Something very strange afoot.....
Discussion
Could I have found the ultimate vehicle to survive the complete blithering morons of Melbourne roads? Something very, very strange has been happening over the last couple of days.... A new phenominon so bizarre that at first I thought I was imagining it, but no, it has continued happening.....
Picture yourself, at a T junction waiting to join a main road, does anyone ever let you in? No. You try to nose your way out in stopped heavy traffic, they'll be hitting the horn and crossing into the other lane to try to drive round you first rather than let you in.
Picture yourself looking to change lane on the freeway, you stick on the indicator in full expectation that any car behind in the lane you are wanting to move into will see you indicating and instantly start closing the gap you're looking to move into for no apparent reason.
You park forward into a 90 degree parking spot to nip into the shops, upon reversing out of the space and a car is coming down the street do you expect them to do what they would do in the UK and stop to let you complete the move if you are already most of the way out? No, they drive around you, again usually going into oncoming traffic in the process...
Unless....
You buy what I am currently thinking is v2.0 of the Camry plan discussed in previous threads.
May I introduce exhibit A that I bought last week.
1x 1995 Jaguar XJ6 Sovereign in champagne gold...
For the price of only 4x what it would cost to buy in the UK (*whince*) I have bought myself a large lump of leather and wood filled, lpg fueled, 4.0 sofa on wheels that seems to have the bizarre side effect of instilling consideration and courtesy into other road users through creating some parallel universe where they don't all drive like inconsiderate morons around itself.
I've pulled up at junctions in traffic and had cars on the main road stop and wave me in...
I've gone to change lane and actually found that the gap was still there for me to move into, not having been closed up instantly by Janelle the war secretery in her Hyundai deathship desperate not to concede 30ft of road length to another vehicle.
I've begun reversing out of a parking space twice now to find traffic coming to a stop to allow me to do so rather than carrying on out and around past me.
I've even headed up the onramp onto the freeway and had the vehicles in the inside lane move into the middle to allow me to merge.
Funnily enough these things never happen when I'm driving any of our other cars, so i am a bit stumped as to what it is about the Jag that people treat differently.
Now ok it prob won't have the reliability of the Camry plan, but i think the trade off is worth it - especialy with 400km on a tank of lpg costing $26.
Forget buying Camrys for the daily commute people, Jags for everyone!!! I bought this one for occasional use as a toy, but with the comfort, cheapness to run and moron repellant qualities on the commute into the city I think it might end up getting a good bit more use than planned.
Another day forward, and still Camry free...
Picture yourself, at a T junction waiting to join a main road, does anyone ever let you in? No. You try to nose your way out in stopped heavy traffic, they'll be hitting the horn and crossing into the other lane to try to drive round you first rather than let you in.
Picture yourself looking to change lane on the freeway, you stick on the indicator in full expectation that any car behind in the lane you are wanting to move into will see you indicating and instantly start closing the gap you're looking to move into for no apparent reason.
You park forward into a 90 degree parking spot to nip into the shops, upon reversing out of the space and a car is coming down the street do you expect them to do what they would do in the UK and stop to let you complete the move if you are already most of the way out? No, they drive around you, again usually going into oncoming traffic in the process...
Unless....
You buy what I am currently thinking is v2.0 of the Camry plan discussed in previous threads.
May I introduce exhibit A that I bought last week.
1x 1995 Jaguar XJ6 Sovereign in champagne gold...
For the price of only 4x what it would cost to buy in the UK (*whince*) I have bought myself a large lump of leather and wood filled, lpg fueled, 4.0 sofa on wheels that seems to have the bizarre side effect of instilling consideration and courtesy into other road users through creating some parallel universe where they don't all drive like inconsiderate morons around itself.
I've pulled up at junctions in traffic and had cars on the main road stop and wave me in...
I've gone to change lane and actually found that the gap was still there for me to move into, not having been closed up instantly by Janelle the war secretery in her Hyundai deathship desperate not to concede 30ft of road length to another vehicle.
I've begun reversing out of a parking space twice now to find traffic coming to a stop to allow me to do so rather than carrying on out and around past me.
I've even headed up the onramp onto the freeway and had the vehicles in the inside lane move into the middle to allow me to merge.
Funnily enough these things never happen when I'm driving any of our other cars, so i am a bit stumped as to what it is about the Jag that people treat differently.
Now ok it prob won't have the reliability of the Camry plan, but i think the trade off is worth it - especialy with 400km on a tank of lpg costing $26.
Forget buying Camrys for the daily commute people, Jags for everyone!!! I bought this one for occasional use as a toy, but with the comfort, cheapness to run and moron repellant qualities on the commute into the city I think it might end up getting a good bit more use than planned.
Another day forward, and still Camry free...
Now you are talking. 10 grand for that is a deadset fair dinkum bargain. A rip-off, but in Aussie terms an absolute bargain. And I want it.How very curious that people have started driving in a manner that borders acceptable... I wonder if it is a fear of damaging what to them looks like a million dollar car...?
Most interesting. I discounted the extraordinarily attractive idea of a Jag for the obvious reasons of reliability and cost. But hmmm. Second car this week that made me think that maybe a Camry is in fact not the best car in the world ever. Other was an 850R.
Just had a look at Jags on carsales...theres a few bloody lovely looking ones for under $15K!! I never noticed this corner of the market before, not exactly bangernomics but cheap enough to buy and certainly a nice car to be in than anything from the local makers in the same price range.I will be very interested to see what its like running one here.
Oh and I will personally give you
Whilst not believing for a second that drivers here can be considerate, I'd like to post the antithesis of the Jag effect.
Try driving a large VW van (personal transport, rather than a work white van). I appear to be invisible to other road users who predictably cut me up, ignore me (despite being large, box like and indicating for 300 yards,.,.) etc etc etc, its all very boring!
thank goodness for being high up with great visibility to predict the inevitable.
(and i still don't believe a Jag can be a cure!)
Try driving a large VW van (personal transport, rather than a work white van). I appear to be invisible to other road users who predictably cut me up, ignore me (despite being large, box like and indicating for 300 yards,.,.) etc etc etc, its all very boring!
thank goodness for being high up with great visibility to predict the inevitable.
(and i still don't believe a Jag can be a cure!)
Good idea on the flags, alas since it would cost me at least $2.10 for the drill bit to drill the holes i'd have considered it at $2.50, but $1.99 is a deal breaker...
I'm pretty happy with it, it's got high country kms (hence why the previous owner had it put on gas) but it's still pulling strongly without any weird noises or droning from the dif/gearbox/etc. Plus it has been well cared for at a local specialist so i'm happy it has been well maintained. Only place the kms show is on the steering wheel and auto shifter that are pretty worn from where the previous owner apparently only ever drove it wearing leather driving gloves, the rest of it's in great condition....
So yeah, for $10k on the road, registered and with the RWC done and with a $5k sequential injection gas system fitted I thought it was well worth a punt.
Almost made me feel sorry for the dealer when it needed a new windscreen, 2 shocks, rear discs, new pads all round, couple of ball joints, 2 new tyres, and a few other bits and pieces to get through the RWC which they obviously had to pay for..
Would have loved a v12 one, but I think that could have been a world of pain and not really something I could do all that much work on easily myself.
I'm pretty happy with it, it's got high country kms (hence why the previous owner had it put on gas) but it's still pulling strongly without any weird noises or droning from the dif/gearbox/etc. Plus it has been well cared for at a local specialist so i'm happy it has been well maintained. Only place the kms show is on the steering wheel and auto shifter that are pretty worn from where the previous owner apparently only ever drove it wearing leather driving gloves, the rest of it's in great condition....
So yeah, for $10k on the road, registered and with the RWC done and with a $5k sequential injection gas system fitted I thought it was well worth a punt.
Almost made me feel sorry for the dealer when it needed a new windscreen, 2 shocks, rear discs, new pads all round, couple of ball joints, 2 new tyres, and a few other bits and pieces to get through the RWC which they obviously had to pay for..
Would have loved a v12 one, but I think that could have been a world of pain and not really something I could do all that much work on easily myself.
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