About Me
How did that happen?
My parents are probably to blame, with my mother being the main one. I grew up in Moers in the Kapellen district. A tranquil little village on the border between the Ruhr area and the Lower Rhine. As far as I know, no one in Moers and especially in Kapellen drove a British car. People mostly drove small cars or sometimes better German makes (190E, Audi 80, BMW 3 Series, etc.), and even the better German makes were rather rare. An S-Class, resembled the landing of the Concorde :-)
When I was still in kindergarten, my mother founded a plumbing and heating construction company in the late 80s and early 90s and unfortunately didn't always have that much time for me back then. So I was often picked up from kindergarten by company employees and then taken directly to one or another customer service call or a construction site. At that time, the company had many construction sites and customer service calls in the upscale Krefeld suburbs, Traar and Verberg. The missions in the two suburbs were like entering another world for me. Lots of big beautiful houses with even nicer cars on the streets and in the driveways. A lot of things there I had only seen in films.
At this time, the Arden company was at its peak and was one of the absolute top sellers of Jaguar car dealerships in Europe. In Traar and Verberg it felt like there was a Jaguar on every corner. Quite well-off people had a Jaguar and a Range Rover or Defender.
For me it was like seeing UFOs. You've actually never encountered anything like this in Moers.
My mother always told me that if you earned a lot of money, you could buy a great and elegant car.
At some point I realized that the Jaguar and a Land Rover would remain a dream for the time being, but at some point I will make the dream a reality. So 28 years went by without a Jaguar and I experienced many ups and downs during this time. A real low point was when, at the age of 32 (May 2018), I admitted myself to the hospital on a Saturday because of the pain. My thought process when I brought myself in was, you've been running around with a stomach ache for 14 days and on Monday you have to stand at attention again and earn money. So the doctors have to do something quickly now.
As the doctor pressed and released my stomach and I screamed in pain, he said, “Appendicitis!”
Ok, I thought to myself, that's what a long hospital stay is like. I have a lot of projects right now and every day in the hospital costs me a lot of money. So I asked the doctor what he could give me and if we could make a surgery appointment in 3-4 weeks? He answered me: “If you leave this door now, you will probably be dead tomorrow or the day after!”
A low point for me because I just saw that I won't earn anything :-). At that time I was self-employed.
One day after the operation, the doctor came to the room for a visit. He read the surgery report and talked to me about the night's surgery. “Mr XX, you had a ruptured appendix, but everything is fine!”
Me: “Please what? Perforated appendix? Your colleague told me appendicitis.”
Doctor: “Yes Mr. XX, you heard right, appendix rupture! It was the highest train and very close!”
Phew, I thought to myself, you almost quit because of the ambition of making money.
I had a lot of time to think about it over the next few days, because on day 1 I could barely walk to the toilet with severe pain (1 1/2 meters) :-) .
So when I was able to enjoy the beautiful weather through a hospital window on Father's Day 2018 and once again had to watch everyone being outside and enjoying life, I thought to myself, what would a full account have done for you if that had gone wrong?
So I thought to myself, you work like a sport horse but live like a donkey. This was because I really didn't treat myself to anything other than a few clothes. At this point I was driving an old Ford Fiesta, which I drove to see my client dressed in a suit. It looked really funny when a 1.96m man in a suit struggled out of a white Ford Fiesta :-) .
I was also the laughing stock of my friends who drove and still drive really great cars.
Now I thought, now is your time, you finally have to live! So I revisited my childhood dream, a Jaguar.
After a lot of back and forth, I switched from the XJ Series III V12 to an XJ8 X308 4.0L. This decision was not easy for me, as I still think the Series III is very beautiful and is one of the most beautiful limousines of all time. My friends, especially my friend Goran, said to me when I told him that I was interested in a Jaguar Series III V12, “would I have one on my helmet?” The second sentence was, “If you buy this,
then delete my number!”
His sayings and questioning of my sanity initially spurred me on. When I was asked by the boss at the second car repair shop, which specializes in British cars, whether I was into SM, my ears pricked up and I began to ponder.
I asked him why, how do you know I'm into S&M? He replied: “Anyone who buys and drives a car like this must be prepared for pain! These cars cause a lot of problems and are very maintenance intensive! In addition, they usually did not receive maintenance beforehand because the maintenance was extremely expensive. At this point, many thanks again to Alexander Hartsen for this conversation.
This is how the decision was made to go with the XJ8. After much back and forth and many viewings, I bought a car from a specialized dealer in the deep southwest and relied on their advice. Unfortunately, not everything happened as I had imagined and wished. Maybe I'll talk more about it elsewhere on my blog or the upcoming YouTube channel.
Now for my second Brit.
My mum bought a white Land Rover Defender LXV in December 2013.
How did this car come about?
My mum called me from her holiday home in Mallorca after a car broke down and said to me, “Mark it’s time, you know I’ve always wanted this car, please find me a white Defender online!”.
Me: “Mom, know? Nobody buys that here! If you want a white one that looks a little decent and has a little bit of features, then you have to get a black one or a green one.”
She: “My son, it’s hot in Mallorca and I want to know. All of my cars have always been mostly white. If you don’t want to take care of it, I’ll ask someone else”
Since something like this has often gone wrong when it comes to buying a car and I didn't want it to be wrecked again, I got on the phone and called the Land Rover car dealerships that were known for selling Defenders. There was nothing that could be done, nobody had a decent white Defender in their yard. The sellers usually replied to me, “No one buys something like that in Germany.”
Something like this is only sold in Spain, Italy or France.
When, after a whole wasted afternoon, I called my mum on the island to report on my efforts, she asked me to call Ford Lauff / Land Rover Lauff. A rather smaller dealer when it comes to Land Rover. My mum had a good attitude towards this dealer as she had bought good Ford cars there in the past and was always happy with the service. “If it doesn’t have anything, then I’ll think about whether it should be a different color”
Ok, I thought to myself, I'll just implement that and then it will be green. When I was connected to sales at Land Rover Lauff, I got into a conversation with a really nice salesperson. I told him about my assignment a little bashfully, like a little boy. To be honest, I was very embarrassed because I had already called the big names in the industry and actually knew the result. The nice salesman, whose name I unfortunately no longer remember, pointed out to me that a special series was coming onto the market for the 65th birthday, which would only be produced in black or white. This special series includes the SawTooth rim, the premium leather sports seats, air conditioning, heated seats, electric windows and radio with BT and hands-free system. So I could imagine the car and told him straight away that we wanted it.
The seller replied that unfortunately he only gets two black ones because nobody wants white. I should call the usual players. There will definitely be white ones on the German market.
So I called the Jaguar / Land Rover car dealership in Krefeld again, which had just been bought by the Dinnebier Group and had moved. At that time, Land Rover, Jaguar and Opel were in one showroom. The salesman Frank Weckermann assured me that he would definitely get a white one, but that I would have to be quick.
No sooner said than done, mother had to fly in to get the necessary signatures, because of course she didn't have anything
was/is digitized. So it happened that we were able to pick up the Defender LXV in white/gray from Land Rover Dinnebier in Krefeld in December 2013 for €41,000. My mom even got a bouquet of flowers from Mr. Weckermann, who told her that he had never had such a sale for a Defender :-)
In 2019 I bought the Defender from her. So, after one or two bankruptcies, this loyal companion is still a family member to this day.
Sooo… but now back to the second question from above
How did this blog or the idea of a YouTube channel come about?
My friends all say to me, you really live the British lifestyle and it just suits you!
My good friend Goran, who is an absolute car nut himself and is a real expert in the classic car industry, has been telling me for years that you have to do YouTube with the whole thing. You're almost 2m tall, you don't look like a spacko and you come across well. When you report on something like that (English cars and lifestyle), people believe you. You're not an idiot like many others on YouTube and you can articulate yourself reasonably well.
When I had a 6-week hospital stay this year due to a serious intestinal illness, I decided why not turn your hobby into a career and that's how these lines came about.
Thank you very much, dear Goran :-)
I hope that you like and enjoy my story so far and I would be very happy if you send me suggestions or improvements for topics by email and order one or two items in our shop.
At this point, thank you very much for reading
Your Mark from BritishGarage.de