Contrary to popular belief, not all Jaguar owners have bottomless pockets with unlimited funds so that we can have a professional mechanic repair every minor flaw in our car. Therefore Jaguar owners have become masters of innovation and over the years have adapted creative fixes and repairs to perplexing problems. Jaguar owners have become experts in searching salvage yards for adaptable parts from Fords, Hondas or whatever might bring their beloved Jaguar back to life. Even to the extent (God forbid) of replacing the engine with some Detroit product.

With that in mind, I am suggesting a column in The Paw Print that will air your DYI fixes to your Cat that might benefit other owners. A column where you can share your innovative little fixes to annoying, but not necessarily critical, problems you have had with your Jaguar. A column similar to the JCNA Archives or Motorcars Ltd. Forum, but ideas and solutions to the minor inconveniences that can be repaired by using a little common sense or innovative use of the STUFF you have in your goodie collection. Our goal is not to undermine the great Jaguar mechanics out there, or take away their business, but to get back the pride Jaguar owners have when they fix their car themselves. “Yeah, my speed control didn’t work, but I fixed it with a rubber band and a paper clip, and it’s been working great for over a year.” Maybe the Jaguar mechanics can learn from us as we learn from them.

To this end I have suggested to the editors of The Paw Print that I will use my e-mail address as a list server to collect your inputs and ideas, edit and arrange them for publication each month in our magazine. No idea or problem solution will be considered too small or too large to print. Note that our purpose will NOT be to answer questions about problems, let’s leave that to the experts, but to state your problem and how YOU fixed it. I hope we have to add pages to the publication to accommodate all your input.

Let’s get it rolling for next months issue. E-mail your ideas to:

Tom Thornton: tthornton1@austin.rr.com