It's Different

C took the Jaguar for a solo drive last night. First time.

Now, C loves  her Honda Odyssey. It helps her perform her role as loving family COO, and it's such a safe, comfortable, pleasant, dependable, high-quality vehicle. It handles itself well in town and traffic. It roadtrips five people and a dog to central Utah like nobody's business. And it pulls MPGs in the high 20's for all the space it provides us. I don't think she'd really want anything else for her daily ride. We all love it, frankly. Running a family without one would be much, much more difficult. How we ever got along with the Trooper for so long is hard, now, to imagine.

Having said that, she often confided that having a Mercedes to ride in was a real ego booster sometimes and a nice treat. She noticed that she got a higher level of  respectful treatment when she drove the Mercedes; people were always just a little nicer to her, in subtle and undefinable ways. People would actually notice the car. She could see people trying to connect the car to the owner with their eyes. It was just...different. Special. Worth putting something nicer from the closet.

I had told her it was even more different in the Jaguar, that the conspicuousness goes up a notch, based on what I've seen so far.  She was a bit skeptical (thinking, I'm sure, about the pickup truck driver in southern Oregon who gave us all sorts of attitude just for having a Benz. I mean how could you be more conspicuous than inciting a guy to make gestures and yell out his window while we're on cruise control going down the interstate? Good thing the Benz had double-paned glass...the kids didn't hear the words he used. Neither did we, for that matter, I just read his lips), but then she took the Jaguar out herself and saw what I was talking about.

The gas station attendants immediately called her Ma'am, and used a completely different tone of voice with her -- hushed, deferential. It's more than respect -- awe. People don't just match the car to owner, they stop and admire the car outright. Pedestrians walking past the gas station actually pause and stare. Not at her, but at the car. Then they catch themselves and look for the owner...admiringly. Someone approached her as she waited, just to tell her how nice her car was.

She picked up on that difference once she experienced it for herself. I mean, how could you NOT? She did a good job capturing the feeling when she put it this way:

"In my Honda Odyssey, I'm just another soccer mom. In a Mercedes, I'm respectable. But In the Jaguar, I am a GODDESS!"

I love that line!

 

Driving to work,this morning, I watched a Geo Metro -- paint all beat up, with two young twenty-somethings, man and woman -- pull up behind me at the light. They were both really clean cut, well groomed and dressed like you'd expect a college graduate to dress for their first jobs. I could easily imagine them as a young couple in love, starting their careers after graduating from college last spring, making do with what they've got as they get started. Full of big dreams and ambitions. There was a happiness in their faces. But that changed as he sat behind me, impatient that I didn't make the right turn on the red light quite yet. His body language got a bit angry, as he spoke animatedly and gestured at my car. He wasn't gesturing toward me, I noticed, but toward the car itself. In the rearview mirror, I could see he was staring at the spot on the trunk where the badge is. It was about the car. He'd have been looking at the back of my headrest if he was angry at me. I could see her expression shift from engaged to withdrawn. She had been turned toward him, smiling, as they approached. She turned her head away and stared blankly out the window after that. I got the sense that he was frustrated that he wasn't driving a car like the Jaguar. I made the turn, as did they. For the next two or three miles, he followed me in traffic. They never went back to to their happiness. They were withdrawn.

The whole experience took me right back to my first couple years, driving a beat up Honda Civic. Happy as I was to have a car at all, there was still a hunger. I'd park in the lot at the software company, next to the Maserati, the BMWs, the Porches, and the CEO's Ferrari... in my stupid littl 1200cc Honda pillb0x. "One of these days," I'd tell myself, "one of these days." On a rainy day when the Ferrari wouldn't start again, and the tow truck would come to take it to the shop for an electrical harness dry-out, I'd count the dollars and realize that the CEO was spending more per month on towing than my car actually cost. At least my car would start in the rain, and a set of four tires cost me $60. I counted those things as blessings and told myself, once again, "One of these days..."

Well, young man behind me in traffic this morning: if you're reading this, don't make it miserable for you and your girlfriend. One of these days, you'll have a Jaguar too. Just keep working hard for it, wait for the right opportunity, and don't rush. I feel much closer to you, young man, in your Geo Metro, to this day, than I do to the other Jaguar owners around town. I may be one myself now, but they still intimidate me. I'm sure I'll keep talking to them in hushed, reverent tones -- calling them 'Sir' and "Ma'am" --  even as I drive a Jaguar myself.

Night time with the Jaguar

They are  nocturnal animals, afterall!

We spent the day doing some maintenance around the house. Just some winter-prep work. C painted the areas needing final paint. I mortared some sections of the outside basement wall to prevent any moisture seepage around the windows we replaced a year ago. We made it through last winter withour moisture, but the window still could benefit from some extra coverage. That, plus a  little lawn mowing and that pretty much covers the house work.

Prior to that, we had M's two(!!) ballet classes, and R's private gymnastics session. Both M's classes and R's class time turned out to be good investments. The children are getting SO dialed in to their respective pursuits - the progress is measurable week to week, almost session to session. If that weren't enough, toss into the mix a trip to the bank to finance a car, and it was a busy day!

So, to treat ourselves, we all piled in to the Jaguar for a night-time tour. It's hard to beat a warmish, clear/dry late-summer evening in Portland. Conditions just do NOT get any better than that. The kids each brought a book to read. R - bless his heart - is now reading Dune. M, that precocious eight year old, is reading the Legend of Despereaux. They snuggled up in the back seat, each in their pajamas, and read while we listened to music in KINK-FM,  'cruised' downtown (really! We cruised SW Broadway!)  and then drove around in the West Hills, enjoying some of the prettiest night-time scenery you can hope to find in Portland...before it's gone and winter sets in.

Back in the mid-70's, during the emergence of FM radio, KINK-FM ran a TV ad that showed a young, professional-looking  upwardly mobile couple driving around Portland in the evening, in a Porsche, listening to the unique blend of music on KINK. I may be the only person who still remembers that commercial. It was a low-key, lifestyle-based, cop-this-image proposition they put forth in that spot. Somehow that proposition has stuck in my head. Turns out that our drive was a replay of the drive they took in the commercial.  Imagine that. I didn't intend it, but there it is.

Bought the Jaguar XJ8

It's a great car. Oh my GOSH it's a great car. C test-drove it tonight and fell in love.  Just as I did a couple nights ago.

Then she drove a 1995 Mercedes S-class with a big-boy V12. It felt so familiar and 'normal', except that it had twice as much power as the S320 had. A very nice car, at half the price...and half the MPGs.

Her reaction? Same as mine. The Jaguar is just a much better direction to go; the cost is minimal. Maintenance will be less (for a while).

So we agreed on the Jaguar. We put some money down to hold it (it would otherwise sell over this coming weekend, doubtlessly). I'll process the financing/settlement/payments. The Jaguar is a good deal; blue book is at least $5,000 higher than we're paying for this car.

We're pretty pleased.

Swiss man flies over Channel on jet wing

 

Excerpted from the San Francisco Chronicle article, linked below:

"He had nothing above him but four tanks of kerosene and nothing below him but the cold waters of the English Channel. But Yves Rossy leapt from a plane and into the record books on Friday, crossing the channel on a homemade jet-propelled wing."

"Rossy's wing was made from carbon composite. It weighs about 121 pounds when loaded with fuel and carried four kerosene-burning jet turbines. The contraption has no steering devices. Rossy, a commercial airline pilot by training, wiggled his body back and forth to control the wing's movements."

Swiss man flies over Channel on jet wing

Maybe This?

 

A four year old Jaguar XJ8. Believe it or not, they get about 30MPG on the highway. Power - thanks to the V-8 - when you need it, a big back seat for the kids, and lots of pampering details up front for me, whilst I drive that 50-mile roundtrip commute.

I test drove one last night. My first impression as I slid behind the wheel was that I was getting into an airplane cockpit, not a automobile driver's seat. I felt enveloped, and yet not cramped in the least.

Asking price?                        $13,900
Odometer?                               64,000
Blue Book?                about $18,000

But 30MPG? Really?? Yeah, really. It drops for stop-and-go city driving, but my commute is mostly highway-style cruising. The Mercedes routinely gave me full highway type mileage. It was the errand-running that dropped the S-class's mileage. So 30MPG seems like a reasonable expectation.  Surprisingly enough, that's about the same mileage that the Chevy Cobalt shoebox rental care gets.  Purchase price on the Cobalt, used? About $18,000. Oh, here's what a Cobalt looks like:

Obviously the Chevy is eliminated as a candidate. Why, after all, would I pay twice as much for the same mileage, half the useful life and none of the safety engineering that saved my skin twice this year already?

The question now is, do I buy a comparable S320 outright and enjoy no car payment but lower MPG, or do I finance a bit and step over to the Jag for a payment and improved MPG?

Let's do an analysis, yeah?

I drive 1,000/month exactly for my commute. The Mercedes got 20MPG. If I get a car that delivers 30MPG, I'll save $60/month on gasoline at today's prices ($75/mo if gas goes back up to $4.50.) And, let's say that I get $10,000 for the S-Class as market replacement value. That means I finance $3, 995 of the purchase price on the Jag, for a payment in the $80/month range. Subtract the gas savings, and the monthly payment for the Jag nets out at $20/month today. If gas creeps back up, my net payment drops down as far as $5/month.

That, and the car would have about 70,000 fewer miles on the odometer, and fewer repair/maintenance/restoration issues.

I dunno... does $5-$20/month for an additional 70,000 on the odometer seem like a fair trade?

What do YOU think?

My Mercedes S320 got Clobbered

I've had a blog post on the 'death' of my S320 in the works for a couple weeks. I've just abandoned that article and will update everyone else with a bit of journalism, not story-telling.

The S320 got rear-ended about two weeks ago. I'm fine. The car's a total. Yes, I know I've only had it since March. The insurance company is being extremely cooperative with me and I'm pleased overall with their performance. For the record, I am currently working directly with the offending driver's insurance company, not my own.

I'm currently driving a rental; will switch over to the parents' Lincoln for a bit, then buy a replacement once the money comes in. My best guess is that the replacement value for my S320 is in the $10K range. $4.50/gallon gas drove the resale value of the six-cylinder S-class right up. It's the highest-value S-class on the used market right now. And that means there aren't that many of them popping up on the used car market. Imagine that!

I need a category for automobiles...

Gennifer Moss aka Earth Friend Gen Rollerblades in the Buff | Bitten and Bound

 

Gen Ross, aka Gennifer Moss Earth Friend Gen, is a nudist in-line skater who hails from California and loves organic food. She also loves to remove her clothing and rollerblade where people congregate. The young woman has turned into an urban legend recently in Portland, Oregon. It seems the California transplant petitioned the local city officials of Ashland, Oregon to skate nude in their July 4th parade. They turned down her request. She has since been unable to contain her enthusiasm for nude rollerblading and recently removed her clothing at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland. She sailed along with a big smile and her face, long brown hair flying behind her.

She also rides her bike past our house on her way to Waterfront Park. I've seen her! We seem to be neighbors.

 

Gennifer Moss aka Earth Friend Gen Rollerblades in the Buff | Bitten and Bound