I parked my XE next to a Lamborghini Sterrato at my golf club yesterday (there are a few fancy cars there.) Hadn’t met the owner, so I had a nice chat with him. I told him I had the red F-type that’s usually there. He said “I love that car! Great exhaust sound.” Smiles all around.

 

Yup, I think his Aston Martin Vantage is the reason I bought the F-type. The shapes are similar and I could not afford an Aston ;-)

The new Vantage is insanely nice...The one that just came out...The version before that was terrible...

 

I've said it before - the Aston is a rich man's Jag.

 

Of that there is absolutely no doubt. They separate the men from the boys when buying new, or replacing parts.

My buddy told me a few examples...One time he had to replace one metal arm for one of his wipers. He called Aston Martin Canada. It was almost $2000 Cnd. He got one from a junk yard.

 

This was cute...

After a stint of turning dinosaur juice into noise out in the countryside, I was heading back into town, and coming up to a 90 degree left hander just across the street from a park. A daycare had taken about 30 kids for a walk in said park, and were obviously headed back to school, the kids trailing along behind the teachers in a long line. All the kids started jumping up and down, pointing, screaming and yelling "cool car", waving, and generally going crazy. They were so loud, I could hear them over the engine noise...

 

I was approaching a 4-way intersection today. I was making a left hand turn. I had a stop sign and was stopped. Opposing traffic has no stop sign. First car coming towards me sees my car and slows to a stop and then slowly goes through the intersection. Again they had no stop sign. Second car coming towards me comes to a complete stop and will not proceed through the intersection (even though they had no stop sign) until I made my left hand turn in front of them. I waited a bit and they just would not go through the intersection until I did.

I get this all the time. People falling all over themselves to let me out, or let me go in front of them once they see the car.

 

People want somehing nice to look at when they're in traffic, and it's not the same looking in your rear view mirror!

 

I'd still choose my F-Type over a Aston Martin since it has AWD. I didn't find Aston has AWD in their non-SUV sports cars.

 

How about my first experience at the gas station today...Literally my first fill since taking delivery...

20 minutes later I had to tell the guy I had to go, otherwise I think he would have wanted to talk forever about it...lol

My Toyota 4Runner never invoked the same interest for some reason, so this is very strange for the uninitiated...lol

I think what is neat a bit about it is seeing that other people out there have the same passion (or more) than you do for these inanimate objects. It's kinda funny...

 

I came out of the grocery store, and there was a woman taking pictures of my car. As I got near she asked if it was mine. I said yes. She said "I love it!, Oh my God it's gorgeous!" Made my day. I do get a lot of comments on this car - more than any other car I've ever owned.

 

We had a pleasant sun-baked afternoon here on the first day of respite from our recent heat wave.
Naturally, I was out driving with the roof down.
While I was waiting in the left turn lane at a red light, a guy pulled up beside me in a lifted pickup.
"Your car is perfection!" he exclaimed.
After a brief glance at the centre console, he added: "The 6-speed V6? Better than the V8!".

 

Wife and I went for ice cream last night. Parked in the lot and went up to the window. The girl working the window said, "I love your car. Is it a Jaguar?" I said it was. She then asked if it was a V8. I said it was not a V8 but a V6, but it was supercharged.

Apparently that was the right answer. The wife and I both ordered double scoop cones. When the girl handed them to us mine easily had twice as much ice cream as my wife's. I think the Jag definitely helped my portion size.

 

How about a not so funny one….I was sitting there at a light with my windows down…All of a sudden I hear someone laying on their horn…Scared the crap out of me and nearly caused an accident for someone else nearby…

It was some kid in a Honda Civic getting my attention so he could give me a thumbs up…lol

I’m like, wtf…lol

I gave him a thumbs up and moved along…That was the weirdest one for me so far.

 

I had an interesting one while filling up at Costco yesterday. I just got out of the car to get to the pump and the person in front of me (an older gentleman) complimented my car, to which I thanked him for the compliment. The funny part was that as he finished getting his gas, he proceeded to walk over to my car and walk a full 360 around it without uttering a word, then asked how many banks I had to rob to get it. I told him not as many as he'd think! He was definitely entranced by the sunset gold paint shimmering in the sun lol

 

Maybe she was compensating.

 

Yeah, I’ve found people to be incredibly forward like that…I was filling up and a guy literally directly asked me how much the car was and what I did for a living. I would never ask something like that. How I was raised I guess…lol

All these little things occurring has made the ownership of this thing a bit strange compared to only driving Toyotas prior ;-0

 

Nice cars are so common in SoCal that a F Type really doesn't excite people very much. I've talked to people who have MUCH nicer cars and they don't seem to get a great deal of attention either. There was a day a few weeks ago where I saw three GT3's and two GT2's in the space of about four hours.

It used to mean if you had a nice house or a nice car that you were pretty successful. Now it most likely means that you are in debt up to your eyeballs...not very impressive.

 

There are crazier cars in these part too obviously. Not to the level/frequency of California I’m sure, but there’s some ice stuff around. Far “nicer” than an F-type.

Just reporting some weird interactions…I don’t really get “impressed” by inanimate objects, never really have. Certainly not to the point where I would have such weird conversations with people like I described…Mainly because I know that what one has is not necessarily a measure of the man/woman. They’re just things.

As for people being in debt…There have always been people doing crazy things with money since the beginning of time…The tradition continues for sure…

 

Actually, global debt is up over USD300T now [according to the WEF in 2023]...an amount that has no chance of ever being paid back. What this means is anybody's guess, but it's probably not such a good thing.

 

I’m not an economist but, agreed, it’s heading nowhere good. This is for sure.

The debt of the US government is probably one of the scariest pictures out there.