How Not to Do it

The experts all say that buying a Jensen is something that should be done by an experienced enthusiast, trained professional or with the assistance of one or both. There is a long list of things that need to be checked out. This includes stuff like making sure the sills are intact, checking for serious rust, checking for serious rust and checking for serious rust. All-in-all one, or one’s trained expert can expect to spend a couple of busy hours making sure that one’s prospective pride and joy is exactly what it appears to be.

Bah Humbug, I say. I spotted mine on ebay. I think that’s a lovely colour, doesn’t seem too rusty, vaguely verify the seller as an established member of the Jensen community, put in a bid, and three hours later, after consumption of much wine and a midnight fit of auction watching she is mine. In my defence, I will say that this isn’t the first Interceptor I have been after and I did follow all the rules on my previous attempt and rejected it due to a rather nasty looking rash underneath it.

However, the next morning I get up, surrounded by the gathering clouds of a truly stupendous hangover and think "Oh My God, What have I done". Ah, well it was only £1,900 sterling so I’ll get half of that back for bits. The main problem is that is in another country and there is the minor fact that it won’t drive due to having locking brakes and no electrical system to speak of.

So I get it towed to a relative’s house where I have been kindly loaned the use of a garage for a couple of months. Did I mention that my partner is due to have a baby about a month after this transaction closes? And that I never owned a classic car of any kind before? Well, I learned to drive in a Fiat 127 so I should be all right then.

This is one of those emotion buys which is supposed to be the absolute wrong way to buy a car. I first came across an Interceptor when I was in college and there was one for sale in a garage on the route of my daily cycle from grubby flat to college. The asking price was the fantabulous sum of £12,000 which represented a year’s salary for a graduate engineer or about 15 year’s worth of my living expenses at the time. It would have been at least 15 years old and cost nearly half what a new apartment in Dublin city centre cost at the time.

It was a silver Interceptor III with a black interior and was in absolute fabulous condition. Since then, I have always wanted an Interceptor but have somehow repressed the desire. Anyway, about six months ago, my partner was looking in the “Buy and Sell”, and saw an ad for an affordable Interceptor that was only about 40 miles away so we took a spin down to look at. This one wasn’t to be but it did mean I got the Jensen bug again, so I joined a mailing list and have been obsessing about Interceptors since.

Anyway, the development of this site will reflect on how going for an emotion buy is going to affect my personal state of mind and/or finances. I am not going to claim to be wise about this and have so far made every mistake there is to make, but it should be an experience worth having.