Mr Firth to the Jaguar phone, please

No I didn't have the X350. I did have the previous V8. I lost a huge amount of money on it. Worth every penny, even my wife agrees and she says that of the cars I've had another XJR or another Exploder are both perfectly acceptable.

The current XJs have much lower depreciation, decent mpg, crippling VED, cost of servicing can be painful with the 60K service being particularly so.

One thing to be aware of is that they are bastards to take out of this country. Lovely drive on an empty road, but completely damned impractical in RHD form. You sit low down with high sills, and it's a nice place to be at speed. Then when you get to the tolls, it's damned impossible to get a ticket and pay. And when you get off motorway and try to do the twisty stuff you'll discover that the car is wide, you can't see over anything, and you need a passenger to act as spotter because by the time you pull out and get a view ahead the oncoming truck will have taken off the left hand side of your car.

But get it on an open road and it's wonderful and that makes up for all the crap. And when you get to hotels the owner will, if you choose the right sort of place (family run 4* or better) insist that you get the best parking place.

Oh, and if you are thinking of the 3.0, forget it. Ugliest car in the range, cheaper interiors, everyone knows you have the cheap seats model. After a time, a very short time, it will start to niggle you until it niggles you a lot. OTOH, if the status thing really doesn't bother you, take a test drive. I've not driven the 3.0 but most people seem to think it's fast enough. Change the radiator grill.

For some reason the E200 Mercedes doesn't have the same stigma that the

3.0 XJ has. Dunno why. Or maybe I'm a snobby ghet.

The 2.7 turbo diesel OTOH is perfectly acceptable because it's the only diesel offering.

I'm not Mr Firth, but I know a few peeps who've had them and loved 'em to bits. The 3.5 V8 is pretty good on fuel, quiet, smooth, quick and handles well. Haven't heard any horror stories.

I've just had a thought, I remember some time ago you having a blazing row with Dervy about how you didn't run the 75 as your daily driver, as it was getting on a bit and you wanted to keep it nice. Fair enough, but you insisted any modern Alfa was perfectly reliable and you'd love to be able to run one as your company car but the damn system doesn't allow it. Well, it does now, and we all know how cheap 2-3 year old 159/166s are. Firing up Autotrader, specifying Alfa, up to £12k, up to 40k miles (I know that's less, but I was showing that they offered even better value as you got a less-used car!) and up to 3 years old shows me -

31 156s, 7 159s, 2 166s, 2 Breras, 19 GTs and 3 Spiders. Surely one of those must be ok? Many are from Veloces as well, including this 166 Ti, that I think is rather fetching...

Putting it up to 60k miles ramps all those numbers up, except the Brera and

166. Also LOADS of 147s of course, but they're a bit small. Taking off the specifications on the search finds a few more that haven't had the specs entered correctly as well. But as a 159 example, either the 2.2 Sportwagon or the 1.9JTDM, 2007 56 plates 11k and 27k respectively, £12k. Surely you're getting everything you could ever possibly want there? I'm sure you could even find the glorious sounding V6 as well? Plenty to choose from, even if you're picky!

Umm isn't it impossible to get the 3.5 in the UK market?

Not at all, it's the base model XJ8.

Really? Well colour me puzzled, none of the brochures that the dealer has sent me for the past few years seem to list the 3.5V8 as a UK model, and it's not on the Jag website either. However I can see some of them Autotrader, but none more recent than 2006.

Nice idea, but now put in 'automatic' and see what happens.

Anything on an 04 plate or later, from £8k to £12k has the Sillyspeed box. And, no, I'm not even going there.

"SteveH in more U-Turns than GordonB shocker!"

Where's the U-turn in not wanting a second hand sillyspeed?

If I could find a 166 V6 Q-Tronic with sensible miles and under 4 years old, I'd have it.

But I can't.

Seem to have stopped selling 'em in '06, but they're definately out there. "SE" spec from 03-04, "Sport Premium" from "53" plate to "06".

Because they stopped importing the 166 four years ago...

Is it that long ago?

There were a lot out there in the dealers later than that....

Mind you, even an up to 5 years old search on the trader doesn't turn up anything worthwhile.

Ah, so an Alfa can't be run as a day to day company car due to reliability issues.

Gotcha ;-)

It's fair enough, I like Alfas too, probably more than most, but there's no way I'd try rely on one as day to day transport, and I only do about 5k a year hehe! It's what keeps stopping me buying a 147 GTA heh. There isn't one single review from an owner online that doesn't end in a 'but' with people explaining the problems they've had heh.

I didn't say that.

The Q-Tronic things are bloody good, but, as early adopters, Alfa suffered more than most with automated shift boxes in the Sillyspeed.

Apparently it's now sorted, though.

I'd drive one every day, if I could find an auto that fits in with my needs. They are out there, but the owners appear to be holding on to them.

If it's sorted, there are 156s out there that suit the other criteria ;-)

Although I wouldn't want a 156 now the 159 is out. Even though the 159 is a bucket load of ugly in comparison - it would just seem a bit of a backwards step heh!

As you say, it's a 156. Even so, I'd have one - but only a V6. Don't think they did the JTDs with Q-tronic or Sillyspeed.

Narrows stuff down.

I've thought of a 159, but again, it would have to be a V6 or JTD, which narrows choices rather a lot.

I thought the 2.0 was the best one ;-) ?

Best balanced when you want to go balls out - and not available with a slushomatic, either.

I'm being a fussy bastard - having just ruled out the A4 because the seats don't have adjustable lumbar support.

159 is quite pretty, very obvously a 4 door though.