Reply To: Welcome newly activated Cabriolet member – Kevin Rowe

#9920
Kevin Rowe
    @kevin-rowe

    Hi Laurence,
    It’s a great website and I’ve followed it ever since I bought my cabriolet and my convertible at the same time about six years ago now……….but time flies, my memory isn’t as good as it used to be so don’t quote me that. I’m glad you took up the challenge of keeping the site going after Bleasie did such a great job with it. I am to technology what King Herod was to babysitting so I hope this post goes up okay and so does the photo of my cars on a motorway when my brother in law and I were driving them from the north of England to the south for shipping down under.

    I grew up in England loving these cars but could never afford one but never lost the desire to own one (I now have four including two coupes). I only drive the six cylinder coupe which I bought from an old chap in Glasgow, also about six years ago and the other coupe I bought here. I will add a photo of that when I figure out how because it’s a real head turner and I’m sure will prompt questions as to how this old Scottish chap did what he has, it’s quite unique. Registration (tax) on cars in Oz is ridiculously high and made worse by the fact that they charge you per cylinder so a V12 can be exorbitant to have on the road, even though there are four cylinder cars out there that are faster and more dangerous! Go figure.

    The Aussie dollar exchange rate against the pound happened to be great when I bought my cars but I never planned on ever buying a car and exporting it from the UK until one day while back visiting family, I was flicking through a magazine and saw an XJS for sale at what I personally thought was a bargain price and things went from there. Getting the cars out of the UK was simple, getting them in to Oz was a nightmare and the red tape was phenomenal, but worth it in the end. In Australia, the law states we can only import cars from overseas made prior to 1 January 1989 otherwise I would have loved to bring in a later model too, but alas, the law is an ass sometimes.

    And, that’s my story, thanks again Laurence, great job with the site!