Thursday 11th July 2002

Jensen Update

Graham Bell updates us on the latest from the ailing manufacturer

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[dandarez]

Jensen marque died years ago. This is not a Jensen, just a re-badged monstrosity. It will sink like hundreds before. I feel for all the poor suckers who have put down, probably large, deposits on this never to be 45 grand no hoper, sucked in as usual by the motoring press. Autocar for one has been listing these forthcoming Jensens ever since the 1998 Motor Show, changing the date almost weekly. It still lists one for 2003 now. At the same time another marque which was at the 98 Motor Show has never been listed ONCE! But they don't give free lunches to jounos. 'Nuff said'.

[grahambell]

Be honest dan, you don't really expect to see a small specialist manufacturer like Dare getting fair coverage in Autosnob do you? That lot are so ignorant of the whole specialist car scene they even think the Noble M12 has an in-line engine...

[JonRB]

I remember seeing the Dare DZ at the 1998 Motor Show. I feel in love with it and even put together the first ever web page (that I could find anyway) dedicated to it at www.jonrb.dial.pipex.com/cars/dare.html

Such a pity it caused such a small stir, although Top Gear Magazine and Top Gear (TV prog) did do some good pieces on it. Having said that, I was always deeply suspcious of a kick back on that one as all the photos on the DZ literature were copyright Top Gear.

[dandarez]

Jon,
You are not alone - the crowds that queued to see the DZ at the 98 Show made me (and Ivor Walklett) think at the time that this was a real winner. Sadly, Ivor between you and me took notice of those who told him the car was way to radical to be a success. Nonsense. I drove Brookes green DZ many miles and it was totally civilised (except for getting in and out!) - I even got it to feature in the Oxford Mail motoring section with more coverage than the new Rover 75 (the offices emptied when I drove up!). Have you ever wondered why the Lotus 340R suddenly came to fruition for the 98 Motor Show - look at the original drawings of the 340R and it's front wing...
I could go on... (superb reviews of the car appeared in a couple of independent mags, while Autocar damned it as did Auto Express - the latter with a liabelous statement). Smell a rat? You certainly did!
How about opening out this contentious subject, possibly via your web page to a much wider audience?

[JonRB]

Lets take this discussion to General Gassing > DARE DZ instead - we're a bit off-topic discussing Dare in a Jenson thread!