Only Lovers Left Alive

Finally got around to watching this movie. It is truly dreadful. But you do get to watch a white mid-80’s XJ-S slinking around the streets of Detroit at night, not just a quick shot or two but quite a while. In the shots from inside the car, you can see that several of the warning lights on the dash are lit up.

Well now, you can expect a movie with Tilda Swinton is going to be hard work.
The odd thing is how often an XJ-S will turn up in a movie even though they are quite rare on the road. French movies seem to have them more often then you would expect.
Last week I glanced at an advert on local TV which had a street scene showing a red
XJ-S parked kerbside. That could have been pure coincidence but more likely it was posed there. Movie directors must have a thing about the XJ-S.

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Maybe a cinematic metaphor?

:wink:

Watched a 1990 Columbo episode last night. Many images of a convertible XJ-S.

If you want to catch a similarly entertainingly bad movie, there’s a manual XJS in “The Spy Who Dumped Me” that doesn’t quite work out for the main stars.

Paul K.

Bad movies, with Jags?

Diabolik…!!!

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I remember one night, I overtook an old Citroen CS which was very low on the ground. I could look right down into the car, and saw that none of the dashboard was lit up. Except for one, very large, red warning light. The driver had a kind of scared look on his face that spelt out combined electrical and hydraulic failure in one glance. I don’t know how far he thought he might get in that state - aren’t the brakes on those old Citroens supplied by the same hydraulic power as the suspension?

You tube again. I forgot which channel. A guy on his way to recover some old derelict. Oddly at the wheel of a nondescript little SUV, Commented " Only 5 warning lights on today" . Car seemed to be moving right along “check engine” and more not an issue???

Driver not concerned ???

Carl

Any Big Bang Theory watchers out there?

Sheldon: If you recall, I pointed out the “check engine” light to you several months ago.

Penny: Well the “check engine” light is fine. It’s still blinking away. It’s the stupid engine that stopped working. It cost me like twelve hundred dollars to fix it.

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Yeah, I knew a girl in college that owned a Datsun 510. I asked her how she liked it. She said she hated it because the engine failed and it cost a lot to fix it. She said the oil light came on “and I took the very next exit!”

I was–still am!!–astonished how many of my customers had to be trained that the oil light DID NOT mean drive to the next filling station, to get oil!

Tim Allen used to have a bit about the oil light… The missus called from the garage with a destroyed engine…
“Did you see the oil light go on!!?”
“Yes, it went on, definitely.”
Through grinding teeth “Well, how did you FEEL about that!?!?”
“I figured it would flash or ding if something was really serious…”

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Oh yeah.
I remember that episode.

That also. Loved tool man.
Grunt grunt grunt!!!

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Oil light on!!! Too bad, too late. engine in serious disrepair…

Carl

Hopefully they didn’t trash a perfectly good E-type in that one scene (but then they were not worth nearly as much $$ :moneybag: as now) :grimacing:

There is a site devoted to cars in movies and there are hundreds of XJSs listed.

i think i have the ultimate service excuse, i had shop in Daytona ,1979-2001!
Diesel Mercedes came in engine running bad shaking, noisy! a woman driving!

check oil level, NONE on stick, put on lift , pulled drain plug nothing came out,
put a
screw driver in drain hole, thick as TAR, black beyond recognition!

i asked when the last time you had the oil changed, She "said never since i bought the car 1 3 yrs ago, Sales man said Mercedes last forever "
i did not know what to say , except a shrewd sale pitch!
i said you better go back to Mercedes, had the car towed away!
ron, “Stupid is what Stupid does” Gump.
ron

Yep … there was a list of these on the old J-Lers’ site … I don’t know if they transferred it over on the move, or if it is still there. :confused:

Roger Bywater once related a story where an engine teardown inspired the mech to ask the customer what he had been using for coolant. “Sea water. Somebody told me it was the ideal thing to use. I make annual trips to the coast to collect enough for a coolant change.” Needless to say, the engine was scrap.