They drove decently, too. A buddy of mine had one.  

This car has exactly one thing that annoys the daylights out of me. If I remote start it, I *must* open the driver’s door and activate the ignition first *before* I can open the rear hatch or any other door. If I, for instance, remote start the car, try to put a bag in the rear, then get in and activate the ignition,…

The banner photo was the right choice here. People still talk about Jags and electronics like it’s the 197os and British Leyland is putting in Lucus modules. In reality, Jaguars have been reliable for at least 25 years now, thanks to the Ford years and Jaguar’s having access to the Ford parts bin. Modern Jaguars are…

Except for the fact that their cars catch fire, sure, they’re better.  Heck, my boss’s Kia caught fire (and was one of the recalled models for which they were waiting on parts).  https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/08/business/hyundai-kia-fire-recall/index.html

I’ve owned two different Jaguars that were 15+ years old. Both were reliable enough to take me across the country on a whim. The second one was 17 years old with 150,000 miles on it, yet it did multiple trips across multiple states and got the shit flogged out of it on the Tail of the Dragon, and it never missed a…

Jaguars have been perfectly reliable for at least 20 years now. My first one was an X-Type that ran like a top at 165,000 miles when I sold it. My current one, an XF Sportbrake, has 53,000 on it now and has had no issues. Jaguar’s current “reliability issues” stem from people that are too stupid to use the touchscreen…

This one is not better looking than the previous version.

Agree that wagon life is good life. Given the paucity of options out there, I plan to hold onto mine for a good long time.

I love stuff like this, these little touches that make a car feel special.

Current car’s a Jaguar XF Sportbrake. Bought it because it’s a beautiful red Jaguar station wagon with a supercharged V6 and I love Jags. I mean, not the most exciting story, but who cares, the car’s great!

Back in the 2000s when I had my Element, the Element Owners Club folks were the same way:  A bunch of ‘em were the other side of normal, shall we say.  Nice folks, but yeah, the modding and the odd folks have been a thing since the Es literally were new.  And the catalytic converter thefts were a big thing on Es back…

The smart play was to put a velcro strip on the bottom of the thing and velcro it to something.  My car in that era was an ‘89 Bonneville with no center console (seating for 6).  So, I velcro’d it to the middle “seat,” which also cushioned it from skipping from bumps.  

Rivieras were “blessed” with that same setup. I had an ‘89 Riv in 2005 that, shortly after I got it, the CRT that made the image died. That meant memorizing where on the now-blank black panel to push for the various controls.  At least it still gave the confirmation BEEP BEEP so you knew you’d done...  something. 

The vast majority of models suffer 40-60% depreciation after 3 years. That was true before COVID and in spite of the current market, and I’m not convinced that depreciation curve has significantly flattened for most models. There are some oddballs, like the two you mentioned. By and large, though, an off-lease CPO is…

Agreed on the repricing. There used to be two tiers of cars-new and used. Of course there were gradients within the “used” tier, but realistically it was either “new,” “used,” or so beaten down a dealer wouldn’t touch it.

A lot of good points have already come up in these comments. The quality of cars has increased considerably over time. New cars have become increasingly expensive, to say nothing of the last couple years’ car market.

Executives are like contractors: They all believe their work is top-tier and that what the guy before them did is shit and needs to be ripped out.

This is a good point.  Why bother replacing a car in this market if you’re working from home and not driving nearly as much anyway?  In 2020 and 2021 I drove about 2/3 the mileage I normally did pre-pandemic.  So far in 2022 I’ve driven 4,000 miles, most of that going to play disc golf out in the suburbs.  I’m sitting…

Disagree on the Honda Element seats. I found them very comfortable, and I did many 12-hour days in those seats. I bought my 2006 Element brand new in 2006 and had it for 8 years/144,000 miles. Over those years it went all over the country. It was a mobile hotel and bike hauler. It moved my then-future husband from…

The closest I have to an interesting Driver’s Ed story was mostly discomfort and humor. Having grown up out in farm country an hour’s drive from any freeway, our instructor saw fit for us to take a long drive to ensure we weren’t distracted drivers and also had a chance to drive on a freeway before we got licensed.…