Cars & Bikes
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Lincoln TownCar
Back in the seventies, you could buy three Lincolns. A land yacht, the Continental, a sporty land yacht, the Mark III, IV & V and in the second half of the seventies a small land yacht, the Versailles. In 1980 the Versailles was discontinued and the others were downsized. But for some reason, the Mark VI became a variant of the Continental with hidden headlights. Like the Continental it was available as two and four door sedan. So you could buy more or less the same car for a different price. That usually doesn’t work well, so in 1981 things changed. The Mark VI would stay until 1984, the Continental…
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Jaguar XF 2.7d 2008
My Daimler Six is in the workshop for maintenance this week, so I am driving a 2008 Jaguar XF 2.7d Luxury. She has a little over 300k on the clock and is eight years old. The Luxury was the entry level in 2008 and if I browse through the owner’s manual, I don’t get the impression that a lot of optional extras were ordered on the car. In 2008 all XF’s were equipped with leather upholstery, automatic gearbox, wood veneer in combination with brushed aluminum and a 6” display. This car is equipped with a optional satellite navigation system. Painted in silver metallic and with a black interior she has…
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Buying a Jaguar
Which Jaguar to buy? That was one of the questions, that was on my mind for the last couple of years. For me, the most beautiful Jaguar is the XJS. As coupé or as convertible. But as a more or less practical car, that was not an option. So, I decided it had to be a XJ. In the Netherlands, they are available in a price range from €1500 for a used one to €176.000 for a new one with a few optional extra’s. Choice enough. To be honest, a new one is not option at this time, even if I skip a few optional extra’s, so it had to be a…
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Dutch License Plates
Side code 1 Side code 1 consisted of two alphanumeric characters and two times two numeric characters, as shown in the picture of the ’65 Barracuda. You would expect that the alphanumeric characters were used in alphabetical order. But the RDW didn’t do it that way. They started with the combination ND-00-01. when the combinations starting with a Z were all used, they started with the letter A and so on until the letter M was reached. By then it was 1965 and it was time for side code 2. The combination AA was and still is reserved for the Royal Family. Side code 2 Side code 2 consisted of…
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The “Original Dutch” car
I refer to cars often as an original Dutch car or the opposite, a non-Dutch car. This has nothing to do with the place the car has been manufactured, but with the fact that the car in question has its first registration in the Netherlands. One of the benefits of this, is that you can check whether a car has been in an accident, the mileage is correct and more. But there is one more thing why there is a difference between an original Dutch car and an imported car: the registration number. The numbering scheme used in the Netherlands, bears no relation to the place of a vehicle’s registration…
