A Mostly British Obsession

Vanden Plas: First Day

1996 Jaguar Vanden Plas

I picked this car up on Saturday with the help of my friend Jeff. Seems like a good machine so far, the usual “oh my god, what have I done” moment hasn’t yet arrived (you’ll know when it does). I even got 28 MPG on the trip back!

1996 Jaguar Vanden Plas

So far the punch list of things to take care of includes:

  • The right corner of the front bumper has a good scrape in the paint, plus a broken lens on the fog light. Perhaps a coyote which is no longer of this vale, or a chunk-o-debris.
  • The paint (the color seems to be “Nautilus,” which amuses me for whatever reason) is in decent condition, but could use a polish to remove a few “sure, put the grocery bags here” scratches.

1996 Jaguar Vanden Plas

  • The driver’s door trim is loose as all of the snap fasteners are broken. This is common when you take interior trim off–the fasteners rarely come off in one piece. Be interesting to know why someone poked around in there…
  • The clock doesn’t work, which is a common problem on these cars–the ribbon cable loses contact with the LCD. Cure is a piece of cardboard crammed behind the cable. Unfortunately, it means dismantling a few things to get the cardboard into place…

1996 Jaguar Vanden Plas

Anyway, it seems like a decent car. Drives very nicely. Considering the beat-up MGB GTs I was looking at for this price, I couldn’t be more pleased.

2 Comments

  1. Andrew Conti

    I want first dibs when you are ready to move on from this one.

    Great looking car in my favorite color combination!

    Congrats!

  2. Matt B

    I know its crazy, but I am looking into getting one of these with 230,000 miles. The price is right – I figure if it dies on the way home I could still strip it and sell the parts on eBay for more than I would pay for the whole. I would like to get home, however. How about a little update? Thanks.

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