Ezra Dyer: Jaguars in the Driveway
From the March/April 2025 issue of Car and Driver.
I have neighbors I haven't met, but I know their vehicles. There's the guy with a Saab 900 Turbo convertible, a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, and a square-body Chevy pickup making unlikely bedfellows under a carport. There's the one with a Mercedes G-wagen RV, a Volvo C30, and an adventure bike. And there's another neighbor whose driveway looks like its own Jaguar-themed Cars & Coffee, with a 1997 XK8 coupe, a 1998 XK8 convertible, a 2005 S-type R, a 2004 XJR, and an early-'60s Mark 2.
One day I decide to stop by and introduce myself, given that I have the key to a 2024 F-type convertible—the last new Jaguar I'll drive for a while and certainly the last one that'll have much in common with the cars in this driveway. I don't know if you've been paying attention, but Jaguar is in its Eat, Pray, Love phase, on a journey of self-discovery that most definitely does not include supercharged V-8s. I have a feeling my neighbor will be disappointed about that. And, as is so often the case, I am right.
His name is Kemp Neal, and besides the visible Jaguars, his garage includes an XJ coupe that he's owned for 40 years. Kemp's father had an XK-150 and an E-type, and his brother has an E-type now. Since Kemp is busy working on the trunk panel of yet another British car—a 2006 Bentley Continental GT—we agree that I should return in a couple of days for a Jaguar meetup.
When I do, Kemp's brother, John, is there with his E-type droptop. "My first Jag was a Mark 1 when I was in college," Kemp says. "John gave it to me because it had a bad transmission. I figured out that it used a Borg-Warner from an old Studebaker, so I went to a junkyard that had 10 of them and bought them all for $50. Eventually, I cut a hole in the floorboard so I could fix the transmission without removing it." This sounds like the kind of origin story that would lead to a lifetime of Camry ownership, but Kemp doesn't mind the foibles that old Jags present. And there are a few.
"I drove the XJR to New York to look at another Jag, and when I got there, the trunk wouldn't open. So to get my luggage, I had to cut a hole behind the seat and pull the emergency release with a coat hanger." A stuck trunk also afflicted the Bentley, hence the work on the trim panel. "I ended up having to take it to the dealer," he says. "They won't tell me how they got it open, but I think you have to go in through the taillight—you pull it out with a toilet plunger." Here I will point out that Kemp's wife drives a Toyota.
Kemp scours the country for cars. The S-type came from California, and he flew out to purchase it. When I ask whether he road-tripped it back, he replies, "No, I'm not that trusting of British cars." This is a surprisingly pragmatic statement from someone who owns six Jaguars.
I ask the brothers their thoughts on the Type 00, the new concept car. Kemp replies, "That monstrosity? I think one challenge is that Jaguars have never cost that much, and then all of a sudden you're going to ask $150,000?" Jaguar hasn't specified a price for its next model, but either way, both men agree the company needs to do something.
"I'm 77, and he's 70," John says. "So you see the problem." Actually, I see another problem, in that the newest Jag of theirs is 20 years old. I ask whether either of them has ever bought a new Jaguar. Nope. They like old Jaguars, which, unfortunately, are not what Jaguar sells.
A drive in the F-type elicits admiration, particularly for the curves of the fenders—a subtle modern echo of the E-type—and the tunes played by the supercharged 5.0-liter V-8. Kemp, though, has doubts about the motorized HVAC ductwork. "That will definitely break," he says. "The vents in my XKs are manual, and they're broken."
I doubt that potential HVAC hiccups would dissuade a guy who once collected 10 spare transmissions, but depreciation certainly would, and this car costs about $92,000. Meanwhile, used vehicles that are essentially the same are available for $30,000 all day long. "I'll let someone else take that beating," he says.
But he's not ruling out the F-type entirely. This is, after all, the last Jaguar as we know it, the highest evolution of the company's front-engine, two-seat formula. Glancing from the F-type to the arc of cars wrapping around his driveway, Kemp says, "I've probably got space for one more."
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