items being carried inside a large box rather than open to the elements like in a pick-up.

 

Very cool story Translator. I'm sure it's nothing to do with age. Though I have been out of graduate school for 15 years and have a 22yo son, I will only be 40 this year. That's not hardly old at all. I don't think of old as coming until a person is at least 80 or so and then it purely depends upon your state of mind.

I must admit that I am the guy that can visit our "National Corvette Museum" in Bowling Green Kentucky and still go out and get in my X300 knowing that I am leaving in the car I want

 

5tevie,

I say Jag U ar because that's how the guy on TopGear says it. My wrench from Chicago says it that way too. But I hear it pronounced several different ways.

Jag must be ok. There are so many uses of it by people who obviously love and respect it.

Thank you for the info on Brittanic speech. I was under the impression that Lorry and Truck were synonymous regardless of the size. SO, what he wants is the same as you described, a pick-up truck.

This week in the mail I am receiving 5, 1.2watt bulbs for the cigar lighter and gear selector. Since I cannot seem to obtain a 1.2w in GREEN I am going to install it in my gear selector and paint it with green "faux stained glass" paint. The cigar lighter is clear green plastic so it doesn't need a green bulb. Why the gear selector could not have had green translucency to it, I don't know.

I'm still waiting for others to tell the stories of obtaining their cars.

 

I will post my stories next week as hitting the sack early as driving in a rally in my jaguar tomorrow that will be another thread....

 

dear jackj,how true,GOD loves those who love him.and 5tevie, great story.it sounds that you have a loving wife,keep her no mater what...steve.

 

AFA wives go, I sold a Porsche and had mentioned an XJ6 many times. My wife, being tolerant, humored me on the prospect. When I showed up with one, she took to it nicely.

Now, if she'd just give it back.....

 

I bought my Jag from a friend who owned a used car lot. What I did was a little reverse psychology. I called my buddy who had just had the car "detailed" inside and out and told him to pull it out of the garage and we'd be there in about half an hour.

Upon arriving there rather than openning the passenger door for her, and yes, after 20 years I still do that, I opened the drivers door, put her behind the wheel, let her take me for a ride and it culminated in her mandating I purchase the black X300 we now own. (Downside: Its He77 keeping her from driving it in the winter. From the moment I winterize it and put it inside from November until April, I am hounded to get it out for her to drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!