Now and Then. Oh the Difference.

[itschad]

Look at what I came across today. First one I've seen in the U.K for months. Seems they are more popular across the water than here in blighty. I had t go about a mile and a half and just couldn't afford the shoe leather so took the car.
Here is the Mirage.


As we were flapping gums one of these floated by.



This took me back to the mid 70's when I worked for a car hire company out of Holland Park, Kensington where the management entrusted me to take all top end cars that were not due for a rental to a storage facility near Heathrow Airport. Sometime the guv'nor would allow me to take a Jaguar or a Triumph 2000, Austin Princess (I had one) or a Dolomite Sprint for the weekend.
Something for the weekend? Nah, not that a Jag..
Now that has lit a fire within me. I'd love to have one. The ride in the Jaguar (any model) is like a magic carpet ride,(not like today's offerings) so silent you could hear the clock tick. The interior carpets were better than those fitted to the Churchill Hotel where your foot literally sank into the carpet.
Drool drool and some more drools.

[dspace9]

like a magic carpet ride,(not like today's offerings) so silent you could hear the clock tick. The interior carpets were better than those fitted to the Churchill Hotel where your foot literally sank into the carpet.
Drool drool and some more drools.

One of my distant cousins in Michigan had a Jag like that when I was a kid. V12 I believe. Long snout. Good looking cars.

[klroger]

Look at what I came across today. First one I've seen in the U.K for months. Seems they are more popular across the water than here in blighty. I had t go about a mile and a half and just couldn't afford the shoe leather so took the car.
Here is the Mirage.


As we were flapping gums one of these floated by.



The ride in the Jaguar (any model) is like a magic carpet ride,(not like today's offerings) so silent you could hear the clock tick. The interior carpets were better than those fitted to the Churchill Hotel where your foot literally sank into the carpet.
Drool drool and some more drools.

I had a customer that had a Citroen DS21. It was the best riding car I ever drove. The Hydro / pneumatic suspension & the seats, the steering, everything about the car was a luxury, far over & above any Cadillac or Lincoln in north america as far as comfort or ride is concerned... There is a reason the French call them "The Goddess"

[itschad]

One of my distant cousins in Michigan had a Jag like that when I was a kid. V12 I believe. Long snout. Good looking cars.

That's the one, a V12. Such a refined lump but by God you needed an open wallet to maintain such a car.
No good asking Miles Per Gallon, just ask Gallons to the Mile

[itschad]

I had a customer that had a Citroen DS21. It was the best riding car I ever drove. The Hydro / pneumatic suspension & the seats, the steering, everything about the car was a luxury, far over & above any Cadillac or Lincoln in north america as far as comfort or ride is concerned... There is a reason the French call them "The Goddess"

There was a guy at Waterloo (London) that solely repaired these DS21's and they too were brilliant, their Achillies Heel was the hydro pneumatic system, if a leak occured you'd lose steering, brakes and suspension. They are/were famous for these leaks and it wasn't cheap to change the spheres (one in each corner) and it was complicated. A similar system was used on the Citroen Xantia and that didn't sell well in the UK.

[foama]

That's the one, a V12. Such a refined lump but by God you needed an open wallet to maintain such a car...

Not to mention the endless costs and enormous efforts to keep them running! One hour's driving meant about twenty minutes or more of maintenance. After five or six years and maybe 60000miles, they were worn out smokers and rust buckets. Some of the Jaguar's, particularly the 2.4L Mark I and II wore out clutches like crazy within a few weeks. As heavenly comfortable as the Jaguar and Rover P4 to P6 were, they had pre-war style technology and even worse reliabilty.
I know bloody well from first hand experience, because I repaired them and also many BMC's Austin/Morris a few Wolseley/Riley, and Rover P4, P6 when they were their own brand, and also a few Hillman, Triumph Herald and a rare Jowett Javelin or Trumph Mayfair, some Austin A4 A6, Morris Minor's and so on in the sixties. We've come a far way since, and thank goodness!

Folks today just don't know what it meant for the British car industry to make do with British infrastructure! Makers like Morris and Austin from the 1930's on, and even Ford in London Dagenham until the 80's had to provide their own little electric power stations, process coal and iron ore, had their own blow-furnaces, made their own steel sheeting, leaf and coil springs, their own seats and the entire interior and almost everything else except tyres, glass and paint.

Today the situation is totally different, just look at our cars. Mitsubishi and Daimler Chrysler designed the 3A9x engines in the Kölleda plant as a joint venture. Today Mitsubishi buys transmission, brakes, electrical parts including fuel injection and ABS, the seats, airbags, and just about most other stuff. Only a small fraction of our Mitsubishi cars is actually Mitsubishi made. Makers specialize in what they do best, and buy the other stuff from specialized industry leaders that can do it better, such as Bosch, Denso, Aisin, Akebono, and many others.

[dspace9]

That's the one, a V12. Such a refined lump but by God you needed an open wallet to maintain such a car.
No good asking Miles Per Gallon, just ask Gallons to the Mile

Yea eh, thirsty. You don't see many Jaguars in Ontario, or in Michigan. Back in the 80s or now. I did see a newer F type Jag convertible the other week. Eye candy.

Ya you need an open wallet with a car like that! Too many gizmos, too many options, lots of parts to go wrong.

__
foama that's interesting. Sounds like how things were at the Ford Dearborn plant in Michigan back in the day. Big time gigantic operations, all the arms of the octopus going in one unit.

They did everything in house, stamping, power generation too I'm sure. Well they had Niagara Falls hydro infrastructure back then. Anyway huge operations, at a scale you don't see in one place anymore these days. Or so they say.

Pumping out a car from the assembly line every 2 minutes or whatever in 1920 is impressive on a different level. Ford even tried his hand at rubber, with a plantation in Brazil I believe, but failed.

[foama]

Yea, thats exactly the point!
Makers concentrating on making cars, rather than making their own electricity, steel, door locks, etc. are the ones that have remained on the market.
If their cars weren't good enough, they dissappeared from the market. See how Morris, Austin, MG, Riley, Wolseley and many others were forced to form BMC, then a few years later BMLC, and later on Rover. If faltering companies producing junk are put together, it neither creates a better organization, nor better cars. They very effectively get themselves out of business by embracing each other and carrying on building anachronistic trash!

When BMW invested every cent they owned and did not own into Rover, they actually got the products up to par in the end, but buyers remained away because nobody believed any improvement had taken place. Their utterly terrible reputation from previous decades producing shoddy rubbish finished Rover off.

In the end, BMW was forced to pull the plug because they drained so much out of their own business, that they were threatend with bankruptcy themselves.

[Dirk Diggler]

Look at what I came across today. First one I've seen in the U.K for months. Seems they are more popular across the water than here in blighty. I had t go about a mile and a half and just couldn't afford the shoe leather so took the car.
Here is the Mirage.


As we were flapping gums one of these floated by.



This took me back to the mid 70's when I worked for a car hire company out of Holland Park, Kensington where the management entrusted me to take all top end cars that were not due for a rental to a storage facility near Heathrow Airport. Sometime the guv'nor would allow me to take a Jaguar or a Triumph 2000, Austin Princess (I had one) or a Dolomite Sprint for the weekend.
Something for the weekend? Nah, not that a Jag..
Now that has lit a fire within me. I'd love to have one. The ride in the Jaguar (any model) is like a magic carpet ride,(not like today's offerings) so silent you could hear the clock tick. The interior carpets were better than those fitted to the Churchill Hotel where your foot literally sank into the carpet.
Drool drool and some more drools.

Chad are you still in pain when driving?

[itschad]

Chad are you still in pain when driving?

Only when I'm sitting in my Mirage and a Jaguar goes by.