Lady Elanore

I did just buy a second one for my Pug

Here's an interesting thing. So my Jaaaag has some pretty old software and hardware in it and therefore doesn't have wireless Android Auto/Apple Carplay, but does have a wired connection, so I bought a dongle to help with this. I got the AAWirelss Android Auto (not 'that' AA and I think it’s also available for Apple) retails for about £60. Simply plug it into the car's USB connector, wait a minute or so while everything boots up for the first time and pair your phone as you would with a wireless Android Auto connection. That's it! and you seem to have full functionality. Not noticed any bugs yet, only time will tell. I'll buy one for my Peugeot which is similarly afflicted here is a link to the badger... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B71XC7VG?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Oh, forgot to mention (and back on topic), I have new car on my drive . Pishing down and dark. SO it's wrapped up safe and sound for several days, when I will finish some work I've got and can have a proper play. It's like unwrapping your Christmas presents and being told to "now put them down until new year"

Probably Philip Schofield will get the gig

I think the news reported correctly. Hangry presenter with a temper, missed his food slot and took it out on an underling (although he was quite a senior person that Clonkson thumped). 100% Clonkson fault, he behaved in an appalling manner. I'd have pressed charges if he had done that to me. I wish he hadn't done it though, as most importantly, he shouldn't have hit another person, but also because it deprived me of a show I loved. Even my mum, who couldn't drive and couldn't care less about cars, enjoyed the show.

If only Clonkson hadn't been an aggressive bully when fuelled by drink, we would possibly still have proper TG. I wonder if he has mellowed a bit now he is a farmer and could go back to the Beeb with the gang?

I still think there is a place for TG, but it needs to reset. More serious car stuff, with lots of gratuitous slow motion and epic classical scores. Then add humour back in slowly until it feels right. Keep Chris Harris and add a couple of other presenters. At one more car guy/gal (like the James and Jeremy being genuine car jorno's), perhaps someone like Tiff, Jason Plato, Jason Dawes, or Jonny Smith They can also a woman if they other wo are both men, but it has to be for the right reasons. VBH would be an easy fit, but also Ginny Buckley or Penny Mallory would also be worth a look. Personally I'd love to Steve Sutcliffe in a car show, as he is a superb driver, probably the best car journalist driver out there - he taught Chris Harris a lot and drove an F1 car getting very close to the professionals times. Oh and Steve also raced the feared Tuscans, the scary ones, not the road car ('ve also got a bit of a crush on him).

Thank you To be fair to the M3, it is a faster car than the F Type, in every way except top speed. I think the F Type is positioned as somewhere between a GT and a sports car, whereas the M3 is positioned as a weapon. If anyone wants a practical 4 door, that is ridiculously quick and has more roadholding that any car that weight deserves to have, then the M3 is worth considering. Astonishing accomplished car. But it felt like you had to drive at 9/10s to get near the real fun zone, whereas the older Jag, should be a little more accessible in that department. If you want to drop that boy racer on your tail, I can't think of many cars that can do so as easily as the M3 XDrive. I didn't get around to track'ing the car and probably would have been able to enjoy it more if I did (except the tyre and brake bills might be a bit much). But... Sometimes less is more....except BHP of course (and the drop in insurance is nice too)

The press were reporting that TG's latest series was canned. Maybe Freddie said no to its airing as part of his settlement?? His face is certainly a real mess, even after surgeries 😞

Yes please. Although no rush. I pick the car up on Tuesday afternoon take it home (the long way around), park up and then leave it until next week Have to work to pay for the petrol I miss the proper car parts of old Top Gear 😞

I'm hoping the V8 makes up for the shortfalls Now if only I have enough money left to fill the 70 fuel tank

The figures I was quoting were based on my M3. I only mentioned them as I was quite surprised at the outcome of it all. My M4 was similarly cheap too, at least for a car of its type. My honest opinion is the F Type will be easily the most expensive car I will ever run, but it is meant as a final 'blow-out' and a way of saying goodbye to daft petrol cars that have been an interest of mine my entire adult life. It will be a sad day when I end up driving a normal car more appropriate to an old retired biddy but you get to keep memories and they are much more visceral than even the best wish list fantasy By the way, I think of myself as a dinosnore too. Surely everyone love a dinonsnore ?

This is because the tech in the jaguar is a couple of generations old. Jag didn't want to invest in the F Type as sales were too low, so Android auto etc still need a cable, the interior is not as well-made as the BMWs the central screen looks like it came from a car 10 years ago - which it more or less has. It has lots of buttons, which I like though, as once their position in memorised you can activate many functions without taking your attention from the road. There is no way around it, the F type is a bit prehistoric, but like all the best dinosaurs, they are brilliant and who doesn't love a big dinosaur (Greta Thunberg not included)

I altered the first post a little with the inclusion of a few words in Italics But perhaps this is clearer? So the car I've just done the deal on had a huge deposit going into it. This came from the equity that I had in my M3 PCP deal, once the finance was settled. You can then look at the cost of the new car deal in a few different ways. One is that I have surprisingly low monthly payments for a pretty expensive car (they are still not cheap, at least for me), another way of looking at it is, yes the monthlies aren't that high (considering the sticker price of the Jag), but I also put a huge deposit into the deal, so in reality if you consider that deposit figure in with the monthly payment figures then I'm paying an awful lot per month for the car. But, I look at it like this. Several cars ago, I put £3k into a PCP for a new vehicle, this by luck, more so than my good judgment turned out to give me enough equity at the 'end of the finance agreement/point of sale' to recoup my initial £3k back and a little more than I expected. It is the same with all PCPs, you hope that your equity is slightly more than the settlement figure, this gives you a deposit to put down o a new car. In fact, that literally was part of the spiel I was taught to use when selling PCPs. But as several cars in a row have increased this equity part, I've just chucked it all back into the next car as a deposit, so i actually never get my hands on the cash between one car and the next. To sum that up, I've sort of forgotten about that initial £3k I used many years ago and just move from one car to another, letting the equity of the previous car do a lot of the heavy lifting on the finance of the new car. It's obviously ignoring that £3k investment, but it is my version of 'Man Maths' (woman maths?) That gives the £125 figure for the M3 once I consider that I got £10.3k in equity from the sale. ie total monthly payments minus the equity released, divided by the number of payments. A slightly more honest way of looking at the finance is to take into account the £3k initial deposit (the seed money if you like), which is still tied up in successive car deals, when you factor that into the monthly payments a more truthful figure of what the car is costing you emerges. I worked out that figure and also inflation adjusted £3k over the time it has been invested in several cars (I've never taken any cash out from the equity released in my car sales) and it gives a higher figure. £350 a month. ie total monthly payments, minus equity released once the initial £3k (plus inflation) has been removed, all divided by the number of monthly payments. This higher figure mentioned Of course this is all because I have a huge amount of luck with car sales and surprisingly the Covid era helped this enormously and I suspect now that things are becoming a bit more sensible, deals will become more prevalent and used prices will continue to drop, so the Jag may have no equity in it at the end, potentially meaning that it was quite expensive to run after all. Nobody knows. Will the F Type become a classic as they "don't make em like that any more"? Or will it be lemon consigned to the dustbin because of emissions, petrol costs and general hatred towards the I.C.E. ? Time will tell, I guess. But the upshot of my good fortune has been that I have been able to just about afford to get into a silly car, possibly for the last time before retirement, but I've been smiled upon by the gods of motoring....I think... (assuming the F type doesn't turn out to be one of Jags often quoted "lemons")

Someone at work asked how much the M3 had cost me, so I did quick calculations, just on the monthlies of my PCP. I haven't included my sizable deposit for the first example for the following reason. I've used the equity in my PCP cars for many, many years and I've been fortunate to have bought mostly wisely (lucky) in this regard, so the equity in my PCP has been going up for years when I sell the car on. The first car in this series, I think I put a £3k deposit down, which eventually turned into huge equity for my M4 (several cars later) and i had £10.3k in my M3. Basically I sell the car/part-ex and put the equity straight into the next car as a deposit. When my 'silly car' buying series comes to an end (this will probably be the last) I may have some equity, I may not, but in theory I should get back the £3k I initially put into these cars all those years ago and include the equivalent of the inflation that's been going on since then ie I'll get my deposit back, so I haven't actually spent anything in that part of the deal. It's a bit like Mike Brewers 'Trading up' series, where he takes a cheap car and any profit he gets from the sale he puts into the next one and so the value of the motors go up Anyhoo, so here are two versions of the M3s monthly payments, if I take into account the equity part of the car that in theory I could have kept and simply not bought another car after the M3, ie if I stopped buying silly cars and just kept my little Peugeot, then the M3 would have cost me £125 a month Or....... about £350 a month if I put my equity figure into the calculation, but remove the initial £3k, plus an adjustment for inflation. It's all a bit rough and ready, but it's in the ballpark. Many of the much cheaper cars I've had on PCPs have probably cost around the same overall. I suspect the Jaaag will not hold its value too well though, as it has such a voracious appetite for dinosaur juice and Greta Thunberg has a hit squad looking for them. It does look as though the bubble has finally burst for second-hand values on certain types of car. It was known it would come, but I think the motor trade has been a bit shocked at the severity of it, there are a lot of now overpriced cars sitting on forecourts, which owe the dealers a lot of dosh. Btw, I've not taken the insurance into account with the above figures, as until this year (2 months ago) the M3 was about the same as the Peugeot! I suppose you could say the road tax was a little higher and fuel cost were more, but I didn't do huge mileage in the M3 and when I used it for work I get to claim mileage back from my company Also, it should be remembered that BMWs have a two year service schedule, so they aren't 'quite' as expensive as you might think...they still aren't cheap, sadly. Overall, I didn't get through any consumables while the M3 was in my car, although the tyres didn't look brand new any more

I'm on Greta's personal hit list now Still pinching myself a bit

I did read them pretty careful, but funnily enough, the engine and power is still showing that of my M3? But the model designation of the car can not be a 3.0. Might make a very interesting GAP claim if it was a total loss or similar There is an identicle one at Derby Inchcape that will be going for a song... It's under a couple of feet of water at present. 😞 The day will come. Unless the yeti makes a comeback

It will never look as nice again. I will only park it outside my house and stare at it. Spoke to a detailer who thankfully has no availability for 6 weeks, which gives me time to find some money to pay him It might be a rather parsimonious Christmas, but I will still be able to look at my shiny car to keep my heart warm. I might even let George have a sit in it. Sadly the downside of the PCP deal on this car is the final payment is rather high and as such I won't be able to keep the car I don't think 😞 Still it's a great way to go out before retirement and a life of Nissan Quashquuiuiuiuis

I might leave the keys in the Beemer, as it has GAP insurance...I just need a way to figure out how I could claim I wasn't a total pillock and left the keys in the car As it stands I've shoehorned the car in on my drive and jammed another car across the front of it. Only got to last another 4 days. Can't believe how much cheaper the Jag is to insure, though. It's actually cheaper than my Peugeot 3008. I think Direct Line might have made a mistake, will have to chase it up when I get a day off.

I loved the M3, but loved the older M4 more. Now that was a very lairy car and had the reputation of being a bit of a widow/widower maker. The M3 Xdrive is a massively accomplished car and the cornering grip, traction and 'turn in' were on a different level to any other car I've owned, as well as having an incredibly strong, bulletproof engine. It's also built like a tank. Perhaps it's so good that I feel it lacks a tiny bit of character? It was certainly the best car I've ever owned, but sometimes you just want a really big portion of cottage pie... I can't afford a new V8 from any other manufacture apart from, perhaps, Ford, but the OPF filters have muted and muffled their V8 even more than it has the Jag 😞 Anyhoo I only had a Porsche and/or a V8 on my bucket list before I retire in a few years time, so it had to be done, good or bad, while I still had some earning power.

Crikey, that's more than a bit forensic!!! A couple of months ago my car was cased at 4 oclock in the morning, by a young scummer on a bike, riding up to my car and calling someone to discuss it. It scared me quite a bit if I'm honest, so I took a couple of extra security options and hoped that was enough. Anyhoo a couple of weeks ago while I was at a pretty low point, another young sod on a bike did exactly the same. Face covered, of course and you can't make out the bike properly. It made me think I might bail out of the M3 no car is worth someone breaking into your house and putting a knife to your throat and ask for the keys plus any additional security measures that need to be defeated. I've also just lost my mother and it made me think, life is for the living and there's no second lap of the track, so even though I have had to find some money to complete the deal (PCP) and it's not something I can easily afford, I thought, just do it! So..... I started to look at something less nickable and noticed that the bubble on certain types of cars had just burst. My M3 lost £3.5k in its book value in the last week!! So after much browsing, visiting, emailing and phoning around I got an amazing offer on one of the last unregistered V8 F Types left in the county (very good part ex value too, which surprised me and the dealer ). It has the dreaded white interior, which is a nightmare if I use the car for work, as I wear black jeans and sometimes I jump in the car to get out of the rain. You can imagine what happens with a soaked pair of black jeans on white seats. But it was a compromise worth taking for that engine and those looks. So, the deal has been done and the M3 is going next week (hopefully to a dealer, not a burglar). The Jaaaag certainly won't compete with the M3 in terms of performance, as the Beemer is an astonishing cross-country weapon if the road is reasonably wide. The tech on the F Type is at least one division lower than the M3, possibly two, the sound system isn't as good (well the one in the doors isn't, not the one under the bonnet of course), build quality isn't as good and the engineering doesn't seem anywhere near as classy. I lose 2 doors and half a boot volume, as well as economy goes a bit South. Also, my insurance goes down by 33%, so hopefully I am right and people don't nick Jags as much? But... those looks and that engine

It's a mystery picture wrapped up in a riddle and dunked into the black hole of bewilderment.

It's not an Aston Martin, I would love a V8 model of almost any description, or a V12, or pretty much anything with an AM badge

That's what I thought. I'd be screaming to stop stealing my 'leccy.