Chesterfield

Locked. Seriously - this was around years ago. Its not the refineries making the petorl prices high, so the target is wrong anyway. Want to do something about it, dont buy any petrol at all from anywhere, that will reduce the duty, but also your ability to drive anywhere.

If it is confirmed freehold, the land it sits on may be worth more than that if you wanted to sell it to the house behind for an extension. As for the building itself, Ive demolished better in the garden

Doesn't need to be a donation either if people wish to contribute - why not order a fleece, cap, t-shirt, slam panel or even a sticker - they help contribute toward the club, plus you get something out of it yourself too OR A CALENDAR

You will probably find that the mortgage rate is a LOT lower than the interest level on a car loan too, so that will be saving you money.

The problem is the majority of the people affected by the taxes on fuel are those who work hard for the money they make. The majority who rioted against the poll tax were those that popped kids out like shelling peas and were then asked to pay for their share of public services. Effectively asking people to pay per head in the house rather than how large/expensive the house was. Of course that didn't fly as it actually meant trying to instill in people a sense of paying for what you use and taking responsibility for your own circumstances. It was of course much easier to put that cost onto hardworking types like you and I, as we just put up with it and moan on forums

Yup - its been around for years - it wont happen, and even if it did the proportion of income from petrol derivatives in the UK from these two companies is minimal in their global scale. Also the overwhelming majority of the cost of fuel is in taxes and duty, so its the wrong target in the first place.

Its amazing just how much better off you can be without pesky things like income tax, national insurance, council tax, road fund licenses, tv licenses, and a whole bag of other things.

Correct - but the GT in 2005 did not come with rays as standard. As above though, see what it says on the V5, if it says fairlady insure as that.

Compare that with the fuel price historic data (specifically duty levels) from the following site: http://www.ukpia.com/fuel-prices-historic-data.aspx Very interesting.

The carbon trim in the 430 is nice, I have it on mine and it sets the dash off well. It looks even more impressive on the 458. I know what you mean about the cream interior, it can be a bit marmite for some, but for me it looks great, you just get paranoid about keeping it cream and perhaps a black interior would be the more sensible choice. For me the 458 carries off the black interior much better than the 430 though imho. I'd agree on the stereo. Mine has the uprated one with two subs between the seats, but its still not anything to write about. It pains me to say it but Id have the stereo in the Jag over the stereo in the fezza. I have yet to fiddle with the stereo for long enough to set it up right so I have two settings - one for listening to it quietly and one for listening to louder music without the subs distorting the bass. Its a pain in the arse tbh - I usually wind the window down a bit switch it off and set the manettino to sport to open the valves in the exhaust, music enough. When I can be bothered I may get round to simply changing the speakers, as I reckon thats the issue rather than the head unit. Not something you really want to be doing on a car of that level, but I suppose they arent thinking about the creature comforts when designing them. with that kind of budget in 12 months then you would be looking at a 2008/9 430 maybe or similar aged gallardo, DBS or california. Perhaps at the outside even an early 430 scud or 599 too . I'd be tempted to come shopping with you!

For those who like spreadsheets or nerdy figures - the following website has great records on public spending sectors etc... Its interesting to see how rapidly public spending has risen over the years. http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/

You must have just had a bad experience with the 430 imho Liam, but of course Im biassed. I must admit that when I got back in mine the other day I did notice that the pedals were a little offset compared to the daily hack and its not the easiest of cars to get in and out of (though at the wrong side of 18 stone my front door poses difficulties every now and then), and while the exhaust note at idle does not sound as good as the neighbours gallardo on tickover - who wants to listen to it at tickover ? Easily sorted by a tubi Im reliably informed, but not had the chance to listen to one yet. By the time you have finished with the year of testing, there may be 458's around at the right money - right now, that is the only car Id swap mine for without hesitation given the choice. The interior of the 430 is now starting to show its age in terms of style compared to the newer supercars, but its still no dog inside by normal standards. Hows about the new McLaren? They may not drop in the first 12 months or so due to demand, but the specification for the price blows just about anything away in its class. 0-60 reported to be 2.5 and with a price tag somewhat below that of a 458. All lots of nice fancy touch screen technology to keep the gadget devil inside us satisfied too!

VAT didnt exist in 1966 did it? Also a myriad of other taxes, Income tax levels, VAT, National insurance levels, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, corporation tax, benefit in kind, savings tax, fuel duty, stamp duty, insurance premium tax, to name but a few. Many of which either did not exist or were massively lower than they are today.

They would have to prize the pump from my cold dead hand. I enjoy driving. So much so that I even enjoy when we fly from London Airports, as I know there will be a long drive there and back - sure its only motorway, but its still behind the wheel of a car. In all probability, it would take prices of perhaps £2.50 a litre and above to make me start making serious adjustments on my driving habbits. I'd think twice about long journeys in the petrol guzzlers and cars like the Z would only come out to meets etc and probably would not be taken out just for the sake of it on summer days, but I would still drive them. I would also start looking at fuel economy as one of the more important factors in a daily drive too. Everybodys financial status is different, and looking at statistics, over 75% of UK households have an income of £30,000 or less. If these households have the average 1.1 cars per household, and do an average of 10,000 miles per year with an average MPG of say 30, that equates to aproximately £2000 per year in fuel alone. Car tax at say £155 and insurance average of £615 gives a total of around £2750 for the year before any servicing or maintenance costs are added. Thats getting on for 10% of a households net income after tax. If you look at specific demographics such as younger couples with predominantly lower paid jobs and higher car insurance premiums, the costs start to become extraordinaryly high in relation to their net income. Sadly the motorist is a very easy target for tax rises. For many outside of big cities the public transport is simply not a viable alternative. For instance It takes me 5 or so minutes to drive to work in a morning, and while a weekly buss ticket would come in cheaper than the running costs of that car for the same week (just) - I would need to leave my house at 7.15 am to make it to the office for 9am - involving a final 10 minute walk from the nearest stop to our offices. A total Journey time of 1 hour 45, to travel to an office 3.7 miles from my house.

There are quite a lot appearing. Ferrari were apparently trying to bring down the waiting times on cars significantly, starting with this model - though of course if they are brought down to times in line with other marques the depreciation would increase rapidly, so although you can get one much sooner than the purported 3 year wait, you can't get in one next week.

No need. Its as follows: Exterior - rosso corsa, forged wheels diamond finish, Giallo callipers, Shields Inetrior - two tone leather/alcantra Nero with Rosso, contrast sticth in rosso, standard seats (large unfortunately) full electric, rosso piping. Nero carpet, black leather dash, leather headliner, Premium Hi fi, Sat nav, front lift, front and rear park, carbon fibre dash trim & cruise control. Done. Alternative is white exterior, all nero interior with white contrast stitch and white rev counter. Now if only they did a configurator on telling the missus why the extension must wait another couple of years.

This was indeed a fantastic show - an increase in trade stands would make this one of the best of the year imho. The spectator proximity to the drifting action was excellent, the variety of food and drink available from the various stands was the best of any show and of course for the "better half" if cars were not their bag, they have the Trafford Centre itself litterally just 60 seconds walk away. I too hope this takes place again.

A fantastic write up Mark, your attendance and dedication to the shows and meets knows no bounds A great insight into the variety of shows attended by the club and the great time had by all Heres to many more shows, meeting many new members and having just as great a time in 2011

Congratulations to Jayne - certainly a very challenging field and shows some strong determination. All the best for the course

Sounds like top end photographers are pompous pricks then tbh. If they won't sell copyright so you can't at some point in the future decide to have a canvas print made of your own wedding photos without running into issues, then they can shove their cannon up their ring piece in my opinion. If they have reached a level whereby they can pick and choose customers in business, I would expect them to do it with some tact and not simply refuse a customers business for being "cheeky" and enquiring about prices. That's the sort of attitude that will not just see that one customer going elsewhere. As a comparison, do they pay the full retail price for each item when renewing a load of camera kit/lenses? I doubt it. Sounds very much to me that these people have learnt to use a camera well but missed out on inter personal skills. So it's to be hoped their attitude doesn't drive business down, because if it does I wouldn't give them a job flipping burgers with a customer attitude like that.

Its beyond the dealer being able to sort it out, and beyond my will to do so. In short they repainted the car side a second time against my express wishes, it still doesnt look right but frankly I can't be arsed to chase it any further. I have more important things to do with my life than chase a service and quality of vehicle that Hatfields and Jaguar seem completely incapable or unwilling to provide. A car painted properly would have done just fine.

On a calculator it is cheaper to be part of the club for one year than own one for a year, and as you are wondering what it would be like to live with a convertible, rather than buy, tax and insure a convertible, why not scratch your itch for supercar driving and satisfy your convertible curiosity in one go? If you were only going to own a supercar for a year and sell it, and only drive it for 25 days, then it makes financial sense just to be part of a club. If you are wanting to have the flexibility that owning gives for the extra £2-5k a year, then buy one. Only you can know what feels right for you.

After speaking with the service centre in Chesterfield it appears that my experience of the dealer Hatfields is not uncommon. The defects on mine and my brothers were brought to the attention of Jaguar themselves (by us not the dealer), who did naff all to resolve it, and have done naff all to instruct the dealer to resolve it. Much as I like the service centre at Chesterfield, and actually consider moving into a RR sport instead, I wont be buying new or from the franchised dealer as I shall never be able to bring myself to give JLR any further business. I'm guessing its new and various corporate owners of Jaguar over the years that have caused the change from your experience as my history of marques would place Jaguar at the bottom and digging, I also have had Seat and Nissan off that same list of marques too.

Happy birthday buddy!

The hire costs on the top end of those cars can be a lot more than £500 per day, so the club is definitely better than renting on an individual basis. Though the ownership numbers depend an awful lot on the car bought. An Audi R8 for example is just about the fastest depreciating car in its class, with the V10's a years costs including depreciation will easily be £25k. Buy a car a couple or so years old thats £100k now and the depreciation is much less. A whole years running costs is still probably more than the £12k club membership, but nowhere near as bad as a brand new supercar.