I first heard this fascinating story back in 2013 when I sold Gino Cocozza a beautiful low mileage S-Type. We both laughed at the fact that he had traveled 330 miles to buy a car that had previously lived about 5 miles from him in Glasgow. Gino then tells me a story of his own with much greater odds.

In 1966 Ginos father bought a new Jaguar MK2 240 finished in Warwick Grey with red leather. This was to be the first car Gino was to travel in – lucky sod, my father had a Sunbeam alpine (which was quite nice) followed by a MK1 Escort and then a Hillman hunter. Ginos father kept the MK2 for 13 years before selling it for just a few hundred pounds – One of my family also tried selling one of these in 1979 and he only managed to get £250. It seems a crazy figure as the equivalent 1979 new XJ6 3.4 would have cost almost 14k – but your average 13 year old MK2 was a rusty tired old car in need of some TLC, well preserved low mileage examples were in the classifieds for around £1000.

Moving on to 2008 and Gino starts to hanker after a classic MK2 like his father once owned. He scrolls the pages of all the usual online websites and within just a month he comes across FGM527D on the pages of Ebay – yes the actual car his father bought new 42 years earlier. So without haste Gino negotiates a deal and swifty buys back FGM527D. Even more amazing was the fact that Gino at 11 years old had kept back all the service history and original sales receipt to the car and he still had them. As you can see the car is now in the popular Gunmetal Grey but still has the marks in the picnic tables that Gino made as a boy with his toy cars – probably Jaguars!

What a great story and what are the odds – Id like to ask “Betfred”!