Cars We Drive!

[Piobaire]

I can remember when the neighbors got an Omni Miser and I thought it was luxurious and had great fit and finish. My mother's car, the last one she owned before she stole mine, was a beat to crap AMC of some kind (not Pacer.)

 

[Texasmade]

There is??

Formula 1 - F1 - Current Season Discussion

What's with the new noses on the cars? McLaren didnt adopt the new style, looks really nice:

www.styleforum.net

 

[Lizard23]

Picked up the XC 90 today... so far so good. Wife is happy. I am happy. No complaints.

 

[Huntsman]

Thicker leather and metal back then helps give that vault/quality feeling. Those have been sacrificed for crumple crash zones and weight savings for fuel efficiency.

Personally there’s a nostalgic feeling I have with older British cars. Those V12 engines and gentlemen’s club use of chrome, leather and wood still gets me. I grew up with Jaguar XJ or Daimlers and no modern car can give me that feeling of luxury.

Then I wake up and recall the ****** electronics and bankrupting gas mileage.

Even though their electronics now suck in a different way. At least their cars aren’t at risk anymore of shutting down completely when hitting the kickdown while cruise control is on (happened to my stepdad), or losing all lighting during driving (again, true story), or drain the battery in four days due to a weird alarm system (fun stuff when coming back on a short holiday redeye flight).

I’m pretty sure Jaguar enthousiasts don’t miss the 80s and 90s, or 00s. The 10s have been pretty good to them for Jaguar standards, maybe the 20s will be the decade.

Nootje, I remember you from your 'get closer' series of macros back in the day.

I have an '86 XJ-S and I absolutely love it. There is nothing like a V-12, and the 18.5 MPG is...18.5MPG. I'm surprised, actually, that mileage isn't really better these days. I drive a 2012 Subie with 4-cylinders that does 25.8 mpg, and a 2015 BMW X1 with a 4-banger that doesn't do that, and I used to drive a 2001 Grand Am with 6-cyl that routinely pulled off 28 MPG. I swear, I don't understand how we have supposedly improved engine design since 2001.

I do all the work on my cars short of breaking down an auto trans or A/C. The Grand Ams are the best cars I've worked on (short of a '70s GM V8), the Jag ain't great, but I swear the worst, worst, worst, worst, car I have ever worked on is/was a 2008 BMW SULEV. OMG. Three of the worst jobs I have ever done on a car have been on that thing. The worst. Ever. I know people say that BMWs are meant to be worked on, and my M is mostly OK, but geez. People who say that BMWs are great to work on, I don't know....

~ H

 

[Dino944]

I do think that the pre-DaimlerChrysler Mercedes just stood on this principle that they would not be outbuilt by anyone. It didn’t matter how expensive the other car was.

Yes, absolutely. When you read about certain steps they took to build such high quality cars and the quality of materials used in the in the 1970s and earlier...its not surprising that various cost cutting and weight reducing changes were made resulting in lower build quality. For example, they used much thicker leather hides for seats than they have in the last 20+ years, various metal, wood or plastic interior parts had leather trim put in between them and behind them on the doors and dashboard pieces to keep parts from squeaking or rattling if the car went over bumps in the road. Close a door on a R107SL, and everything made since seems a bit cheap, be it from them or other premium brands.

 

[Dino944]

I have an '86 XJ-S and I absolutely love it. There is nothing like a V-12, and the 18.5 MPG is...18.5MPG. I'm surprised, actually, that mileage isn't really better these days. I drive a 2012 Subie with 4-cylinders that does 25.8 mpg, and a 2015 BMW X1 with a 4-banger that doesn't do that, and I used to drive a 2001 Grand Am with 6-cyl that routinely pulled off 28 MPG. I swear, I don't understand how we have supposedly improved engine design since 2001.

I love the lines of the pre-90's facelift XJS. It is also the most economical way to put a 12 cylinder car in one's driveway (if one can use the word economical when speaking of a Jaguar or a V12). In addition, it was supposed to be a good long distance highway cruiser. The main drawback with that car was always that it was only available, at least in the US, with a 3 speed automatic. It's competitors the BMW 635CSi, Porsche 928S, and MB 560SEC all had 4 speeds automatics by the early to mid 80s (if one didn't choose a manual for the BMW and Porsche).

 

[nootje]

You mean the XJS was meant as a Grand Tourer or GT in common parlance

I really do love those older jags, warts and all. My first boss had an 80s XJ we drove to certain clients if he felt like it, and let me drive. Touring along the highway, small cigar in hand, I felt I had already made it. Of course I didn’t have the salary to match?

@Huntsman, I believe you with the gas mileage. However, it is dependent on how you drive it. Most in my family back then drove every car like we stole it. Not kidding, the highway police once broke off a pursuit of my stepdad with cars and left it to the helicopter to follow him. (Result was 2 years loss of driving license) resulting mileage as I remember it was closer to 11 mpg.

Story time?

there was the incident where the ferry staff approached us after a particularly heated drive in a 90s Range Rover (new at the time) to make the last crossing, they where worried that the car had caught fire as the brakes were literally smoking after we stopped on the ferry (one time!)

The one time a brand new car, straight from the dealer burned out in front of the house (before my time). Turns out they had forgotten to put in the ashtrays in the back. SD picked up my mother and a friend, who smoked in the back. Once parked a while small puffs of smoke came through the hinges, and it had whiteout windows.
SD decided to look what was going on and opened up a door, backdraft and that was the end of that car.

He also had an engine seize up while driving approx 200km/h in Germany. Drive shaft broke off and tipped the car on its nose, sliding for a bit before he came to a stop. Had he flipped it would have been the end of him.

To put some of this in context, the man drove close to 65k miles a year to visit all branches of his company on a monthly basis. As a result he burned through cars like it was tissue paper. In the 90s the order period for a new Daimler was 18 months, and he wanted a new one at 120k km. The result was that he had to order a new one as he took delivery of the previous one. He approximated he had ordered about 20 or 21 when he was through with Jaguar Daimler XJ.

Yet with all that he only regretted selling two cars. An early sixties Ford thunderbird, and an Iso Grifo. Sadly when I came of driving age his driving days had become a bit more sedate, so I only knew the Daimler’s, BMWs 760, Audi A8 and range rovers from the 90s on.

 

[HRoi]

Also those XJS’s? Peak carpets for a motorcar.

I didn’t forget about Rolls Royce,btw. I believe they had the same carpets

 

[Piobaire]

 

[UnFacconable]

For example, they used much thicker leather hides for seats than they have in the last 20+ years,

I have a 20 year old American SUV with leather seats that has been heavily used, largely street parked and generally treated the way the old ladder framed SUVs were built to be used. The leather has a bit less prominent grain and more shine than it did on day one but has no creases, cracks, scratches or other issues. The driver's seat looks better than most new luxury car driver's seats look after the first couple of years. I know it's blasphemy, but I prefer the MBtex from the MB we had a few years ago to almost all new leather I've seen, particularly perforated leather which tends to be paper thin and go to crap more quickly.

 

[Texasmade]

I remember my parents had a Cadillac in the early 1990's. The seats were this ultra soft velvet plush fabric. Too bad this isn't made anymore. Everything is leather or faux leather.

 

[Piobaire]

So that car above raises a good point. It has no traction control and no ABS so one can have a purer driving experience.

 

[Dino944]

You mean the XJS was meant as a Grand Tourer or GT in common parlance

Yet with all that he only regretted selling two cars. An early sixties Ford thunderbird, and an Iso Grifo. Sadly when I came of driving age his driving days had become a bit more sedate, so I only knew the Daimler’s, BMWs 760, Audi A8 and range rovers from the 90s on.

Yes it was definitely a GT car. Considering the engine was derived from the Series III E-Type 12, if I'm not mistaken, its a shame it was never offered with a manual at least in the US.

Wow, its too bad he sold the Iso Grifo before you could drive. That was a very interesting car. I've only seen a handful and usually at concours auto shows.

Also those XJS’s? Peak carpets for a motorcar.

I didn’t forget about Rolls Royce,btw. I believe they had the same carpets

Wilton Wool carpets were used by Rolls, Bentley, Jaguar, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Ferrari (through the early 90s).

 

[Dino944]

I remember my parents had a Cadillac in the early 1990's. The seats were this ultra soft velvet plush fabric. Too bad this isn't made anymore. Everything is leather or faux leather.

My college girlfriend's parents had a Cadillac with a velvet/velour interior. Her parents didn't speak a lot of English as they weren't born here. When they were selling the car, one couple came to see it. They told her we love the car, but we can't buy it because it doesn't have a leather interior and we like to slide around on leather seats . She was too embarrassed to tell her parents why they weren't going to buy the car.

 

[Dino944]

I know it's blasphemy, but I prefer the MBtex from the MB we had a few years ago to almost all new leather I've seen, particularly perforated leather which tends to be paper thin and go to crap more quickly.

The old MB tex was indestructible. My parents had that in a 190E in 1985. But even MB screwed that up around 2015. They must have changed the recipe or supplier and there were reports on various MB forums of shiny, white, oily substances coming through the material in the new generation of cars from 2015.

https://www.cars.com/articles/defect-prompts-upholstery-replacement-in-cars-coms-2015-c-class-1420680553504/