Archive : The last Jaguar E-type is built

JAGUAR

In the week ending 14 September 1974, Jaguar produced the last E-type. Due to the large amount of unsold cars in dealers showrooms, the event was not publicised at the time.

The last Jaguar E-type
The last Jaguar E-type
Keith Adams

6 Comments

  1. Around the same time the last E Type left Coventry, a film was being made called Brannigan, where John Wayne plays an American detective seconded to Scotland Yard. A tatty looking D registration E Type makes several appearances in the film, being the favoured transport of a contract killer, before it is blown up in a car crash at the end. Apparently the energy crisis and the recession of the time had made older E Types almost worthless and probably the producers of Brannigan picked up the sixties E Type for next to nothing.

  2. I’ve heard of tidy E-Types & Jensen Interceptors being picked up less than £1000 by the late 1970s, & some even being banger raced as they were worth so little.

    • The 1974 energy crisis really hit the market for cars with engines over 2 litres. Discontinued recent large cars like Ford Zodiacs became almost worthless, while some older cars like Humbers were abandoned in fields and lay bys. The marker for large cars did start recovering in 1976 as the energy ctisis and the world recession eased, but another energy crisis appeared in 1979 and hit the large car market again.

      • I’ve also heard of big old cars being dumped in the mid 1970s, the earlier Jaguar Tourers & such being common victims.

        • I did hear of the big Humbers, which were last produced in 1967 and probably had a few years left in them, being dumped as the market had dried up for them due to the huge increase in fuel prices and hyper inflation. No one was interested in 18 mpg cars that had gone out of production, same as Ford’s Z cars and the six cylinder Vauxhalls saw their used values collapse in 1974. However, this also meant, if you could afford to run one and ride out the energy crisis, a Vauxhall Ventora FD was a real bargain.

          • Oddly the P4 & early P5 (pre V8) Rovers seemed to be popular up to the early 1980s with DIY mechanics, or people who knew a friend who could mend them cheaply.

            I remember on another site someone who grew up in a working class area of London mentioned that 1950s cars were popular up to the 1980s because they were over-engineered compared to later cars, & often simpler to fix, as well as being cheap to buy.

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