It seems that I may have violated some forum etiquette. I had commented on a post made by Mr. White about his indecision to take his Jaguar on an upcoming road trip across Washington State. I encouraged him to take his car and told him that I planned on taking my ‘97 XJ6 that I had owned for three months on a trip up to the Oregon coast. Since I had made a comment on that thread I figured that it would be okay to attach a progress report. It was not my intent to hijack his thread so I figured I will should start my own road trip post.

It seems that many of us love our cars but are not ready to trust them on a long trip. Even some cars that have received a lot of repair, maintenance and care. I bought my car three months ago, I drove it home from LA without any problems. Since then I have proceeded to drive it every day, everywhere. I have put on 3,000 miles since purchase, taking several 300 mile round trips. The car had 143,000 miles on it when I bought. It has run very well. I attribute to the fact that it was owned by a professional mechanic with his own shop. He did not provide any kind of service history though he told me about the repair and maintenance he had performed.

This was a spur of the moment trip to the Oregon coast, covering up to 2,000 miles and twelve days. A travelogue follows.








A couple of travel days took me from San Jose to Medford Oregon, and then the Depot Bay. We spent four days here. Then I took US 101 north into Washington State up to the Long Beach peninsula area. We had covered almost a thousand miles at this point. We spent a couple of days in Ocean Shores then proceeded south to the city of Long Beach where we spent another three days. I really enjoyed driving the two lane roads of the coastal region. There was a lot of twisty roads and mountain driving also. Another two travel days took us through Eugene and onto Medford. Our final day was a long drive back to San Jose.







As with a pilot, the only thing that matters to the passenger is the landing. Or in this case making it home without any problems, which was thankfully the case. Total mileage after twelve days was 1,840. Fuel economy varied from 22 mpg. To the best of 25.3 mpg. on the last day on the way home..

So is there anything that I have learned from this experience? I have gotten to experience the qualities that make a Jaguar, a Jaguar even if filtered through a twenty year veil of mechanical patina. The motor ran smoothly, never got hot, did not leak any oil and idled beautifully all along. The a/c worked perfectly. The chassis is a little loose, and there’s a bit of noise commensurate with the mileage. Still it felt completely controllable and comfortable. Part of my success was luck of course, but it also proves the adage that these cars are best when run regularly. Now I will start my own documented program of maintenance on the car.