Chesterfield

Shocking service from both garage and warranty company. Certainly right to name and shame! The warranty company appear to have looked for any possible reason to keep your money and wriggle out of a payout. It may appear that they have dragged their feet knowing full well you will need to use your car, and hey presto an excuse for non payment presents itself. The garage also appear not to have chased this as much as they could have, which has just compounded the issue. Glad you got it sorted in the end, but the service from both the above is just well below par.

The main point for me is Lib Dems views on the tax system, in particular their views on reforming the council tax system to be based on income rather than house value etc. From all sources it appears as though the average level would be 4.5%. Meaning that you would not pay council tax at all, but you would pay 4.5% more on your income tax. Therefore you could live in the smallest house on the cheapest estate. Earn £100k and your council tax bill is £4500 effectively. Yet the person living next door on benefits pays zero, for the same local services. And they have the audacity to bang on about being "fair". What complete and utter bs. Do a simple sum, take your salary (and that of anyone else working in your household) take 4.5% of this, and compare it to your council tax ammount. It also means if you get a promotion or bonus or any other form of income, your council tax goes up too. Stupid stupid idea. Lib dems own publishings quote that 50% of pensioners would under their system no longer pay any council tax at all. Exactly where is that going to come from then, given that the councils will still want the money....

Indeed, it was the brain drain. The Who used to smash up their equipment at the end of gigs just to stick two fingers up to the tax man, as it was effectively 98% on some forms of income. Profit from Gig £20,000, and they would get £400 of that as the tax man would take £19,600. If they smash up £19,000 worth of equipment then the profit is now £1000, meaning the tax man got £980 instead of £19,600. Yes they only got £4, but what did they care, they were already rich. It must have really pi**ed off the Inland Revenue though If the taxes went the same way again, then you see just how many businesses would pee money up the wall instead of making profit. They may as well enjoy it and spend it rather than get taxed massively on it.

Appologies sasha, but there are a number of problems.... All those tax measures would do is ensure anyone having the financial means to do so, would leave. So who pays the tax once they have left?

The benefits should be directly linked to the contributions, a bit like pensions should be (again). If you have paid in a fortune in tax and NI, then you get a decent pay out while actively looking for work. If you haven't contributed, then you get a harmonica, a hat and directions to the nearest train station.

Lookinga at all the great measures brought in by Labour, and the even more due to come, I often wonder if the government actually want any small businesses in the UK at all. Manufacturing is even worse. National insurance rises for employers, compulsory pension schemes at 3% of wage bill by 2014, increases in corporation tax, reduction of allowances on equipment, pensions contributions, cars now taking a decade plus to write off the depreciation. Manufacturing cant even write off the whole cost of new equipment, yet if its a PC or other IT equipment you can! Its bloody ridiculous now, and with the revenue the country now needs to raise, any successive government will be looking to get it from the "rich business types" - I see no positive outcome. We have already shelved plans for expansion and reversed decisions to look for more employees. We have had one retire and have not replaced them either. The taxes on small businesses are already costing jobs. Hiting businesses with daft items like compulsory pension contributions and national insurance hikes, and removing their tax breaks is just going to cost more. Its all because the government (whichever one is in power) has not got the balls to totally reform the welfare system. We have had the situation for far too long now, where people can be better of on benefits than working. Whilst ever that is allowed to exist, then we will be forever fighting the benefits culture and an immigration nightmare. Immigration is only such a hot topic becasue of the high numbers. Those high numbers only exist because of our ridiculously generous welfare system. Fix that and the immigration problem will mostly resolve itself. Dont even get me started on the "local income tax" by the Lib Dems being spouted as a "fair tax". Im just waiting for a door knocker to come and talk to me about that and Ill rip him/her a new one.

Actually you are spot on. My in laws at their previous house had problems with kids grafiti'ing his back gate (double gates to allow access for the camper van he owned), stones, litter etc finding their way onto the camper and back garden. He tried contacting the law who said they did not have the resource, and more or less said "tough, nothing we can do". So he took photos next time they were vandalising his property. Within a day the police were round, and not because he now had evidence of crimes being committed against his property. One had shouted pedo, told his parents and they had in turn reported him to the police for taking photos of kids. The police then turned up to quiz him about taking the photos of kids! He was then taunted for a period of time by the same kids. In the end they moved home. So I have no time what so ever for these type of society scum and their no doubt waste of space parents. The law doesnt stand up for the right people and cant help them. Yet the scum get the support. So, if I were in the situation you were, I would quite happily pay someone to ensure a lesson is learnt. The softly softly approach is what has got is into the situation we are now, where no discipline exists any more, and it's time it were brought back.

Yep - thats my problem. My BMI is actually fine. If I were 7 ft 3.

Would love to but I fall foul of one of the rules.. Bet you cant guess which one...

Shocked that there isnt a steel barrier running behind the cars to prevent them knocking/loosening brickwork.

Not reliable enough to get any further afield

Out of curiosity it wasnt the light blue colour was it and were you on the M1 later this afternoon?

Sad to see a long timer leave the fold Dont be a stranger - look at Sarnie for example. Actually, scratch that, dont look at Sarnie as an example Been great having you as part of the club. Your tales of crime fighting and the photos have made me chuckle more than once. The one with the beanie hat and the weed plants has to be an al time favourite

Scary isn't it. At low speeds 30-50 you can easily be doing 20 mph above and not even have the first clue. Its this sort of car that makes speed cameras positively dangerous, as you have to constantly look at the speedo rather than the road...

Ive read that the story isnt all that, but Ive also read that its referrence grade video and sound for home cinemas, thats my reason for buying on Blu Ray - never saw it in the cinema. Just waiting for the final bit of plasterboard to dry now before I can start on putting the room together now Saving this film until Ive finished

Ive seen this before. Would make a decent motorway cruiser tbh, though the 45 mpg claims may be optimistic as I thought, been to heathrow and back today, averaged just over 38mpg. Though mine only has 2100 on the clock so may not be fully loosened up yet, and the heavy traffic on the M25 at around 4-5 didnt help.

Husky started a thread about the jag xfr drifting, and I as a very disgruntled jag owner immediately derailed it with a rant about how crap I thought their service was it's getting back to topic now though

Thats just plain stupid - Im surprised its not all Horse and carts given those prices!

chuffing hell - see what you mean - I just looked at a VRT calculator for ireland, and its just plain stupid the ammount you pay to register a new car or import one. AM I missing something? I just put a new 2010 350z into this calculator: http://www.vrt.ie/ and it comes back with a price of 50,000 Euros, plus a tax of another 18,000 Euros - so 68K in all, or about £58,000. I must be missing something surely?

Id be sick if Id spent 250K on it in 06 too. Price when new on those was "only" £100k. Some cars I suppose dont get used that much, dont know the circumstances as to why it wasnt used, perhaps only a summer car and they were ll one year? Still, Im sure with a bit of TLC it will be back up and running soon

Its quoted at 42mpg I believe, but in reality I dont think an XF S daily drive will get anywhere near it. As it is so large and has a decent ride quality with good soundproofing, you do have to watch the speedo. You can get well over the posted limits and not realise it. It just doesnt feel as fast as it is. At low speeds it feels like you could get out and walk quicker. Its just built for getting you points in a 30 or 40 zone.

Saw the trucks racing, but turned back to the car just before I heard the bang. I can only assume the rear driver did not realise the chicane was in use.

Yep - thats what happened though. I advised Hatfields I was going legal, and that they could collect the car for its "inspection" at the previously arranged time. I took the photos to the solicitor, he wrote a letter to them. At the same time as he was putting together the letter I got a call to say my car was back, the paintwork was fine and I should come and collect. They took back the hire car the next day I believe. Great eh? I can believe the torque figures, as it certainly fels that way, but perhaps a RR will tell - though not so sure how tha would work with an auto box. The 45mpg seems fairly optimistic though, on extra Urban and forcing the car to stay in 6th at low speeds using the manual paddle, maybe. General combination driving I reckon Im seeing maybe 30-35.

Orange peel in the borders, and other citrus smelling stuff. If you can use a citrus based cleaner or wax on your car, cats wont like that one bit. Keeps them away but doesnt hurt them in the process

Yep, I did go down the solicitors route. The main culprits here as Husky says are the dealership, who in my opinion acted like a bunch of cowboys. When the car went in for "inspection", it also got repaired again - without my knowledge or indeed authorisation. They then wrote back to my solicitor disputing all my claims, saying the car is fine come and collect it. Giving me no chance of now having my own expert inspect and report on the faulty work, as they had now covered it up. Making the furthering of legal action almost pointless. However Jaguar need to take some responsibility. In my opinion if they saw that a customer was being treated in this fashion then they should have stepped in, but they didn't, and what's more they appear happy to let Hatfields carry on selling their product and representing them. Anyway - back to the drifting. The XFS has 600Nm torque, the XFR has only 25Nm more at 625Nm, although the XFR does have getting on for couble the bhp at 510 rather than the 275 of the XFS. With the traction control off and the S and dynamic modes on, I reckon the XFS could light the tyres almost as easily. Maintaining that tye spin while drifting on dry tarmac though would not be as easy. If I get the oportunity and my speed limiter (Tracy) is not on board, Ill give it a whirl and let you know. I note in the article Husky previously posted that the track for the XFR looked decidedly wet too. Its a bloody heavy car to drift I would think.