Re-Appreciation

Not monetarily, although that would be nice too - just me singing the praises of the 40.
It’s been my daily and only driver for years and years now and as the price of gas got more and more ridiculous I started to think a generic car might be a better fit.
Until last week that is… I was doing some maintenance and needed something or other from the store so I started to put the car back together when the neighbor offered to loan me her car to make the run.
She has a Toyota Rav 4. That is one harsh ride! No doubt it works fine as whatever it is supposed to be for, but compared to the 40 …well it made me realize (again) why I keep the 40. Such a comfortable ride and bags of power.

No generic car for me just yet, I’ll stick with the Jag with all it’s foibles :slightly_smiling_face:

Haha. I have a similar generic car as my daily driver - Nissan Rogue. It serves to make me appreciate the Jag on a regular basis. It also serves when there’s rain or snow and I can keep the cover on the Jag.

In the Pacific Northwest, If I parked up every time it rained or snowed I be walking or on a bus a whole lot of the time. Rain, sleet, snow whatever; she gets a run.

I’ve run an XJ40 as a daily driver since 2003 and like you sometimes I wonder whether a more ‘sensible’ car would be more appropriate. I have the use of two other cars I can use, an 07 VW Golf and my Mrs has recently bought a Mazda 2.0l petrol Skyactive. They are both decent cars and drive well but they just don’t give me the same enjoyment I get from driving the Jag. I’ve come close to selling it a couple of times, usually following a few minor things going wrong, but then I think ‘what would I replace it with’ ? and then I just get on with fixing it. It’s now of the age where it stands out in any car park too, and I always feel a tinge of pride walking back to it and seeing just how different and special it is to all the other cars parked around it. I can see me keeping this car until they take my driving license away !

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I’ve owned my XJ40 for 31 years but since relocating to the relatively compact town of Eugene, Oregon it gets the least mileage of any of the six cars in the photo. I find the two Morrises and Austin superior for local errands and shopping, the two Jaguars reserved for longer trips on the highways where they are better suited. I refuse a modern car that stalls at intersections, blows its horn every time you lock it up and comes with a 280 page owner’s manual if you get one at all…

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Obviously fond of British cars ! I must have had at least 5 variations of your Austin, the best was a version called a Riley Kestrel, it had twin carbs and a black leather interior. In their day the Austin / Morris 1100/ 1300 range was the top selling car in the UK for a number of years. In the 60s we had one as the family car, a red Austin 1100, we toured all over France in it, it was a really reliable car.

Yes, my Austin has been a very reliable car since my ownership in 1971. One hundred eight thousand miles, cylinder head never off.

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:grin::grimacing::stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes::rofl:

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Mine as well, here’s evidence.

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