Bye bye Jaguar

In my former Job, I visited customers from time to time. One day in 2001 on a parking lot across the street of a customer, I saw a gorgeous Jaguar XJ. It was from the second series, painted in British racing green and had a vinyl roof. It didn’t have a price tag, and I thought I would never be able to afford a Jaguar anyway. But out of curiosity I asked what it would cost. The answer was CHF 6’000 from the inspection or CHF 4’000 as is. I was blown away. Never would I have thought that this car could be that affordable. A friend warned me by telling a story of somebody bringing his Jag for a repair and asking for the price. The answer was that if you drive a Jag, you don’t ask how much it costs. Nevertheless I was hooked. That is how my love for Jaguar cars started. Before that, I viewed them as beautiful, expensive old men cars. Of course I wanted to buy the car with a valid inspection. I called the mechanic many times, and he always told me that he didn’t have time to look at it. Until one day he told me that he wanted to take the car on the lift, and the lift went right through the rust. So this one was not worth it, but there must be others. Hence I started to look for other XJ cars from the early 80ies. On customer visits, occasionally I drove detours to Dealers that specialized on vintage British cars. That is how I learned about the XJS, and henceforth included it in my search.
In the summer of 2002 I found an XJS that I liked. It was from 1984, in very good condition, had 75’000 km on the clock and should cost CHF 10k. On the test drive I heard a strange milling noise when driving around corners. The owner agreed to give it cheaper, and I took the risk of the repair for that noise. Luckily it turned out to be just a faulty rubber part on the mounting of the transmission.
I drove many pleasant trips with the Jag in the past Years. The mighty V12 5.3l engine runs incredibly smooth. And the car was always very reliable. Of course I had some repairs, but nothing to complain about. It always consumed a lot of gasoline, and leaked some oil. That was just part of it.
Most trips were within Switzerland, often with the Jaguar Drivers Club. Only in the last few years, we drove to the Lego Land in Germany and to Elba island in Italy. We wanted to drive to Elba with the Camper, but after too many coolant pipes bursted, we used the much smaller, but more reliable Jaguar instead. Unfortunately this had an unpleasant side effect.
When the car turned 30, I registered it as a veteran. You can only get that status if the vehicle is in very good and original condition. It is basically classified as worthy of conservation. But that status was later renounced because I drove too many kilometers (the Elba trip).
After 16 Years of ownership, I sold my Jaguar XJS. It was not as easy as I anticipated, and in the end I gave it for much cheaper than I wanted to. But after switching to an electric car, I simply lost interest in polluting vehicles. When I sold it, it had a little more than 135’000km on the clock. So I drove it for about 60’000km in 16 years. The bulk of it was in the first few years.
If Jaguar delivered the I-Pace two years earlier, I would probably stayed with the brand. But a recent article just reminded me that I am very well served with Tesla:
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/top-gears-big-jaguar-i-pace-test-journey-back