Jaguar Drivers Club

[liner33]

Having a look around and spotted these guys , this quote from their FB page makes me think perhaps a club with a bit more of a sense of humour might be preferable but any members on here? Is it worth joining ?


"Any negative X-Type/Mondeo comments will be awarded a warning from an admin, further comments will result in a permanent ban. Comments suggesting any other Jaguar model is inferior because of the company’s period of ownership by Ford or British Leyland will receive similar treatment".

[Jaguar steve]

Have a look at The Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club website. It was formed decades ago by a number of disgruntled Jaguar Driver's Club members who left because they wanted a more down to earth and practical approach to Jaguar ownership.

It's grown massively since and now suffers rather too much IMO from some members promoting their own financial and sponsored partnership business interests and it also appears from the annual accounts the directors divert several thousands of pounds from club funds into their own personal pension plans every year. The Club's organized holidays, ferry crossings and hotels and driving tours are expensive as is the specialist tool hire offered by one of the founder members, some of which are actually completely unnecessary for the specific job they are advertised for.

Some of the technical repair articles are so incredibly pedantic you loose the will to live reading them - a whole paragraph on how to start an engine repeated month after month for example. Frankly if you need written help with that you really shouldn't be going out on your own, let alone driving a car you've just had spread in bits all over the garage floor.

Just like any other single interest club judging from some of the magazine content the JEC certainly seems to attract a number of rather err... peculiar people too.

On the plus side the monthly magazine is extremely well produced and photographed and a big effort is made to cover all members different interests and eras of Jaguars. The Technical Seminars in the Midlands on various models are always popular and there's active local regions all over the country if that's your thing.

I'm not a "clubby" sort of person at all but keep my membership going simply because that allows me to suck on the technical resources and specialist repair information from some very knowledgeable experts if I ever need too.

Edited by Jaguar steve on Friday 9th December 17:12

[plasticpig]

Jaguar steve said:

The Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club was formed decades ago by a number of Jaguar Driver's Club members who left because they wanted a more down to earth and practical approach to Jaguar ownership.

I joined the JEC. I went to the local club meeting which was held at a golf club. Everyone was talking about golf and not Jaguars; so I left and never went again.

[Jaguar steve]

plasticpig said:

Jaguar steve said:

The Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club was formed decades ago by a number of Jaguar Driver's Club members who left because they wanted a more down to earth and practical approach to Jaguar ownership.

I joined the JEC. I went to the local club meeting which was held at a golf club. Everyone was talking about golf and not Jaguars; so I left and never went again.

You should try spending an evening necking pints in a posh Yacht club or marina bar then. Preferably unshowered and a bit fragrant, wearing old sea boots and tatty waterproofs that are smeared with winch grease and spilled pot noodle and crusted with salt spray and creek mud and sporting a three day beard.

I've concluded that one of the main reasons most single interest clubs exist is to provide the opportunity to conforming members of feeling a sort of smug superiority about themselves by excluding others who don't or won't play quite the same silly one upmanship games or sheepishly follow the same petty social protocols they do.

All the gear but absolutely no idea...

[deadslow]

plasticpig said:

Jaguar steve said:

The Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club was formed decades ago by a number of Jaguar Driver's Club members who left because they wanted a more down to earth and practical approach to Jaguar ownership.

I joined the JEC. I went to the local club meeting which was held at a golf club. Everyone was talking about golf and not Jaguars; so I left and never went again.

am only really in it for the massive insurance discount. Was a member around 20 years ago (same reason), and thought upon rejoining recently that it would have moved on a bit, but no. Stuck.

[Jaguar steve]

deadslow said:

plasticpig said:

Jaguar steve said:

The Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club was formed decades ago by a number of Jaguar Driver's Club members who left because they wanted a more down to earth and practical approach to Jaguar ownership.

I joined the JEC. I went to the local club meeting which was held at a golf club. Everyone was talking about golf and not Jaguars; so I left and never went again.

am only really in it for the massive insurance discount. Was a member around 20 years ago (same reason), and thought upon rejoining recently that it would have moved on a bit, but no. Stuck.

I've never found the JEC competitive on price for anything. Their "preferred" insurance partners and all the parts suppliers who advertise in the magazine never get close to the best deal. A couple of years ago and out of interest Mrs JS did a search on a hotel they were plugging as a special offer to members for a club weekend because it looked a nice place to stay in a area we fancied a break in.

I forget the exact numbers but rooms on the same B&B deal in the same hotel were freely available to Joe public for around half the price the JEC were asking.

[deadslow]

Jaguar steve said:

deadslow said:

plasticpig said:

Jaguar steve said:

The Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club was formed decades ago by a number of Jaguar Driver's Club members who left because they wanted a more down to earth and practical approach to Jaguar ownership.

I joined the JEC. I went to the local club meeting which was held at a golf club. Everyone was talking about golf and not Jaguars; so I left and never went again.

am only really in it for the massive insurance discount. Was a member around 20 years ago (same reason), and thought upon rejoining recently that it would have moved on a bit, but no. Stuck.

I've never found the JEC competitive on price for anything. Their "preferred" insurance partners and all the parts suppliers who advertise in the magazine never get close to the best deal. A couple of years ago and out of interest Mrs JS did a search on a hotel they were plugging as a special offer to members for a club weekend because it looked a nice place to stay in a area we fancied a break in.

I forget the exact numbers but rooms on the same B&B deal in the same hotel were freely available to Joe public for around half the price the JEC were asking.

fair enough, pal, but I'm covering an XJR for a couple of hundred notes. The next best quote was miles more expensive than the £48 odd membership.

[fatboy b]

Sounds like it's run by the same t.w.a.t.s as http://www.xfforum.co.uk

[fatboy b]

liner33 said:

Having a look around and spotted these guys , this quote from their FB page makes me think perhaps a club with a bit more of a sense of humour might be preferable but any members on here? Is it worth joining ?


"Any negative X-Type/Mondeo comments will be awarded a warning from an admin, further comments will result in a permanent ban. Comments suggesting any other Jaguar model is inferior because of the company’s period of ownership by Ford or British Leyland will receive similar treatment".

Not a club, but a friendly forum - www.jaginfo.org it started as a breakaway from xfforum for Jag XF owners, but now has expanded to,all Jags, and even other brands.

There's meet at Donnington tomorrow morning.

I personally can't be arsed with clubs as they get very opinionated about the newer Jags that "just aren't Jags".

[jimattfield]

The OP doesn't declare a model but just a plug for those with XK's as I have been very pleased with a move from the JEC (back when I had the XJR-100) to the XK Enthusiasts Club (XKEC) which seems not to suffer from many of the failings discussed here. Disclaimer - I have no affiliation to XKEC other than as a member.

James

2010 XK 'R' w/ Adaptive Dynamics

Edited by jimattfield on Monday 12th December 16:18

[liner33]

fatboy b said:

Not a club, but a friendly forum - www.jaginfo.org it started as a breakaway from xfforum for Jag XF owners, but now has expanded to,all Jags, and even other brands.

There's meet at Donnington tomorrow morning.

I personally can't be arsed with clubs as they get very opinionated about the newer Jags that "just aren't Jags".

I'm on there but as you say thats just a forum

[liner33]

jimattfield said:

The OP doesn't declare a model but just a plug for those with XK's as I have been very pleased with a move from the JEC (back when I had the XJR-100) to the XK Enthusiasts Club (XKEC) which seems not to suffer from many of the failings discussed here. Disclaimer - I have no affiliation to XKEC other than as a member.

James

2010 XK Dynamic 'R'

Its "hidden" in my garage on my profile

I have an XFR

[mph]

I'm in both clubs (JDC and JEC). The JEC does seem to have the edge in organisation and content.

Both magazines are quite decent and go some way to offset the membership cost IMHO. I've bought items from the classified ads and used some of the advertised services.

I've been on a French tour with the JDC and a trip to Essen and really enjoyed both.

My local JDC area is very active and even though I don't attend monthly meetings they arrange a lot of visits, events and also produce a local newsletter which I've bought two cars from. I've also met a few like-minded people that I keep in touch with.

All clubs will have their politics, I take what suits me from the clubs and find it's worth the fee.

[a8hex]

When I first bought my 150 I joined both clubs, but apart from the monthly mag I didn't hear anything from the JDC for about 11 months. Then I got sent an "invite" to an event that the JEC had invited me to a couple of months earlier. It seems that in my area the JDC just wasn't very active. The JEC on the other hand contacted me straight away.
But I believe this varies from one area to another.
At the grass roots level I think the two clubs tend to be on good terms and my local JEC group often does things with a neighbouring JDC group.
Try both and see what works best for you.

[Ian350]

I'm in the JEC and really like the magazine and the general feel of the club. There is a fair bit of non-Jaguar advertising though which I am somewhat suspicious of.