Can a Stag be a reliable classic ?

[davidf]

There's a huge amount of bollox talked about the Stag.

I reckon it's mostly from people are jealous of the fantastic good looks and have to google up the bottled history of the car, otherwise they wouldn't have a clue why so few were sold!

It makes ugly German car owners feel good, when they can find something wrong with someone's drop dead gorgeous cabrio.
I don't know of a single country in the world able to make such a superb cabrio, except a rainy island on the edge of the Atlantic.

I remember being in St Tropez one day on the port with the XJS cabrio.
Down the whole port was an enormous collection of Ferraris, mostly bright red and deadly boring.

Funny thing was the Jaguar got 1000x more admiring looks from everyone than a single one of those pseudo exotica from Italy.

We could overhear conversations from the women partners of posh dressed blokes at the port....."hey what is that beautiful cabrio there...?...c'est un Jaguar cherie!"....ah comme c'est jolie!

Absolutely agree - driving round Monte Carlo, surrounded by Ferraris and Lambos, the Stag was the only thing of interest to onlookers. And when I pulled into a campsite, even before I had chance to uncouple the caravan, surrounded by crowds "Ah, monsieur, quelle belle voiture - q'est que c'est?"

[Guest]

"Ah, monsieur, quelle belle voiture - q'est que c'est?"

You forgot the "quel jolie bruit!"
C'est quoi le moteur?

" TROIS LITRES!!!"

After you open the bonnet!...
c'est fou!
un V8? Wow quel gros moteur! (I don't quote French expletives!)

Ca montent a combien??

The French have really never given a damn about the mechanical bits, they only care about the looks.
If it looks good, never mind if it breaks down ever 20 minutes..or plays all the wrong notes like Jonny...

it's still a "look d'enfer" quel bagnole!

[trunt]

To my mind, you can't expect a 40yr old car to be reliable until you take it all to pieces and put it all back together again properly.
(

Couldn't agree more. I'm on my 4th classic car now, all were fully rebuilt and have only had 1 or 2 self inflicted problems from the Mini turbo conversion but it always got me home. . They all started 1st time every time and ran with no problems.

[mole42]

There's a huge amount of bollox talked about the Stag.

I reckon it's mostly from people are jealous of the fantastic good looks and have to google up the bottled history of the car, otherwise they wouldn't have a clue why so few were sold!

And no clue at all why nearly a third of those that were made still exist!

[RobinLegin]

When we did the Fougères rally last year and this, we could regularly see admiring glances and hear "qu'elle est belle cette voiture". And the Java Green attracted further admiration. On one occasion we heard a member of the French public seeing all the cars in the rally exclaim "voilà la plus belle".
So a Stag is a great car even possibly in any colour other than Java green!
Nigel

[richardthestag]

reliable classic eh?

As me learned colleague Down the plug hole has already alluded to, not fit for purpose part supply is the biggest barrier.

Don't shop around for the cheapest part, buy the best you can afford from a reputable trader.

New stock on places like ebay is often cheap tat, unless there is no alternative do yourself a favour

[Wisey]

Mine was reliable last night. Got me to and from late shift during the torrential rain we had down here in Essex, admittedly with a slightly damp passenger side carpet. Yes, I did have the roof up before you ask......

[Guest]

I got wolf whistled by a bloke when I was in my Stag in St. Tropez

[Ian F]

You or the car? LOL

[Guest]

Hopefully the car ian, but it was St.Tropez so who knows?

[TR5convalescent]

About 15 years ago I was sitting at lights outside Harrods in my TR5 between a new Porsche 911 cabrio and a Maserati Coupe and about half a dozen crossing pedestrians were looking at mine and saying "what lovely car" and one lady who correctly identified it. In those days it was worth about £15k or about 1/6th the price of the two outliers.

[TR5convalescent]

In the last three weeks my Stag has been from Aylesbury to Greenwich, via Finchley and Islington in 25 degree heat and sat in stationary traffic for an hour more than once that day, followed by a thrash up the M40 and M5 to Worcester and back including 90 minutes of stop start on the return and finally across country on the A40 & A48 to Cardiff and back in biblical rain on the way and fine weather on the way back which took just over three hours. It's averaged 27 mpg and used about half a pint of oil.

But as Jerry from Enginuity said when I reported back - they need to be used.