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New Member Area - Intro a MUSTNew to Jaguar Forums? Drop in and tell us about you, your ride and location. This is your chance to introduce yourself to the forum.
My interest in Jaguars
For the last few years I have been rekindling an interest in automobiles that I got growing up in Detroit, Michigan. I actually grew up in Warren, which is a suburb of Detroit and the home of the GM technical center. I had a grandfather who retired from Chrysler and there was always some friend from the neighborhood working on cars. I had to get pretty good at working on cars myself just to keep the junk I could afford at the time running.
My first hobby car was a 2000 Miata. This was an awesome car and I drove it for about 3 years. It was basically a go-cart and a total blast to drive (though it could benefit from an extra 50 horsepower). But my daughter hated driving in it with me. though. It was not the cleanest car and at her age appearances matter. So I decided to sell the Miata to a buddy and found a 2002 XJ8 instead. I have had it for about 9 months now.
Current Jag
I love my Jaguar. My daughter loves this car (my wife likes it too but, meh, she isn't a car person). Cosmetically it is in excellent shape. Almost every time I step out of it I look back and think "what a beautiful frickin' car!" It has 183k miles and burns oil, but otherwise runs solid. It drives like driving on a cloud. I drive it to work every day and it is always a joy regardless of the traffic.
I purchased it cheap and as a personal challenge: Jaguars have a bad reputation for reliability. I'm an electrical engineer. Most folks struggle to change a light bulb, so I decided to see for myself how well these are built. Well, with the exception of a couple of really stupid design choices (e.g. the windshield washer fluid tube, whatever adhesive they chose for the headliner, etc.) this is a solid car. Everything is high quality. I have done a fair amount of work fixing minor cosmetic things and normal wear-and-tear. Future plans include replacing the engine and rebuilding the transmission (it does have 183k miles after all).
What I hope to get from this forum
Assistance and ideas on how to keep my jag running and away from the junkyard.
What I plan to give to the forum
Assistance and ideas on how to keep your jag running and away from the junkyard. I see stuff on Craigslist all the time and worry folks will give up on these beautiful cars because of some silly $100 problem. I have lots of equipment and experience.
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2002 XJ8 in Redmond Washington USA
