Hey everybody! I'm working on a post for the front page, which I'll link to when it's live. But to make a long story short, seeing an XJ6 when I was a little kid was what made me fall in love with cars. I've only owned one Jag since then, but at some point, I'm going to own another, most likely a Series I or II XJ.

Anyway, I was hoping to get some stories about what your first Jaguar experience was like. What is it about these cars that makes them so special for you? I'd love to hear your stories!

 

Around 1965, I had my first close up look at an E type. It was a BRG coupe and I was fascinated that you could see some of the engine parts through the bonnet louvres. Made up my mind I would have one when I grew up. 1977, having finished a long tour of duty at sea as a junior officer, came home with pockets full of money. Bought a used 1970 series 2 roadster. What a revelation the performance was! In a time where all new cars were strangled by emission regulations it was leaps and bounds over most cars on the road. I used to joke that I never looked behind, as the only thing that would keep up was a Ferrari Daytona, and they were very few. Sold it in 1981 just before I was married. I like to say that car is in the walls of our house.

 

Oh boy.

First memory was Dad's Powder Blue MKIV, when I was 4 or 5.

Had various Jaguar Model cars, "by Lesney" if the memory is right, as a growing kid.

Dad's mate had a Black MKVII, and a Dark Blue MKV Drophead. That was when I was 14-15ish, and that SEALED it. Not sure what it was, the sound, the look, the ride, leather,, that AWESOME dashboard, etc..

All we had here at the time was Holden, Ford, Austin and other British things, some French stuff, and they simply paled in the glory of any Jag.

Never a fan of the E Type, NO idea why, just did not do it for me. Tolerated the Series 1 XJ, but never owned one.

My first Jag was the MKVII, and never wavered, and now far to old to waver. Never ever let down by any of them, and YES, they were ALL Daily Drivers.

Lost count of the Kms traveled, all in Jags/Daimlers, but would be many 6 figures without doubt, as our Island Home is a BIG sucker.

 

My old man had a Series 1 Daimler Sovereign. Always loved the lines on that car and had some great memories in the passenger seat.

Never really thought about them too much after, until I saw a Series 1 XJ6 in a field. I had a look, but there was a lot of rust and I didn’t want to take on another project, but the bug had bit. I started the search and came across an S1 XJ6 one owner from new. A lovely gent who only wanted the car to go to a nice family. The deal was done and it’s one of my most satisfying cars. I smile every time I drive it! It’s also the only one of my cars the missus likes!

 

My dad introduced me to them. He grew up very poor, nearly died in childhood a couple of times and ended up serving in the Marine Corps on Midway (post-Battle of Midway) in a dive bomber squadron. When he came home, he used his GI Bill to attend medical school rather than going back to work on the farm.

The first time he ever bought anything big for himself was in 1963, a brand-new XKE 3.8 coupe. Among other things, it came from the factory with a form in the glove box noting the top speed in all gears, 0-60 time and top speed -- all filled in by hand, by a tester at the factory where it was built. I wish he'd kept it, but he traded it with the car in 1970 when it got to be too difficult to find a repair shop that would agree to work on it here in our little town. Two-hour rides on the back of a tow truck to a dealership in Pensacola, Fla., became the only way to fix it. Plus, it had no A/C, and Mom got tired of Alabama summers in a car with no way to cool things down.

I had heard these stories many times by the time I was old enough to appreciate cars. I had been born late in life to my parents, and after the XKE was just a memory. Then one day, around the time I was age 12, Dad came home and announced to me "Well, I just bought a Jaguar." I thought he was kidding, as he was always a frugal man. But no, he had overpaid for a non-running 1976 XJ12L. And that launched many weekends of father/son "repair" efforts, from two guys with no hope of ever fixing that car. We kept it 13 years, put less than 130 miles on it, gave it away, and now someone is using it as a flower planter. Even if we had been able to fix all its mechanical and electrical ills, it was already eaten up with rust when we got it. The fact two different professional mechanics agreed to take it from us for awhile, but either did nothing for the car or damaged it further by keeping it out in the elements and not working on it, didn't help.

However, working on that old XJ12 really made me appreciate what Dad saw in the XKE and the later cars. Around 2002, when he was finally about to retire from a 45-year career, he called me to let me know he had been diagnosed with cancer. Originally we thought it was beatable via surgery, but in a cruel twist of fate for a man who had helped cure so many sick people, he had a reaction to the general anesthetic Versed while on the operating room table, and was never able to care for himself again after that.

Well, at the time, I owned a 1975 Bricklin SV-1. It, the Lamborghini Countach and the Mitsubishi Starion/Chrysler Conquest, were the cars I lusted after as a kid. I never should have bought the Bricklin. It was a looker for sure, but was really a terrible car underneath. However, I found a guy in the old paper version of AutoTrader who had a 1988 Jaguar XJS V12 for sale and was offering it in exchange for "cash or interesting trades." Well, one thing about a Bricklin: They don't get more "interesting" than a gullwing-door Canadian sports car using an American engine. He and I traded our cars to each other straight-up.

Given how the Bricklin has flown up in value in recent years, he certainly got the better end of the deal. But I was finally able to go home in running, vintage Jaguar. Mom and I got Dad out of the hospital bed he was staying in at our home, wheeled him to the XJS, and the three of us went riding around town, visiting his parents' old home, his place of work, and other favorite places. He was having a good day mentally that day and seemed to recall a lot of those old places we visited, and I drove until he told me he was tired and wanted to go home. It was the last time he really ever got out of the house.

I had to give up that XJS for a couple of reasons. One, I briefly moved from Alabama to Tennessee, into the Nashville area, and the car wouldn't pass smog. I didn't have the money to figure out why. I ended up selling it for pennies, really, and used the money to fix up an old Conquest I had sitting in my carport so that my fiance (now my wife of 15 years) could have a car after her piece-of-junk Chevrolet Lumina blew its engine on her way to work one day. So I basically got screwed twice on that deal, once when I gave up a Bricklin for it, and once when I had to sell it cheaply for needed cash. But you do what you have to do when you're in a time of need.

These days, things are a bit different. My career took off. My wife and I worked hard to get out of debt. I've actually owned several Jaguars since then -- you can see the ones "in the rearview mirror" in my signature. I have three currently. One of those is a 1989 XJS V12 very similar to the one I chauffeured Dad around town in that day.

As long as I'm able, and as long as gasoline is made and old Jaguars are allowed to roam, I will try to have at least one older Jag from the Leyland years, because whenever I drive my 87 or my 89, I feel like I'm riding with Dad. I don't have any connection to the XKE, and with prices where they are now, I'll never own one. I'd be too scared of damage to drive it anyway. But those 80s models, they still look like what I think Jaguars should look like, they all smell like leather and gasoline, and I'll never truly be riding solo when I drive one.

Jess

 

Wow. Thanks for sharing this, Jess. It really sums up how cars can be so more than just a means of transportation... Your Dad sounds like an amazing man.

 

As a kid in the early 70s, my neighbor in his 20s bought an old XKE. It's the first car I remember actually thinking was cool. Before that, cars were just a way to get around. Years later I told my dad about that memory and he laughed, saying that car never ran, it mostly just sat in the street in front of the neighbor's house. But that didn't matter, it was cool.

 

You're very welcome. He was an amazing man who lived a life less ordinary and I could regale all of you for hours with stories about someone you never knew. To be relevant to the point of this forum, I'll just tell this one: Dad's '63 apparently was treated like the space shuttle around here. He has a story about taking it to a greyhound race tack near us and it caused such a commotion that people left the betting windows in order to get a better look at the car.

Our '76 XJ12L, by the way, looks so much like the car in your picture. Same color and wheels. I'm bad about not being able to tell the Series apart from a side view but yours was a short-wheelbase S3, right? Ours was the longer wheelbase S2. I know yours isn't the same one because your lower rockers aren't already half-dissolved from rust.

Jess

 

Ha ha! Crazy about your Dad's 63! This is actually a long wheelbase 1978 Series II, I6 car — and rust was what ultimately what made me have to get rid of it. I bashed up the driver's side front fender in a snowstorm, and when I took it to the body shop, they told me the damage there wasn't too bad. Basically just needed a new fender. But when they looked over the rest of the car, they called out a lot of rot in the rear, and the floorboards were going too. Loved that car though, and I still dream of getting another one to keep forever.

 

When I was a boy in the 50s Jaguar were winning races ! However, when I was able to run anything motorised, it was a motorbike and from then (18) up to when I was 32, it was all bikes, bikes, bikes ! Eventually when I was a year before meeting my future wife I decided I would like a Mark 2 Jaguar, but having little money, it would have to be a rebuild job. So I ended up buying a 2.4 littre MOD saloon in Opalescent Silver Grey that needed some work. Trouble was it needed rather a lot of work ! Anyway, after SEVEN years (!!), the car was ready for the road and I was still married. As any car buff knows, getting married means a team of two instead of a single boss in charge, and the wife has different priorities to you ! So the Mark 2 was sold in 1988, but not until we had done a few tours with it. I then immediatetly bought a 1980 XJ6 which was very badly made indeed, a disgrace to Jaguar. I still cannot believe that I owned this car for 14 years. Once again, a huge program of work was done and I ended up with a reasonably reliable car, at least reliable enough to go on holiday in Ireland with. At that time petrol was about £1 a gallon cheaper in Ireland than the UK. So why did I keep the XJ so long ? A lot has to be the sheer beauty and elegance of the car, and its inimicable Magic Carpet ride.

However, in 1999, my employer introduced company cars or cash in lieu, so I bought a Mazda Xedos 9, a totally anonymous large saloon, and finally found out about total reliabilty. Then in 2007, the Mazda started to rust, so a Rover 75 2.5 litre came next, a truly lovely car, This car was the closest to a Mark 2 one could get without buying the Mark 2 itself. Lots of chrome on the outside and a walnut dash on the inside and a retro-style that had lots of Rover styling cues from the 50s in it..

But I stll hankered after a car like my old XJ, and so it was that in 2010 I bought a 2003 XJ6, the first of the aluminium-bodied Jaguar saloons, with the same styling as the old XJ6, albeit much larger. Since then, I have had a 2007 XJ6 Sovereign, and am now on an XE, which ,whilst excellent, is not the same as the XJ, but it is a daily driver, so maybe some time, I'll look around for another aluminium XJ. I hesitate to go back the original XJ 1968-1986 as I know too much about them and what can go wrong !!

 

I have wanted a racing green xj6 since i was a kid in the 70s when a neighbour had one parked in the street.. took me until i was 38 to get one.. bought it for myself as a divorce present!!!
It was a mess, paint was toast, interior was shredded, but it ran, i couldnt have been happier!!!
drove it to my show my mum what i had bought, her reaction was not what I was expecting....
i have been a car person my whole life and have had more cars rhan i can remember, always buying junkers and fixing them up... mums comment was " finally... wondered when you were going to get one" apparently i was almost born in a mk2 as a friend that owned one took mum to hospital to have me when ambulance was too far away, and she remembers me drooling over the neighbours xj6.
I replaced the interior on it, had it painted (twice now, as clear coat failed) and only recently made it the car i had planned on having, with the v8 amd wire wheels....
i have owned it now since 2006, longest i have ever owned a car!!!
i still have a big grin on my face every time.i get behind the wheel!!!

 

Back in the day when the trading post was where you bought most of your used cars I spotted a 96 XJ6 with 63,000 miles for $7,500.00 at a car lot next town over. Went to see and it was all but perfect, black on tan with chrome rims it was a looker. Offered $6,500.00 and drove it home. Polished it, fixed the drivers side bolster and put 5,000 trouble free miles on it before selling for $10,500.00. That was the beginning of my addiction.

 

Awesome! Do you have pics?

 

lots.. lol
Everyone on here is probably tired of them but here are a few..

 

I'm not sick of them, ha ha! Gorgeous machine! I always wanted wires for mine!

 

It was 2003 or 2004 and I was just out of high school. As I was walking down Fairfax Ave one day, I spotted a gleaming Series III XJ6 in beautiful British Racing Green with tan interior parked out in front of Canter's Deli. It was gorgeous. Within a year, I found one for myself in BRG with tan interior that I bought for $500...which should tell you that relationship didn't last too long. But I had caught the bug and quickly found a better example. Three XJ6s, an XJ40, and two X350s later and here we are!

 

A $500 Jag is an expensive proposition indeed!

I used to live right around the corner from Canters! Love the Reuben there, and of course the famous pickles!

 

My first Jag experience was not a good one.

My boyfriend and I saw a pale yellow E-type saloon parked in front of the drugstore one afternoon, and he went positively Berserk over it! Like so many guys here who would give body parts for one of these cars, I think he would have traded me for it on the spot if he had the chance.

That in itself didn't offend me (I've seen cars I would gladly have traded a current BF straight across for and come out ahead) but it was so Offensively Ugly! Being yellow was the first strike as I've never been fond of yellow cars, I had heard all my life how expensive Jaguars were to buy and to keep, but it looked like a -- in deference to those in love with these cars I won't post what I really thought but I HATED it!

Therefore, Jaguars were totally off my radar, he and I parted ways shortly after that and I don't remember ever seeing another Jaguar for a very long time.

Years later, Wart (gray 2002 Ford Windstar van, gifted to us by husband's mother when she quit driving in 2009) was beginning to seriously show his age, having developed a couple odd noises in the power train. Husband decided he was due for retirement and started haunting Craig's List for a likely replacement. He found some real winners, most of which I wouldn't drive dog fight.

However, he called me in one day to look at his latest discovery, and said, "This is my all time favorite car! If I had my choice, This is what I would buy." All I saw was a BLACK car with 4 doors (I Love BLACK cars!). I said rather off-handedly, "I'd drive that," so he made an appointment and we went to look. September 2013.

There, in a Perfect setting among the pines, sat the most Beautiful car I had ever seen. It had a Real Wood dashboard! and Real Leather seats! and Real Wool carpets and headliner! And, best of all, it was BLACK! Not red-black or gray-black or green-black or blue-black, but BLACK! It was Love at first sight.






I knew Nothing about Series Jags, I knew Nothing about Jag engines (but this had a Chevy transplant which cemented the deal).

I only knew this car was going to live with us for a loooong time. So husband and PO haggled and I won. The best part is, HUSBAND CAN'T DRIVE HER SO SHE'S MINE!



I later discovered she had sat unloved and ignored for the previous 10 years and suffered quite a lot of deferred maintenance before that, which, as many of you are aware, took a couple years to resolve. At this point I would not be afraid to drive her Anywhere.

When I get in, and there's not even a whiff of Plastic. It's all Wool, Wood and Leather. She makes the garage Smell like a Proper garage; warm, comforting smells of hot tires, warm oil and just a Hint of boiling float bowls.

I'l be keeping her until the wheels fall off.
(';')

 

Been loving reading all the posts on this thread. The one I did for the front page just got posted, so feel free to check it out!

 

When I was a little kid in the 70s my uncle had a Jaguar XK in BRG with a tan interior. I thought it was an actual race car that had won LeMans because of the commemorative badge on the boot. I was also playing with toy cars and had a little E-type that the hood (bonnet) opened to reveal that marvelous engine. But one of my favorites was a little Hot Wheels XJS, silver with a leaper decal on the door, I think because I saw doctors and businessmen driving new ones around my hometown and I dreamed of being like them some day.