The best car journalist on YouTube reviews the best car ever

 

His video comments would indicate he is like the sort of guy that moans when he wipes with toilet paper.

I prefer this:

 

I watch Demuro's channel pretty frequently and like the guy, but I knew exactly what to expect before I even clicked on this video. And I think it's because most people don't understand the xj-s. I think you have to own & spend some time with the xj-s before you start to understand what makes them such fantastic automobiles.

Took my car to the coast with the girlfriend a few weeks ago and felt like I was finally using the xj-s for exactly what it was designed to do. The car is just the pinnacle of luxury, elegance, and class. The irony can't be ignored however that such a gentleman's car requires one to be a total grease monkey to keep on the road!

Fun review, and after all, it's many of the common misconceptions on display in this video that help keep the prices of these awesome vintage jags so low, so I won't complain about the inaccuracies :-)



P.S. Here's another cool review of the xj-s:

 

True, almost nobody 'gets it' until they spend some time driving one, soon enough everything makes perfect sense...could be abit of stockholm syndrome but you really wouldn't slam the hood on a car like that, of course you only need 3 gears, naturally the windows slowly glide down tempting onlookers. It all begins to make sense.

 

I notice the horn buttons are on the side unlike the earlier that have it center, is there a difference on how they work or is it the same

 

GT cars of this era are not appreciated much. I have a unique perspective and experience. I own an XJS with a 6 speed and Porsche 928 with a 5 speed. The 928 is fine but compared to the XJS it's like walking around with a pedal in your shoe. The 928 is noisy, gruff, all sorts of mechanical noises and vibrations. It does have it's charms as it is a lot more direct. The XJS 6 speed is serine by comparison yet extremely quick and I think it could hang with the Porsche deep into triple digit speeds. Odd thing is the 928 does feel so much more spacious inside despite being a much smaller car. This is becasue the rear mounted transmission allows the center console to be very narrow. This enables copious amount of leg room. Point is, if Jaguar made more XJS with 5 speeds they'd be one of the greatest cars of all time and just as highly desired as a 928 5 speed. The V12 is so hindered by the 3 speed auto TH400. IMHO using that transmission exclusively was a mistake.

 

Your perspective is shared. I also have a 928 with a 5 speed. As well as an S600 V12 Mercedes I drive in Uganda.

I think the 928 is more roomy inside. I've never driven the Jag a long distance. The 928 I drove from Vancouver, down to Mexico, back up throught the Rockies, then out to Baltimore. I could easily put in 14 hour days. I've got minimal rattles. I seems much more solid than the Jag. But, after my accident 2 1/2 years ago with the Jag, I've sortof forgotten what it feels like driving it.

I'm just finishing getting my TVR 2500M running. It was stolen 24 years ago, and I just recovered it last summer. That is the definition of rough and ratelly.

Looking forward to finding a few friends and driving the Jag, Porsch and TVR from Baltimore to Seattle next summer. They'll be stored out there. Baltimore is a bit to crazy to keep toys stored here.

 

Since 928s have become part of the conversation permit me a stroll down memory lane:

Many years ago I was driving in my XJS one Sunday, just after dawn, on a nearly-empty Interstate 5 in Washington state, headed for Oregon. "Minding my own business" as the saying goes, loping along at 75 mph or so.

A speck in my rear view mirror was very rapidly becoming much larger and, next thing I know, "out of nowhere", a 928 is planted on my tail ! Yikes ! I'll bet he was doing 130 mph to close the gap that quickly.

Within mere moments another 928 was on my right side and then another on my left. Still another darted around and got in front of me. A couple more jumped out in front. Obviously a club outing. I goosed it a bit and so did they. I slowed down and so did they. I think they were trying to goad me into a race but, worried about state patrols in the area, I demurred. With grins and thumbs up from all, the whole group roared off ahead and disappeared like pricked balloons. It was quite a sight ! They were obviously enjoying their cars

I sensed how a Spitfire pilot must've felt when jumped by a flight of Me109s !

Cheers
DD

 

Yeah this Doug guy, may have a U Tube Channel. But when it comes to the XJS. He don't get it, and probably never will. Kinda like Fine Wine, you either get it, or you don't. I'm Just glad appreciating fine wine, is not a requirement to own an XJS.

 

That's the thing: he doesn't HAVE to get it. I mean, he is a fan of British cars. He has had an Aston, he owns a super rare US spec Defender. His wife drives his former Range Rover. So he has an affinity with British cars. That said, he doesn't need to understand what is so special about the XJ-S. Im fact, it is even good he doesn't as it should keep the demand low making it easier to purchase - or does anyone fancy E Type prices being transferred over to the XJ-S when they want to buy one?

 

I'll watch the video when I get back home, but I think Doug's schtick took a turn for the worse when he stopped talking about cars he owned, like whether you could daily drive a Ferrari or drive a Hummer down narrow Boston streets or something. His "quirks and features" bits are interesting when he's talking about an interesting car, but all too often these days he'll focus on the unattainable supercars, grope for anything genuinely quirky ("the doors on this car open OUT! Isn't that an amazingly quirky feature?") and miss half the really interesting stuff--or demonstrate his ignorance in other ways by marvelling at the concept of a foot-mounted high-beam switch, for instance, implying that such-and-such a car is unique for having one. So I seldom watch his videos these days,but it'll be interesting to see how much he fails to understand the XJS. And what he thinks its Quirks & Features are....

That Harry's Garage video is great. A lot of Harry's stuff is well worth watching. Wish I could say my rather new XJS has no squeaks or rattles like that one he drove....

 

Doug's most successful videos though aren't supercars... They are Videos of his Defender, his Range and a Mitsubishi Mirage or what ever it was called, the cheapest car on sales in the USA. Those are the most successful. I normally only watch the design and quirks but on the XJ-S watched the lot.

He also has split his channel into two. One is the reviews. The other is now more personal moments etc.

Best channel though still is Hoovies Garage. Everyone else is basically copying him. I bought the cheapest XXXX and this is what is wrong...

Tavarish is dreadful. Anothe Clown has appeared and is doing the same. Aging Wheels is funny. Basically a DIY 'Don't Try This' channel... Commi-cars are common (Trabant, Zastava Yugo, Chinese Smart Copies) and he is really sarcastic

 

I like Hoovie's Garage too, though I'm getting increasingly aware he is playing up the Moron with a Motor thing for laughs. Like trying to get his Aston Martin out of the mud the worst way possible. And there's a vast gulf in price and,presumably, mechanical issues,between the cheapest Rolls-Royce Phantom, and the cheapest Rolls-Royce of any sort (which would probably be a Silver Spirit). Hoovie might be getting a bit upmarket for my tastes. I cannot see myself ever justifying dropping the equivalent of US$80,000 on a car. Especially as I don't get to write it off for tax....But his humbler stuff is still fun. He's the only one I check regularly.
Never bothered with Tav, but I might check out Aging Wheels. Jay Leno's Garage is often interesting, though can be a bit dry and technical.

 

Okay, I've seen it. I think he is getting ridiculous over the "quirks and features" of all his cars these days, frankly. In the "can you believe this car has not just two, but FOUR doors!" sort of over-hyping the weirdness of anything that isn't bog-normal. It's his schtick, and people watch him for pointing out the idiosyncrasies, so it's no wonder he's getting a bit self-Flanderizing. And I don't know what he was doing with the accelerator, but I'm sure mine moves faster than that--and with less body roll.
But I do agree with this final paragraph from his Oversteer column, where he is usually less quirky and featurey, and more sensible:
" In the end, the XJS didn't disappoint: it's a cool-looking car with a V12, and it'll stand out in traffic every time. But by modern standards, it's not fast, it's not high-tech and it's not particularly agile. Still, that doesn't stop it from being cool -- and even though it's one of the cheapest V12 cars you can buy, I've always wanted to check it out, because I've always found it interesting and exciting. After spending the day with this one, I still do."

 

See, it wasn't that bad He points out the quirks, because that is what people want to see. Once he reviewed a Hyundai Whateverfuglyness and said no car has more than 3 ways to open the trunk/boot. I answered: Yes, Jaguar does on the X308...

Key lock at the rear
Button on the dash
​Button on the trunk lid/boot lid
​​​​​​But on the FOB

No answer... And that wasn't even a grumpy 'I know it better' kind of YouTube answer you get nowadays.

Hoovie is drifting back and forth. Between expensive and cheap. I mean properly cheap like his $200 Lexus he bought... BUT he get's his fact right. Like regarding his Aston when he said that Ford took the Jaguar design, gave it to Aston, plopped it on the XJ-S chassis, paid Jaguar to buy date the XJ-S into the XJS and done. As well as using part bin pieces...

 

Ha. You wouldn't imagine a superstar (in his own small world) like Doug would ever deign to answer a nobody like us? I wouldn't even bother telling him--or rather, I'd frame it as information for the viewers reading the comments. Talking of which, I'm enjoying the large number of comments in the XJS review telling Doug he's quite wrong about the reliability issues, and silly to compare acceleration from a 1970s-designed car to a 2018 supercar, and that the XJS just isn't a sports car in the first place.

Yes, I saw that bit with Hoovie, and was actually mildly impressed he knew that. And that $200 Lexus video was great. But it seems his latest purchases have been the Phantom, the 911, the Ferrari which he returned for reasons that didn't seem that sane, and the Aston. I first noticed Hoovie from his review of his land yacht, which was a cool car. I would like a car that totally insulates you from the road and the outside world like that.... (Doug's review of the 1978 Eldorado is another favourite, as I love those insanely massive 1970s Eldosaurs.)

 

Yeah, the Land Yacht Lincoln was awesome. Especially the typical gesture of a man rolling some snow between his fingers Nearly all the time

 

My take on Doug's review of the XJS was how great it was he was even doing a review on the XJS. It is always hard for someone like myself who has spent so much time learning and being around a car like the XJS to listen to someone who really does not know that much about the history of the XJS to point out all of it's flaws or quirks without giving as much time to it's positive attributes.

The really odd thing about the XJS is how many years it was produced. Just not that many models of any car that you can say were produced for 21 years. For example you can say the Corvette has been in production since 1953 but each generation of the Corvette has been vastly different then the one before so yes they are all called Corvette but the '75 vette was nothing like the '96 vette.

Once you understand what Jaguar was attempting to do with the XJS when it was introduced in '75 you can appreciate how well it accomplished it's goals. It was made to compete with a car like the Mercedes SL and it did a wonderful job all things considered. A stock XJS winning the Cannon Ball run in 1979 really demonstrates what the XJS was able to accomplish when it came out. Imagine getting into a new XJS in the mid 70's and being able to drive 100 mph plus in almost virtual silence.

Unfortunate that Doug spent more time talking about the receipts that the XJS he was reviewing had racked up as if to imply how unreliable the car is. Sad thing is the car is 30 years old so we have no idea how many of those receipts where for just regular maintenance items like oil changes etc. The other unfortunate thing is that Doug knew the XJS was not a quick car in the quarter mile but chose to show that instead of showing how the car felt and sounded cruising at freeway speeds at 75mph +.

Overall I think that Doug felt going into this review that the V12 XJS was very unreliable and then aimed at reinforcing that perspective. I wonder if he was reviewing a 1988 V12 Ferrari if he would have spent as much time talking about how many maintenance receipts were in the file or close by saying " this is the most unreliable Ferrari V12 ever made in a long line of unreliable Ferrari's"?

Here is one of the best reviews of the XJS I have seen-hope you enjoy :

 

I think that the primary goal of the review is to generate views and in that case (with around 1m views), this review was huge success. It's a classic car with the newest models being 24 years old. Unless the person doing the review is an enthusiast or works for a classic car publication, they're going to see a lot of negatives because yes, it's a V12 with around 260hp and yes a modern, 4 cylinder Kia's can smoke it. I own mine for the same reason that I own my 85 BMW M6, 88 Mercedes 560SEC, 84 500SL and 88 928S. I love the GT cars from that era because when I had posters up on my bedroom wall, those were the cars that were on them.

If you're looking for a complimentary review from a guy that reviews new cars you need to go back in time (~~~back in time back in time back in time~~~)

 

It's definitely great he finally reviewed the XJS, I agree. But his review definitely had an editorial stance planned from the beginning, and he wasn't going to deviate. That thick wad of receipts he showed to imply it was unreliable? Not only is that over 30 bloody years, he pulled out ones like Bill for New Carpets. That's not a bloody reliability issue--and strongly suggests that the owners were fastidious enough to keep the car in pristine order.
Doug also does an acceleration test for all his cars, scoring them so that only something insanely powerful and expensive and new can get a good score. His ridiculous "Doug Score" ranks all cars against current ones--which means in a few years, the older scores will not mean much. A car that got a 7 for Equipment in 2015 will fall short of a 2020 car's 7 score. And it's funny that things like a full-sized spare don't count, especially with all these modern cars that don't even have one to begin with.
But yes, this was just to generate views and comments and so was made to provide a certain image. His actual Autotrader column, for people who know more about cars, was more reasoned.