JowettTalk

Dear Keith,
I do not currently belong to any club Iwas just interested in pictures of Jowett’s as my Grandfather used tohave one and you came up under a search.
I just wondered what proportion of Jowett’ssurvived, I presume it is less than that for Landrovers and Aston Martins. Insome ways it would be interesting to see if his one was one of the survivors,but I think the odds are low?

Thank you for your reply

Regards,

Mark Watson

A good place to start (and I emphasise start) is the DVLA records - they will release information if it is a reasonable request, and doesn't contravene data security laws. They should be able to tell you how many Jowetts are on the road, and give you some idea of how many are SORN. The difficulty is that many cars came off the road before SORN was introduced, so they don't need to be registered with DVLA now unless they are put back on the road.

The percentage survival rate seems good - the Wakefield rally was I think the largest number of cars we've seen at recent rallies, and someone has mentioned the numbers involved in a thread on here in the last few months. It was certainly a much larger percentage than for many other large scale manufacturers, we were into double digit percentages of Jupiters, Javelins less so.

As an example, Ford produced 24 million Capris over the years. Even an optimistic estimate puts the surviving number on the road at less than 24 thousand. That's a survival rate of 0.1%, even if there were 10 cars SORNed for every one taxed it would still be 1%.

Perhaps the registrars can be of more use in providing accurate details of total surviving cars? They would certainly be my first port of call with a registration or chassis number to try and trace a car, though the DVLA online enquiry is an easy check to see if the car is taxed and on the road, you only need a reg no to do it, but information is very limited.

Jack.

I am surprised any Capris survived!

The other thing to consider is that the classic car movement did not really start till the early 70s. Before that you just ran an old banger.

When I bought my Jupiter it was only 16 years old, which is not much different to when I sold my 1996 Subaru last year it was 15 years old. That GTB Subaru might well be considered a classic, but I very much doubt it will be around in 40 years time.

Comparing a 1950s or 1960s Aston Martin or Land Rover to the Javelin and Jup is valid.So the query to the DVLA should be along the lines of a particular model and year, rather than the whole range or production time span.

There's a website where you can discover how many there are left of a particular car make/model. It's based on DVLA information, but alas Jowetts don't show up. I contacted the website owner, and he suggested that this was due to an anomoly in the way historic vehicle information is stored.

www.howmanyleft.com

Regarding Jupiter survival rates, I think I remember seeing on Ed's website that 50+ % survive

When out and about in my Javelin I am often asked how many Javelins have survived. I know it's impossible to know how many are in barns, how many belong to none members etc. but I think it might be useful/interesting to know how many Javelins, Jupiters, Bradfords there are in the club.

Somebody doubtless will now tell me I should have seen this in a Jowetteer!

Paul

Dear Paul

We seem to be conversing ! It is quite important for a club like ours to know the answer to your question, but I am not sure we know how many Jowetts survive and in what state , owners etc . One would think any interest in the future of the club would need this info as a start but I have never seen any evidence .

As a 2006 member you should have had the last printed club register---2008---which lists all the cars etc in members hands at the time ,and some which were known to exist outside the club . In the last 6 years many changes will have occurred but it is not clear if anyone keeps track of sales through auctions , adverts or even through new members . I have never seen any notice of changes even from these sources.

Then of course there are the quite large numbers exported and active Jowett clubs in several countries.

I wonder if the club committee has any ideas on this ?

Best regards Bob

The club registrars should have all the information you need. Why not ask them?

Good idea, Keith! I will.

It was nice meeting up with you at the rally and that trip round the 'mansion house'!

All the best.