FUTURE CLASSICS?

StrayCat · February 4, 2014

A friend asked "Why have you bought an old Jaguar?"

I replied "Because I can't afford a very old Jaguar."

Old Peter · February 4, 2014

Welcome to the Club, James.

And let me say, what a good post.

Regards,

Peter.

Jaguar Owners Club · February 5, 2014

Hi James....welcome to the club !

Indeed, what a great question!

My answer would be 'because I can't afford a new Jaguar'

Regards Trevor

Mike_eng · February 5, 2014

All valid answers,

Which raises the question, if you could only afford one or the other........E-type or F-type??????????

I'm 48 so I think my head would probably explode given the choice, over to you guys

Jaguar Owners Club · February 6, 2014

another very good question...think I would go with the E-Type though

Old Peter · February 6, 2014

A chap who sits on the same committee as do I has a lightweight E-Type. [i need a photo off him next time I see him]

He restored it himself and now wants to sell it in order to buy an F type as he wants to own one while he is still young enough.

He would have bought an S type had there been an Estate version built!!

StrayCat · February 16, 2014

Future classics?

I bet there are many motorists of ‘a certain age’ who can look back at having owned cars that are now considered classics. If only we didn’t know now what we didn’t know then!

Then, cars were usually very different to what we are offered by today’s manufacturers but I wonder if that isn’t a double edged sword? Modern cars are technological marvels but technology moves on faster than mechanical engineering ever did so is it likely that the four wheeled beauties we see in today's showrooms could be consigned to the scrap yards faster than you can say “planned obsolescence”?

With a motoring future likely to include different fuels and driverless cars (at least the girls can text safely!) are some of us driving the very last cars that might be considered ‘classics’ in the future?

If that is the case, how many of us will be brave enough to keep the car we own today, unlike those of us who wish we’d kept the cars we owned forty years ago?

Old Peter · February 16, 2014

I am of a certain age -- Triumph Herald, Austin A 40 Farina, Austin 1100, Ford Escorts Mk1 and Mk 2, Austin Maestro and Austin Montego, Rover Sterling.

All now on show at the classic car shows.

Peter.

Mike_eng · February 16, 2014

Austin Maestro and Austin Montego, Rover Sterling.

All now on show at the classic car shows.

Please tell me it isn't so!!!!!!!!!!!!

Old Peter · February 16, 2014

Please tell me it isn't so!!!!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely true ---- but so is the Morris Ital. [i had two of those, but I keep quiet about it.]

Company cars are not necessarily classic cars.

StrayCat · February 16, 2014

The French use the phrase ‘Old Timers’ (in English) for many of their veteran and vintage car shows.

Perhaps that’s how we could differentiate between lovingly cherished popular motors from the past, and those which qualify as bona-fide classics.

Old Peter · February 17, 2014

That is a good idea, James. I kept my Rover Sterling for nearly 12 years. It was mechanically sound, but getting tatty. It was a great car in respect of its equipment -- all the bells and whistles -- but, even though there are not many on the road any more, it was certainly not a classic car. My son described it as a mechanised sofa.

It was certainly very nice to see how some cars had been restored to their former glory at the Classic Car Show, but I too would differentiate between the Classic Car and the vintage or veteran car.

There should be a defined difference between Vintage, Veteran and Classic cars.

Golan · February 28, 2014

Evening all

I read your posts with interest, it would seem that most of the cars I've owned are now classics and I kick myself every time I goto a show....

My list goes like this, BMW 635 Csi, BMW 3.0l Si (really miss this one...) Opel Manta, Citreon BX Gti 16 valve, Alfa GTV 6, Alfa Sud sprint, Rover Sdi V8 Vitesse etc. etc.

Now I've got a S-Type R..... Well what can I say, I've had lots of nice cars that I thought were quick/fast that was until I was lucky enough to buy a Jaguar. This car puts a hole new meaning top the meaning of rapid!!!

So when people ask me why I bought an old Jag I just tell them not to judge them until you been in one, even a tired high milage car is still head and shoulders above most old sheds on the road these days.

I'm sorry I'm going on.....

I'm done... ;)

montymick · April 16, 2014

hello James, I have found your topic and answers very interesting, my history, from the age of 17 I have not been without a car I am now 62, my range of cars are varied ie, skoda coupe, several ladas (including a NIVA) an Asia Rocksta. some old Volvo's transit vans, etc.about 40 different cars in total, I allways thought cars were just for transport, WOW how wrong I was, my present car is an s type r 3.0 auto in metallic green and 14 years old and in mint condition, and to me this is already a classic, I would go barefoot before I would give it up

regards Michael.

Old Peter · April 17, 2014

Hi Michael,

Having had company cars for 30 years I can understand your point of cars being for transport, which in part they are. Some cars have always been head turners, though, while fulfilling the basic needs. I am almost as old as the Jaguar marque, and have always admired them, although they always seemed to be out of the range of ordinary horny handed sons of toil such as myself.

Nowadays, with the dreaded rusty bits being replaced with either galvanised steel or in some cases fibreglass, plastics, and latterly Aluminium, older Jaguars have become far more easy to obtain.

I once had a four year old Austin A40 Farina and had to replace both sills and the rusty bits in the floor. I still have the pop rivet gun I used to attach the new sills and panels which I had made to measure for me from plastic coated steel [stelvetite] as I worked in the Steel Industry.

That is why there are now well restored classic cars and, in my opinion, the S Type will follow the Jaguar MkI and MkII into the group of cars which can be described as genuine classics. And there were less than 300,000 made with only about a third of that number sold in the UK,

Enjoy your car and driving a Jaguar does make driving a pleasure.

Regards,

Peter.

FarmerFox · May 2, 2014

Hi all!!

First of all, E-Type or F-Type? That's like trying to choose between oxygen or water, you can't!! Being a youngster, I've not had many cars, only 4 previous to the Jag (3 on the road and not counting company vehicles). I have had the privilege of owning the second and third British most iconic cars: an Austin Mini and a Land-Rover respectively. Unfortunately, the Land-Rover never made it on the road, but the Mini was the most fun I have had on four wheels!!

StrayCat · May 15, 2014

Looking at all the posts under this topic, it’s interesting to see so many different vehicles owned by JOC members in the past. If they were lined up in a large field would any of us be tempted to keep any of them, or have we already circumvented that imaginary possibility, buying Jaguar S-Types which combine an aesthetic link to the past with the practicalities of modern motoring?

Taking ‘Old Peter’s’ thought just a little further; is the S-Type the last from an era of classic Jaguars?

Modern cars are in a different league, better built, more reliable and far more economical than those for which some of us still have affection. Some are consummately impressive, imposing on the road and boasting amazing performance statistics. However, as they’re all the products of CAD (Computerised Amorphous Design) engineering which, combined with the huge numbers rolling off production lines, are they likely to be considered ‘classics’ in the future? Ubiquity disqualifies scarcity which is one criterion that distinguishes the special from run-of-the-mill. Another type of CAD (Committee Assisted Decisions) steered by commercial competition and market trends, has virtually eliminated identifiable design flair, delivering a kind of homogeneity evident in almost all leading marques’ showrooms.

We’re supposed to be better off than we were forty or fifty years ago and it does seem as if many people are, a fact which is reflected in worldwide car sales that are a multiple of what they were back then. Indeed, it’s likely that a few weeks’ output of any of today’s desirable cars could exceed the total production run of similar vehicles in the past. That’s great for business as well as the economy and if you’re lucky enough to be able to drive a new car off the forecourt, you’ll be the envy of many, but for some of us who’ve bought S-Type Jaguars, we’ve probably looked back nostalgically to the late ‘fifties and ‘sixties when the 3.8 and its siblings, or a clowder of XK models, were the cars of which dreams were made and, for us, that adds another dimension altogether.

So, is History Repeating Itself? Our S-Types confer a flavour of the good old days, which is just one reason why we enjoy these cars and look after them. Who knows, there may be young motoring enthusiasts dreaming about Jaguar S-Types right now, and we may be able to pass on our cars so that, in the fullness of time, they’re properly elevated to that rarified rank of ‘classic’.

Old Peter · May 16, 2014

Hi Jim,

A very interesting post.

I went to the classic car show at the NEC in Birmingham last year, just a 20 minute drive away and saw a lot of old cars which had been magnificently restored. Some where classic cars, and doe were modern classics, and some were rare cars.

I put the last classification in because a rare car is probably one that survived rust, so to me a classic car is a model that brought something new to automotive manufacture, or a model that wrapped an older style of appearance round modern and innovative technology, and that is why I would include the S Type Jaguar a a future classic. I have stayed away from looking at the XK models, but I would defer to the opinion of those who do own and drive those beautiful cars.

Jaguar is now entering a new era, and I wait and see what comes out from the new engine plant in Wolverhampton --- what innovation, in particular. I do think that there is a statement of intent by the Jaguar Owners that they see their cars being dominant in the automotive world, but I do hope that the idea of increasing the numbers manufactured does not mean that they will move away from originality and the style that has made Jaguar the marque that it is.

Someone said that the Jaguar is an old man's car, but why does my son always want to get his hands on it!!.

Regards to all,

Peter.