Loud Pedal

XKs Unlimited | Powered by Moss
By Robert Goldman

On a sunny day in 1966, unless it was a foggy day, a young Jason Len took a job working for Al Moss. Jason had the British sports car bug, and Moss Motors seemingly offered a chance to get into the hobby. Fast forward to 1973, and Jason started his own company, XKs Unlimited. As with several of the early British specialists in the US, what started for Jason as a hobby had become his business.

Through the intervening years, Moss and XKs have alternately been customers and competitors of one another. Like NASA’s on again/off again plans for traveling to Mars, Moss Motors’ commitment to the Jaguar market has been something of a start/stop affair. At various times we have been deep in catalog development, bought and operated a wholesale business with an emphasis on Jag, and have even been the Jaguar new car dealer in Santa Barbara.

For whatever set of reasons, we never quite stuck. Perhaps as an indication of things to come, last year, at a tech session during the Vintage Triumph Register National Convention, the question was asked, would Moss ever get back into Jaguar in a serious way? The questioner mentioned a couple companies, perhaps ripe for a takeover. One of the two he named was XKs Unlimited. Did somebody plant the guy? I couldn’t tell him we were already in preliminary negotiations with Jason, but it represented an affirmation of the fact we were on the right track.

I’ve been through a few of these things in my time. Even when you think a deal is done, the whole thing can blow up in a moment. Fortunately with Jason and XKs, it was one of those rare opportunities where both sides were similarly aligned. We closed the deal in October, and have operated the company since.

XKs’ General Manager, Michael Marter, and Sales Manager, Armando Pineda, have been with the company for many years. Their presence will help ensure those cultural norms which made XKs a success will not be lost in transition. At the same time, we will be working on everything from inventory availability to updated catalogs, website, and parts availability from Virginia. Even a well run business has plenty of room for improvement, just ask our President and CEO, Glen Adams, if he thinks Moss Motors is a well oiled machine. He might say something like “Yes, except for the parts which squeak.”

Jason Len himself is not yet done in the Jag community. With his retirement from XKs’ parts operation, he will be spending his time on XKs Motorsport, the repair, restoration, and competition business he ran alongside XKs Unlimited. We warned Jason, any of his beautiful restorations left in the showroom at the time of closing would be ours. He didn’t leave any. Rats!

There will be a little pain, and a few missteps along our way. Current Moss customers will find a better selection of Jaguar product at XKs, but unless you are already an XKs customer, they will not recognize you. Your Moss customer number and order history are not currently interchangeable between the two companies, and we cannot yet transfer your calls back and forth. We realize this is less than ideal. The plan, when XKs eventually converts to the Moss order entry system, is to merge the accounts and order history. These things always sound easy on paper. We will do our best to make it happen. MM