Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

Greetings fellow cat lovers. From the first time I owned a Jaguar, I was smitten by the finesse and quality if the cars. In 1976, I was customising a MkIV Ford Zephyr by remodelling the bodywork with a Mercedes Ponton grill, replacing the interior with the leather of a Zodiac Executive and having the 3 litre engine rebuilt to 3.1 with high lift valves, high compression pistons, etc. To allow this, I had to buy another road going car. A Mk X 4.2 litre triple carb auto was on sale for £60 with MoT and tax! At that price, I couldn’t resist finding out whether these were overrated or deserving of their reputation. As I drove it home the 10 miles, the comfort and power was almost intoxicating! My first taste of an automatic gearbox, added to my first experience of kick down, showed me that this was something way above anything else I had driven.
On completing my customisation (that will always be my first love), I took the jag for an MoT to sell her on. The mechanic went to drive the car onto the test ramp, then backed it up, got out and said “I can’t turn the steering wheel, so I can’t get it on the ramp” I couldn’t understand the problem, so offered to drive it on for him, which he accepted. When he started to investigate the car, he couldn’t understand how I was able to drive it as there was no fluid in the power steering at all! I had always driven pretty heavy cars without power steering, so It never occurred to me that anything was wrong. With the upshot that both the power steering and the exhaust needing sorting out for a pass, the cost far outweighed the car’s valour to me, so unfortunately it was sold as parts.(Even then, the exhaust was going to cost north of £150, way more than the car cost!).

Shortly after that, I got married, then children came along, low paid work for a great many years, I’m sure you’ve all heard it many times before. Then it was company cars for a along time, so no need for a daily driver. So, when I retired, I took the opportunity to get back into a Jaguar within my then budget. A 2.2d X Type SE estate came up at £5k with 95k on the clock. Manual, full leather, air con, cruise, the works. It is now on 137k, had the DMF & clutch changed 18 months ago and I guess over the last 8 years, it has cost me in the region of £6.5k in tyres and repairs. Each time an MoT looms, I think about the sense of changing the car if the bill for a Pass seems a bit much. Then I think about how much would I have to pay in the current market for a car that would give me 50+mpg, leather and wood interior, comfort, air con, cruise, power everything with sensible mileage and a known history. It usually ends with “you know what you’ve got, you don’t know what you’ll get”. With cars, there is no such thing as guarantee, so if it costs less than £1k a year, it’s probably worth keeping. Eventually it will become uneconomical to keep it. That’s a bridge I will cross when I come to it. The only down side at the moment, is the air con pump has failed and even with a recon unit, I’ve been quoted over £600 to replace and refill it. I’m old school (and old😁) and for that money, I can happily drive with the windows down for the few days of sunshine we get in England. It really irks me that when I used to do my own mechanics, you could pretty much buy only what you needed to repair the problem but nowadays, you have to buy complete units at crazy prices. Want a bush? Buy a control arm!
So market forces and deteriorating health means I now have to view my motoring future with a more limited scope. Not where I hoped I would be in my sterling youth but that’s life for you.

I hope to continue driving a Jag for many years to come. I would love to replace my X Type with an F Pace but current conditions have really inflated second hand prices beyond my budget, so I will continue as long as I can with this one until it - or I - fall apart.

If anyone out there has a used air con pump assembly kicking around , lost and forlorn, please let me know. Otherwise, the windows still work. 😁