This is a Jaguar XJ from 1986. It’s a classic luxury sedan, and the big point here is that it’s supposed to be mechanically in good shape, plus it has a very recognizable look up front.
On Jaguars like the XJ, “Sovereign” is a higher trim level—basically a more upscale version than the entry model. Here it’s being used to explain which version they had and why it looks different.
“Fish tank headlights” is a nickname for a certain style of headlight that looks like a big rectangular box. The hosts are saying this Jaguar has that look, not the smaller round-headlight style.
Earl Spencer is mentioned because he’s said to have been the first owner of this Jaguar. It’s basically a fun celebrity-ownership detail that adds story value to the car.
“Discs and pads” are parts of the brake system. The pads press on the metal disc to slow the car down, and replacing them helps the brakes work properly again.
The air box is part of the system that brings air into the engine. If it’s replaced, it can help the engine get the right airflow and run more correctly.
Gas struts are the springy cylinders that help lift and hold the trunk/boot lid. Bushings are small rubber/soft parts that help the lid hardware fit and move correctly.
Exhaust clamps are the hardware that holds different parts of the exhaust together. If they’re worn or loose, you can get exhaust leaks, so replacing them can fix that.
The alternator charges the battery and powers the car’s electronics while the engine is running. “Refurbished” means it was taken apart and rebuilt, usually to work like it should again.
“Metric wheels” means the wheel and tire sizes are measured using metric standards. The host is saying that those sizes are less common now, so it can be harder to find the right tires.
Cruise control is the feature that lets the car keep a steady speed for you. You set the speed once, and then you don’t have to keep pressing the gas pedal.
If an engine is running on five cylinders, it means one cylinder isn’t working. That typically makes the car run rough and feel weak until the problem is repaired.
“20 inch wheels” means the wheels are bigger in diameter. Bigger wheels usually change the car’s look and can make the ride a bit firmer depending on the tire setup.
Hydraulic suspension uses fluid pressure to help control how the car rides over bumps. It can make the ride feel smoother and more controlled than a basic spring-and-shock setup.
“Faux snakeskin” is a decorative upholstery material designed to look like snake leather, commonly used in custom interior builds. It’s a styling choice that can dramatically change the cabin’s look without requiring exotic real-leather sourcing.
Term
plexiglass window in the floor
A plexiglass window in the floor is a custom interior modification that replaces or covers part of the floor with clear material. These kinds of mods are usually about show and visibility, but they can also affect how the cabin is insulated and finished.
The Jaguar XJ40 is an older Jaguar sedan. People like it because it’s a comfortable, classic car and it’s popular for customizing and keeping alive as a hobby car.
In the UK, cars have to pass an official safety/roadworthiness test called the MOT. If the car is “MOT’d,” it means it passed that test and is considered road-legal.
The Jaguar Heritage Collection is a place where Jaguar keeps and shows historic cars. The host is saying they saw an XJ40 there and it looked really good.
Place
Gaydon
Gaydon is a location in the UK associated with Jaguar Land Rover. The speaker is saying they were there and saw the Jaguar XJ40 in person.
This is about the shape of the headlights. The speaker is saying they used to dislike the rectangular headlight look, but now they think it suits the car.
“Quad lights” means the car has four headlights. The speaker is comparing that classic look to the rectangular headlight design and saying they used to prefer the four-lamp setup.
“Bubble bonnet” describes a hood shape that bulges upward, creating a rounded profile. The host uses it to contrast the XJ40’s styling with other Jaguar designs that have a more distinctive, raised hood look.
The Range Rover is a large, luxury SUV made by Land Rover. It’s designed to be comfortable for everyday driving but still capable on rough roads. People talk about it a lot because it has many advanced features, and sometimes those can lead to repair issues.
The Toyota RAV4 is a popular SUV known for being dependable and relatively affordable to run. The host’s wife is using it as an example of a sensible, low-drama car choice.
A supercharger is a device that forces extra air into the engine. More air usually means more power, so the car feels quicker than the same engine without it.
Collecting Cars is a service that helps people sell cars, especially enthusiast and collectible types. They contacted the host to offer help selling the Range Rover.
The Porsche 911 is Porsche’s iconic rear-engine sports car line, famous for its distinctive layout and long-running evolution across generations. The host references having sold a Porsche 911 through Collecting Cars before, as proof the process worked well for them.
Chris Harris is a car journalist/presenter with a big audience online. The host is saying he could make a video featuring the car, which would help attract buyers.
A “known problem” is something that people have seen happen before in that kind of engine. That matters because it makes the repair risk more predictable—and potentially more expensive.
Most engines use a chain to keep the engine’s moving parts in sync. If that chain or the parts that keep it tight start to wear out, the engine can run wrong and start making loud rattling noises.
The engine’s timing chain needs to stay tight. The tensioner is the part that keeps it tight—if it’s not working, the chain can get loose and start rattling.
If the timing chain gets loose, it can flop around instead of staying perfectly controlled. That looseness is often what causes the loud rattling sound.
The water pump moves coolant to keep the engine from getting too hot. “Weeping” means it’s leaking a little, and if it gets worse you can end up with overheating.
A suspension warning on the dashboard indicates the vehicle’s suspension system has detected a fault. On air-suspension setups, this often points to issues with the air supply or related components.
The cooling fan pulls air through the radiator to keep the engine from overheating. If the fan blades crack and break, they can cause extra damage in the engine bay.
“Rad” means radiator. It’s the part that helps cool the engine by getting rid of heat using coolant.
Term
plastic cowl
A “plastic cowl” is a plastic cover near the front of the car. It can help direct air and protect parts like the radiator, so if it’s damaged, cooling can suffer.
Here, “warranty” means a promise to pay for certain car repairs. You usually still pay some part yourself (called an excess), but the warranty covers the rest if the issue is included.
An aftermarket warranty is extra coverage you buy after the original warranty is over. If something breaks that’s covered, the warranty helps pay for the repair—so it’s basically insurance for car repairs.
The brake caliper is the part that squeezes the brake pads onto the spinning brake disc to slow the car down. If it sticks, the brakes can drag and wear out faster, but it’s usually fixable.
Term
timing chain center
The timing chain is what keeps the engine’s moving parts timed correctly. The “center” part is where that chain system is mounted, so fixing it usually means something in the timing setup is worn or not working right.
“Worn parts” means the parts are considered to have aged out from regular driving. Some warranties won’t pay for that kind of wear, even if the part failing is what triggered the repair.
Concept
engine and then whatever remains over 9000 pounds will split 5050
They’re talking about how money gets divided if the car is sold. First, the cost to fix the engine gets taken out, and then any remaining amount above a certain number is split evenly. It’s basically a “you pay the fix, then we share the rest” deal.
“Timing” is when the engine’s key events happen in the right order. A “timing change” means they adjusted or replaced something so the engine runs correctly again.
Term
Tensions replaced
They replaced the tensioner parts that keep the engine’s timing drive tight. If a tensioner is weak, it can cause noise and timing problems.
Penalty charge notices are basically official tickets/fines. If the car’s paperwork hasn’t been updated yet, the tickets can still go to the previous owner.
London charges a fee to drive in certain busy central areas. If the car’s ownership record isn’t updated after you sell it, you can still get the bills even though you no longer own the car.
The registered keeper is the name the government has on file as the car’s responsible owner. If that doesn’t get updated after the car changes hands, you may receive tickets even if you sold the car.
The V5 is the UK document that shows who the car is registered to. Updating it helps make sure tickets and legal responsibility go to the new owner, not the seller.
DVLA is the UK agency that keeps the official records for car ownership. The host is saying they haven’t yet received confirmation from DVLA that the car is no longer in their name.
A change of keeper means the official record is updated to show the new owner. If that update doesn’t happen quickly, the previous owner can still get tickets.
These are penalties for breaking rules—parking rules and congestion-charging rules (paying to drive in certain busy areas). The host is saying the fines aren’t coming back to them anymore.
LIVE
I'm Jonny Smith, I'm its reporter, and this is Smith and Sniff, a podcast in which two
friends talk about cars and many other things.
So I was going out the other night and my mate Archie, he had had an absolute nozzle
full of Nicky, absolute nozzle full talking to me right up in my, my grill.
You know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? And he was blowing out his butterscotch unicorn
dung, whatever it was off of the vapes. He was off his swede, mate. Off his swede.
Now, where's this going? Okay. What are you talking about? Well, it occurred to me the
other day that I was trying to work out whether it was disrespectful to refer to the late
Nicky Lauda, obviously an incredible driver and seemingly a nice guy, whether or not it's
okay for him to be a euphemism for cocaine. Is that okay or not?
I, I'm not sure that it is. Is it is still in common usage?
It's not in common usage. The cockney rhyming slang powder.
I think the only person I've ever heard say it is you.
Yeah, me and my mates used to use it about 20 years ago, but I, because I thought it
was funny because I think it's really funny when someone says he's gone and had an absolute
face full of Nicky, which I just thought it was quite funny.
When I, I lived in a flat with four other people and we were bored. This was kind of
pre-internet days in the 90s. When we were bored, we used to make up rhyming slang based
on celebrities often. And for example, we decided that shoes were Rodney Bues as in
actor from the lightly lads. And so you'd go, has anyone seen my Rodney's?
Yeah.
And this amused us.
That feels, that feels incredibly authentic. Were you in London at the time or not?
No, Cardiff.
Okay.
I don't think there's such a thing as well-shryming slang, but I could be wrong.
I bet there is. bloody is.
Well, I suppose, like Ruth Maddock, Haddock.
Oh, of course.
And Tom Jones, Phones or Bones.
Did anyone see my Tom?
Oh, it's called out. I can feel it in my Toms.
Tom Jones, born, see. I don't know.
Otherwise, Charlotte Church, Birch.
I mean, you don't, I don't think even cockneys have rhyming slang for everything.
You don't go, oh, right. Now, what's the rhyming slang for microwave oven?
There just isn't one.
Yeah. But a little bit of, little bit of Nicky.
Nicky, yes.
Do you think so? Is that all right?
Can I tell you a fact about Nicky Louder that's I, I'm going to say this with confidence.
I mean, I know you, you can't slander the dead anyway, but I'm going to say that
Nicky Louder, certainly in his later years, was a fan of the
sit down we and I know this because I was once in the Mercedes formula one,
like hospitality space station thing in the paddock at Anne Grand Prix.
Yeah. And I was standing near the Lou.
Yeah. And Nicky Louder walked past, went into the Lou.
Now, he was only in there for the amount of time it would take to have a wee.
I'm pretty sure of that, unless he has a pit stop attitude to poos.
He could have had a speed plop.
Well, the thing is, there was no evidence of that because I went and he came out
and I was like, actually, I need a wee.
Good idea, Nicky Louder.
I'm going to go for a wee.
I didn't say this to him and I went into the cubicle after him.
Yeah. And the sitting seat was down, but the cover seat was up.
So whoever had been in there just before me, which was for a fact,
former F1 champion, Nicky Louder, had sat down to use the lavatory and he'd only
been in there for a wee amount of time.
So I'm going to say with my full puaro hat on, Nicky Louder like to sit down
wheeze and there is nothing wrong with that.
I think chaps, if you've never tried to sit down, we give it a go.
Quite relaxing.
Well, I mean, I did one in the early hours this morning.
A nocturnal sit down, we is, I think, obligatory now, because then
you don't have to put the light on necessarily, which may activate a fan
which may wake other people.
Exactly. So true.
But I also, ever since
my male pattern baldness has sort of had a bit of a kick down,
I
I rub my own head whilst I'm doing a sit down wheeze.
And it feels like I'm self soothing.
It's just a really nice.
It's just a really lovely sensation that I thought I would never reach.
It's just I feel like it's the little things
in this life, which are the big things.
Yeah, just you just rub you.
I can't do it because I've got my headphones on here.
But I just rub the top of my head and my dome and just go, yeah.
Maybe it only works if you got hand scalp contact.
I don't know if you've got hair in the way.
That's not as soothing.
Maybe it's nice. I don't know because I'm going to give it a try.
Yeah, do it. Do it, Rich.
Do it. I would recommend anyone listening to do it.
Bloody well, well, yeah, thanks for the suggestion.
And I urge all listeners to as well, because why not?
The sit down wheeze also generally quieter,
not from just you can do it without turning lights on.
But also, obviously, the the splash
noise is is lessened because of the distance.
Well, that's it.
I don't want to be all scientific about it, but we know that these effects.
And since I've just briefly mentioned living in Cardiff,
has reminded me sort of tangentially of a message we've had from a listener,
a listener called Sam, who, in fact, signs off Sam off of Devon.
Off of Devon, which part, though?
Does he specifically say?
Anyway, so Sam says I've just finished
listening to the Swannathon edition of the podcast.
That was a couple of weeks ago, wasn't it?
Johnny was talking about his love of the word slag.
With this in mind, I thought you might like to hear about an old friend's former
gardening business.
This friend had the surname Slater.
This is important for the story.
He lived in leafy, rural Devon with lots of pensioners and farmers.
He had a sign written White Vauxhall
Astromax for his gardening business, lovely, on the side of which was written Slags.
Well,
Sam's written this, it has a full stop after each letter,
but it definitely says slags.
This stood for Slater's Landscape and Gardening Services.
He can't know. He can't name his business that.
No. The capital letters were bright green.
The lowercase letters spelled out the name of the business were very discreet,
gray and written in cursive.
You can imagine how well this went down with the local constabulary,
though it did turn out it wasn't technically illegal.
No. So there we go.
He says former gardening business, so I presume that slags is no longer in business.
But it reminded me when I lived in Cardiff in the 90s,
there was a cafe called The Warmer's Toast and which is a good name for a cafe.
Yes. The Warmer's Toast Cafe.
And they opened a new branch inexplicably close to their first one and they had a
whole new white awning made and installed and on it in big red letters.
It had a abbreviation of The Warmer's Toast.
It said twat cafe on it in big red letters.
Anyone who lived in Cardiff in the 90s, back me up here.
I swear I'm not making this up.
This was a real thing.
And it was a source of great hilarity because it was also like they must have known.
I mean, really, twat cafe.
We'd then go, do you want to go and get like a cup of tea and some toast or something?
Yeah, let's go to a twat cafe.
Why was it called the twat?
Because it was short for The Warmer's Toast Cafe,
but they've chosen to abbreviate the Warmer's Toast, but not cafe.
So it's a twat cafe.
Oh, I thought I didn't understand that because I was thinking warm as toast,
W-A-T, I get that.
I was wondering where did this tea come from?
Yeah, it was the that's the thing,
which you wouldn't typically include a
debrivation, you'd have put the W-A-T and then cafe underneath.
So it was clearly it was done deliberately, but it caused mirth.
I bet it did.
Guys, look,
if Slaggs is still in business,
I live nowhere near Devon, but I'm in dire need of some gardening help right now.
If you want to come up, I'm quite happy to pay pay the Slaggs
for some gardening, gardening help right now.
We're in full growing season.
Have you noticed? Yes. Wow.
Stuff's true.
I have destroyed my legs and arms with stinger stinger nettles,
or as they say in the West Country, stingers.
And do they?
Well, we did.
So it must be true.
And I'll keep my ears peeled for that one.
I've got the most vicious thistles going on.
They are evil and talking of potential evil,
how much sleep did I have last night?
Was it zero?
No, it was a shade under two hours.
And it was all my own fault.
Because I've recognized a pattern on my doorbell camera that I casually
mentioned to my lovely teenage daughter who's doing her GCSEs and is in full GCSE
stress mode, and thus I've destroyed the dynamic of the family in one fell swoop.
So, so easy to casually do that.
I
so I've noticed over the last probably six nights going on a week
that it flags up that there's motion detected at almost the same time in the
early hours of the morning, we're talking like 318, 320, 330, 331.
So very close and bearing in mind, there's no other motion around it.
So it's quite isolated.
And I look at my phone on the app and is about five to nine seconds of just the front door.
Can't see anything.
No spiders legs, because I've seen spiders legs before where they just come around.
Yes, I can't see any bushes moving.
There isn't a person there.
I do not know what's going on.
So I looked to this and I just casually mentioned it to Kitty May and oh, my gosh.
To right now, as we record this, she's got a physics exam, which she was getting
immensely stressed about anyway, because it's not a strong point of hers.
And I've effectively destroyed her night's sleep and maybe her well-being for the four
civil future. So she's now convinced that there's, I don't know, an unwanted spirit
a ghost guarding the front door or exiting our house at three in the morning or going
into our house at three in the morning.
I don't ready know.
All I know is I downloaded all these things and I'm interested in the paranormal.
I do actually believe in the paranormal.
I mean, Yonks ago on this podcast, I mentioned
the most skeptical person of the paranormal in the world, my brother, who actually had
a ghost experience and and that confirmed for me that they must be real.
But yes, we did talk about this, didn't we?
We did, didn't we? We did.
Because one of probably my most levelheaded,
sensible friend has had a ghost experience.
Right. OK.
And again, I went if he's saying this,
he's just not the kind of person to believe that sort of stuff.
Yeah. So I also remain open minded about the prospect of ghosts.
But does the ghost that if it's going into your house at three a.m.
or thereabouts, it's a dirty stopout ghost.
If it's leaving your house at that time, yeah, it's got like it does shift work.
Yeah, I think it does.
Doing a dairy or something.
Is it could be a milk?
It's a milk delivery.
It's a milk or a post-ghost post-ghost.
God, that'd be a good rap.
And it's got to get up early to get to work.
Well, so I'm just just generally curious.
I was looking closely and I was listening and only one of the videos,
there's six of them, I think, only one of the videos had any sound.
There's a Twitter of a bird as soon as it was activated.
And then.
There was the sound of either a man
clearing his throat or or a muntjac deer.
I can't work it out.
I've saved it.
So Kitty May sort her that one.
And we've gone nuclear now.
We have gone absolutely nuclear.
So she slept in bed with me like and that hasn't been very much.
She's 16 and a half.
That hasn't happened for years.
I can't remember the last time one of my children insisted on sleeping with me.
And we had the most disturbed night's sleep.
I left pretty much every light on downstairs.
OK. And she said to me, well, she got of the hour and three quarters of sleep
that she got in my bed, she said to me this morning, she said.
If there was no recording last night, I won't I won't be worried.
If there was a recording again last night, she said,
Daddy, I can't I can't cope.
I don't think I can cope with this.
So I went downstairs and I checked my phone.
And at three 16 last night,
six seconds of the front door and nothing to show for it.
I hope you did what any good parent would do and just deleted that video immediately.
I said, I did actually.
I went, yeah, I said, no, nothing there, nothing to see there.
And she doesn't listen to this podcast.
It's fine. It's absolutely fine.
But so I do I do believe in the paranormal.
And but and I used to be freaking terrified of it.
But now as I get older, I'm just I'm totally fine with it.
I just I'm just curious.
I'm just interested and
yeah, I just want to know the truth.
So I mean, but I would say not to be a boring party pooper slash ghost denier.
But if this is happening broadly the same time every day,
surely is just an animal because they're creatures of habit.
And that is the window at which a small
deer or a badger or a fox or something is passing by your front door.
It's just it's too quick for the camera to pick up.
Yeah, because they follow patterns, don't they?
Habitual patterns.
So I don't know, Jed, the muntjac will be walking from that part of the garden
to that part of the garden to meet Des the badger,
who's out at the same time because that's what Des does, right?
Yeah.
Well, because there's there's a shift work.
So he actually works
at an Amazon warehouse and he does the he starts at 4 a.m.
Well, he's diversified, doesn't he?
Oh, he's the thing about deserts is despite being a badger,
he he drives a vehicle.
And because he he's so used, he can't bear getting in a cold car.
So he always starts his clattery diesel
Mondeo up about 10 minutes before he has to leave the house with absolutely no
regard for anybody else in the area.
I think I said I think Americans would call that a dick move.
That's a dick move.
Who do these badges think they are?
Yeah, exactly.
It's not giving TB to cattle and now
idling a Mondeo diesel for 10 minutes outside of the people's houses.
They're a menace.
Yeah.
Hey, listen, I know this obviously it's not fun for your daughter,
particularly in exam season.
But you know what I believe doctors now say can ease anxiety and stress
is buying a car from car and classic.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
In particular, they're excellent options, which run online.
And as regular listeners, viewers will know,
we are sponsored by car and classic by coincidence.
I was just mentioning them anyway.
But every week, one of us picks a car from car and classic somewhere in a
notional way buys it for the other person, although no money changes hands,
nor do they get a car.
But in a virtual world where we're both eccentric millionaires.
Yes.
This is what would happen.
So I've picked you something this week and I think it's it's a car you've
already owned, but I have a feeling you would love another one.
Oh, and it is quite simply a 1986 Jaguar XJ 40.
Feast your eyes on that.
Oh, I can see it.
It's the sovereign.
Oh, it I've had that was exactly what I had the four litre sov.
Yeah.
With the sometimes colloquially referred to as the fish tank headlights,
the big rectangular ones rather than the four round ones of lesser specs.
Yes, I had both of mine.
I had two of them, both of them are fish tank headlights,
which I liked.
I don't know if that's an unpopular opinion or not, but I was down with them.
I liked them.
Yeah.
Well, I know also one of your favorite styles of car is
mechanically excellent, cosmetically could do the bit of work.
Yes.
And that's what this car is.
Apparently it is mechanically sorted, but it has an extra little bit of trivia
because it was reportedly owned, in fact, his first owner was Earl Spencer,
Diana's dad.
Oh, OK.
There is a small chance, I suppose,
that the Queen of our hearts has had her ass in this Jaguar.
Yeah, she's got she's got a form with XJ40s, hasn't she?
Yeah, because because the XJ40 Jag was what she notoriously stepped out of in
the revenge dress.
Oh, do you remember back in the day, Rich, back in the day?
Yes.
When was that, 94?
I can't remember.
Oh, yeah, maybe, definitely 90s.
This was when Diana had found out about Charles being naughty with Camilla.
I said, now King Charles and she went to an event that evening and wore a dress
that the world talked about and looked sensational.
But I am sure I'm sure Diana's legs stepped out of an XJ40.
I'm sure it was.
Found a photo.
In fact, I found a photo of her in the revenge dress, inverted commas.
Yes.
Getting out of the Jag.
But wait, I think this is actually.
OK, so the picture of her getting out of the Jag is, in fact,
from the crown, the TV series, and it is what's her name?
Elizabeth Dubecki was the actor.
I think it's her playing Diana, getting out of an XJ40, played by an XJ40.
But then there's a picture of the real Diana in the revenge dress.
It's a heck of a dress.
But you can see just in the corner of this photo from Vogue that there is the
square headlight, a rectangular headlight of an XJ40.
So now there we go.
There we go. That's fantastic.
That's really cool because that car was at was at the Jaguar Day that was it
by sister Heritage the other week.
Yes. Is it not or has it not been recently for sale?
I think so.
And I feel like that's a car that you and I ought to own at some point in our lives.
I'm not going to get out of it in a revenge dress, though, just so you know.
The revenge dress is funny, isn't it?
It's like they've just gone, oh, look, Diana's looking extra hot to spite her
cheating husband. Maybe she just felt like wearing that dress that night.
Yeah. I mean, she does look excellent in it.
It's it's it's got to say she's scrubbed up well as has the XJ40.
Yeah, I'm cruising on this car and classic auction of the of her dad's XJ40.
So 88000 miles.
It's a three point six and it's in Galway, an island.
Yes. And are these engines?
Oh, yeah, I remember it is in Jaguar racing green.
I was trying to work out what green it was because my
eyes aren't great for color, beige leather interior, black accents,
wooden lace suits you.
Yeah, it's recently had new discs and pads, new air box,
gas struts for boot bushings, exhaust clamps, headlight washers
and a refurbished alternator.
Oh, the interior has had a recent restoration.
OK, yeah, the interior is good, mechanically good.
And it's just apparently just needs some cosmetics on the outside.
Don't sound of anything particularly troublesome.
So and I did notice it's on
later model wheels because those early XJ40s and this is like a really early one.
They were on metric wheels and they're an absolute swine to find tires for.
But the original metric wheels do come with it.
So if you want to look at it in original spec, then you could do.
Well, you and your three friends could just hang your hose reel on them
in your back garden, couldn't you?
I do know that one of the outstanding memories for me driving an XJ40
is where the dash binnacle is either side of the steering column.
You've got this sort of plinth of technology buttons, real 80s technology buttons.
And I think there's a little paddle for the cruise control on the on the edge.
Yes. And it's a really nice position.
I always thought it was well positioned and it has a good feel to the switch.
And I used to use the cruise all the time in that car.
So in case podcasters can't remember.
This would have been 2003, 2004,
2005 era, I was working on Revs magazine
originally and I decided to build a custom XJ40 and I bought a 1994
24 litre Sov for 90 pounds from a guy that ran an internet cafe in Cambridge.
That dates it.
And it was running on five cylinders.
And it was fine.
It just needed some new ignition parts.
And that car was subject to I ended up shaving the door handles and having
graduated metal flake in the black paint from the roof down 20 inch wheels that I
had drilled, especially for the Jag with no spaces, hydraulic suspension.
And then I had the whole interior just casually reupholstered in faux snakeskin
with a plexiglass window in the floor of the foot well of the passenger side
with an X box set into it against with some neon edging.
So so that was it.
But I realized that that car got a bit too extreme to use every day.
So I one of the guys on practical classics said, oh, I've got another XJ40.
If you fancy it, I'll let you have it for cheap.
And it was MOT'd.
So I bought another one.
In the words of DJ Khaled, I bought another one for 250 sheets.
And that one was actually a far better car to drive than mine, as in it was better
condition in originally anyway.
So I was Johnny two Jags for some time for a year.
I had two Jags that I just I taxed and MOT'd them both and just decided which one
I wanted to drive. I was an early 2000s baller, rich.
Sounds like it.
Does anyone remember the dub magazine?
That was prime dub magazine era as well.
When right, big chrome wheels were everything.
I was I was deep in that world at the time.
The Diana Revenge Jaguar is is being auctioned by
another auction site that I won't mention because they're not
car and classic and therefore we don't like them.
But it's actually the option ends today, the 8th of June, the day this podcast goes
live, so we don't know what it'll finally go for.
But I'd imagine quite chunky money.
So it's yeah, I just I find XJ40 is more and more appealing these days.
I saw one at the Jag Heritage Collection just parked outside the other week
when I was up at Gaydon and it just looked excellent.
I was really taken with it.
And I used to hate the rectangular lights.
I always want the quad lights.
But now I think the rectangular lights are rather good.
Yeah, I guess it was because they were they were different.
They were very different to the usual bubble bonnet type of affair.
But yeah, I really have you noticed that there's a real swell of interest
and obviously helped by Chris Harris and his friends with Jags, whether or not
it's because Jags about to launch this new car.
So the brand is going to the flame is going to be rekindled.
Yeah.
But I really hope that there's a wider interest in Jag products.
Because the other day someone was talking to me about the fact that their
father-in-law had bought a no, no, it's their dad.
It was Lewis from Ignition Cars and Coffee.
His dad had retired and treated himself to which doesn't sound like a treat
to an accident damaged F type and he bought one for not a lot of money
that needed minor repair.
That's what I'm going to do.
But I retire, I'm going to go, do you know, I work really hard all my life.
I'm going to buy a completely smashed Maserati that's retirement type.
I'm going to treat myself to a telly with a crack in it.
That's what I just I love damage goods.
I just love and hate stuff that's in perfect work in order.
I'm going to buy one designer shoe and without ever finding the other one.
And the other one, the soul's fallen off.
But that's fine. I love damaged things.
Good. All right.
Well, anyway, if you want to buy an XJ40 from Galway, home of a terrible
Ed Sheeran song and a wonderful XJ40 currently going through the car
and classic options, car and classic to find more details.
It's a 1986 XJ40 Sovereign, so you'd be able to find it there or in the XJ section.
Oh, if that's not your taste, carandclassic.com have thousands of cars
for sale in the classifieds or in the auctions, all rather excellent.
I'm looking at them now.
Damn it. I've been pulled in.
I'm in the vortex. vortex of it.
Don't get distracted. It's too easy to just get distracted.
No, you know, dream and then suddenly you're drooled on your desk.
Let me instead.
Well, in fact, no, you can keep browsing because you've heard this story before
and it must be incredibly boring for you to hear it again.
But people keep asking and I've been asking now for like two years.
Rich, what happened with that Range Rover you had?
Oh, and I always say, oh, it's a bit complicated.
Also, it's not that interesting, but still people go, no, tell us.
And so recently at live shows where inevitably when we take questions
to the audience, someone goes, could you tell us about the Range Rover?
Please, Richard.
Often it's the first question and then lots of other people go, oh,
I was going to ask that too.
And I keep going, look, it's honestly not that interesting.
But I've told the story in a sort of truncated form at live shows.
As far as like artists might as well just tell it on the podcast.
I actually wrote it down so that I wouldn't forget any of the details
because it is quite long winded.
But from the top, regular podcast listeners will remember that I had a
jaguar eye pace and it was coming to the end of its lease.
And I decided I was going to buy a car outright.
And I think this was originally my wife's suggestion.
She just went, it's pointless leasing a car during this sort of covid era.
It might just sit outside.
We can't go anywhere if this rears its head again.
I think she had in mind like a sort of four grand RAV4 or something,
just reliable and cheap.
And I got it in my head.
We needed a supercharged Range Rover and somehow my idea went through.
So I bought this L322 full-size Range Rover.
A few people writing and go, what happened to that Range Rover sport of yours?
They're like, never had a Range Rover sport. How dare you?
But so it's a full-size, proper Range Rover,
five liter, supercharged, latest model 2010.
It was a really nice car, car.
But there came a point when I was like,
oh, this is quite juicy and fuels going up again.
And I quite fancy going back to an EV.
There were some deals going on Teslas and I ended up just signing up for that.
So then
I casually mentioned on this podcast, oh, I need to sell my Range Rover.
The morning that podcast went live,
someone from Collecting Cars got in touch because they'd heard me say that and said,
would you like to sell through us?
I'd sold my Porsche 911 through them previously, been happy with how it went.
And this time they sweetened the deal.
They went, if you want to sell through us,
we can get Chris Harris, who was still affiliated with them at that point,
to maybe do a little video with your car and put it on his socials.
And that's quite a persuasive argument of someone goes,
do you want a former Top Gear presenter to make a video with your car and send it
out to his thousands and thousands of followers?
And I thought, this is useful.
This will help to sell my car.
So I met up with Monkey.
We drove around the Tew Valley between his house and my house.
I had a nice old time and a chat and filmed some of it.
And then he held on to it ready for when the auction went live.
And then he did Julie put it up.
But there were a couple of things I was a bit unsure about when they told me
they were going to put the auction live.
One of them was that the day they were going to put it up,
meant it would end on Easter Sunday.
And I was like, hmm,
will everybody be away and not paying attention to my car?
Or it's a bank holiday Sunday.
Will everybody be at home and drunk and they might get a bit giddy with the bidding?
So I wasn't sure which way it would go.
So I bowed to their better judgment there.
But they also said, at this price point, let's list it as with no reserve.
I was like, oh, OK.
And I thought, well, they do this for a living.
I'm sure they know what they're doing.
And you know, those Range Rovers, because I guess they're in production for 10 years.
So there's a big span of them out there and prices span a huge range.
Even to this day, you'll see like a late model
green over tan with clear glass, the kind of the spec that people really drool over.
And someone will have it up its low mileage like 25 grand or something,
which is quite punchy for an old car.
But then equally, you'll get like thousand
pound snotters that you wouldn't trust in an emergency.
So it's like there's a huge good mutt.
But at this point, I thought if I can get
twelve for this at least, that seems fair.
If I can get thirteen, I'll be really happy.
If a bidding war breaks out and it goes up to fifteen, I'll be delighted.
That seems to be like based on what else is out there.
That's kind of toppy, but it could be achieved.
So car went live, ran for a week.
The Sunday is due to end.
I was up at my brother's house.
We went for a stroll.
We ended up at the pub and he went, how's your auction doing?
And I was like, well, last I looked, it was ten and a half grand,
but there'll be a late rally on it.
Checked it still at ten and a half grand.
There's two hours to go. Two hours would be fine.
Two hours elapsed.
I checked as the auction was about to end
and it ended on ten and a half thousand pounds.
And I was a bit like, that's not great.
And I messaged the guy I'd been dealing with at the auction site and I went,
that didn't go very well.
And, you know, obviously it's a Sunday evening on Easter.
This bloke doesn't want some dick hassling him, but unfortunately here I am.
So he he wrote back, obviously he's trying to put a positive spin on it,
but there's not much he can say.
So he said, oh, it got like way more views than the average auction,
because it had Chris Harris promoting it, obviously.
And I just wrote back and went, well, yeah,
but views aren't pounds, are they? And I just want pounds.
And then he rang me.
It's true.
I didn't have to do.
And he was a really nice guy and he was very just, you know,
trying to talk me down, but I was pissed off, frankly.
So I had a rather robust venting of my disappointment, which he didn't deserve.
I later apologized to him for being a dick, but there we are.
Then
Monkey Harris messaged me and went, good result.
And I wrote back and went, no, it isn't.
And basically told him to bug her off.
And then he rang me and I robustly vented my views again and was a bit of a dick.
And later had to apologize to him,
which I'm not I'm not sure he's entirely forgiven me for.
But anyway, the thing is what he pointed out to me and he's absolutely right.
I just couldn't see it at the time is it's an auction.
You can't make people give you more money than they want to.
That's how auctions work.
And so you just have to put your big boy
pants on and suck it up and having calmed down a bit.
You know, that's sort of what I had to do.
But I was still disappointed and particularly because it also
I'd noticed the car had sold to a dealer.
So you knew it was a low price because someone spotted a profit in it.
So I was a bit like, well, that just says it all.
That's that's gone low.
But nothing I can do.
So a couple of weeks later, it was before the dealer
sent one of his guys over to inspect the car and then take it away.
And this blokes outside for like over an hour.
And then he just goes, the boss is going to call you.
And the the boss of this car dealership rang me and he went, look,
my guy can hear some rattle from the engine.
We think it might be the timing chain tensioners,
which is a known problem with those engines.
I would have to investigate that and potentially fix it before I can retail the car.
And that could be a big bill.
I can't take that risk at this price.
I could make you an offer that factors in that potential cost,
but you wouldn't like that offer.
So can we just agree to go our separate ways?
This guy was a really decent bloke, real grown up.
He was just very upfront, but also just trying to be as open as he could about it.
And I was like, you know, I can't make you buy my car because there's a getout.
He can say, well, there's a fault there that wasn't declared.
So, you know, he has he has an out.
And so I had to accept it and I respected his honesty and I agreed not to send the car.
So then
I went online and I started watching videos of those AJ133 V8s
with timing chain problems.
There's quite a lot of them online.
And when they really when the tensioners are knackered and the chain's gone slack,
they sound like a 70s diesel.
It's appalling.
They're so rattly.
And I was like, well, my engine doesn't sound anything like that.
And my engines always had this slight thrash to it.
But it had since I bought it.
And when I bought it, I was, you know, checking it didn't have timing chain problems.
So I said, no, no, he's mistaken.
This is fine. This is all fine.
But then I watched a video of somebody
they put up a before and after and before
dang, 70s diesel after whisper quiet and smooth.
And I was a bit like, oh, my engine's not that smooth.
So now I think maybe I have got a problem.
And I can't really sell the car again, knowing that the engine might be about to
launch itself.
So I booked it into a specialist broad lane Landray was down in Westbury near here
and said, could you have a look at my timing chains and tensioners, please?
And they came back and they went, yeah, you have a problem there.
So the bill I've written this down was
3500 and twelve pounds and 44 P, including that.
That was their estimate to do time, right?
OK, so they didn't do it.
They didn't do it.
They sent me the estimate and then
offered to book it in once I'd come round from the fainting fit that I had.
But hang on,
this all was not lost because when I bought the car, it had six months warranty wise
warranty on it as part of the Range Rover specialist that sold it to me.
Sells all their cars for six months warranty on.
And in that first six months,
the water pump was weeping slightly, so I had that replaced warranty wise paid for
almost all of the cost of that.
There was an intermittent suspension warning coming up on the dash just very
occasionally, but I ended up having the suspension pump replaced as the air
suspension compressor warranty wise covered pretty much the whole cost of that.
And then one of the plastic cooling fan blades had become brittle.
Apparently quite a common problem.
BMWs do it a lot apparently.
So that flew off, made a right mess under the bonnet, slashed through the wiring loom
to the fan, which thankfully defaults to being on, so it didn't overheat.
But smash the plastic cowl over the rad.
Absolute carnage.
So that cost over it's fine.
You can laugh now.
But that cost over a grand to sore and warranty wise picked up most of the tab for that.
You know, I think the excess was like a hundred and something quid.
So, you know, over a grand.
Largely taken care of.
So in that first six months, I'd always been skeptical about aftermarket
warranties and I was actually really impressed by how much they were prepared
to pay on the sort of bits of snagging on this car.
After that, as it turns out, the car was pretty much good as gold at that sticking
brake caliper, but it was very cheap to fix.
But when the six months were up, I was a bit like now,
do I roll the dice and not extend this warranty at my own cost?
Because if I don't, I guarantee the car will immediately explode.
If I do, well, you know, that's peace of mind.
So I did. Yeah.
It was 90 pounds and 32 P per month for the first year.
And then after that year, it went up to 100 and two pounds and 51 P
for another year per month.
And then the final year each month, it was 100 and sixteen pounds and thirty
five pence. So, you know, it's creeping up because the car is getting older.
That makes sense.
So it's more than the insurance of the car, then?
Yes. Yeah.
In total, I reckon I paid
around what I was now being quoted by Broad Lane to fix the timing chain center.
But it felt like, OK, well, I'm sort of this almost zeroes out.
If they pick up the tab for the timing chain
and tensioners to be sorted, yeah, I'm OK with that because then I don't have to pay
the three and a half grand on top of the three and a half grand.
I have already given to warranty wise, which I haven't really claimed on in the
time that I've been paying for it.
So claim went in
for this job and they rejected it.
And they rejected it because in the claim, the word worn was used.
The timing chain tensioners are worn.
And in their T's and C's, it does say we don't replace worn parts.
And I get that because they want to make sure that people are going,
my tires are bald. Can I have some new ones on you, please?
Yeah, that makes sense.
But I quibbled this based on the fact that I was like, well, you know,
what if the water pump was weeping and the suspension compressor wasn't entirely
working properly? You know, what was that?
If not, where if I'd never used them, they wouldn't have developed problems.
So they were worn as well.
So why did you stump up for getting those fixed?
That's true.
And it all is very semantic.
Their customer, they have an escalations department for when you're not happy with
their decisions, you can escalate them.
So the escalations department, they couldn't fully explain this.
But what they said was that in the claims for those other problems,
they were described as premature faults and they will pay out on premature faults.
But if they see the word worn,
that's it, you're not getting their money.
So I was a bit like, no, this is just semantics and I'm not happy with it.
So I suddenly remembered, we know the freelance PR who looks after warranty wise.
And I wanted to talk to the guy who owns the company.
He's very active on social media, but he doesn't follow me so I couldn't DM him.
So I spoke to this PR and I said,
could you get me some way of contacting the boss of warranty wise, please?
Because I just want to take this up with him in his semantics about worn versus
prematurely failed or whatever.
But naturally, the PR is then like, why?
So I explained it and they went,
this could be a case for Ed China, who had recently become the new face of warranty wise.
And they said, the thing is, I know that we're paying him to be the face of
warranty wise, but as part of his contract, he is supposed to arbitrate in cases
where a customer is not happy with our decision and he is supposed to take a
fair-minded mechanics view of whether or not we should, in fact, reverse our decision.
So he said, this would be a perfect one to get Ed involved in.
Yeah, I thought, great.
Now, I don't really know Ed China.
I've met him a few times.
He's a lovely chap.
I've always had a lovely chat with him when I've seen him at things,
but I don't I don't know him very well.
He's never called me.
I've never called him.
Couple of days later, my phone goes, it's Ed China.
And so I was like, oh, hello, Ed, you're calling about the warranty.
And he went, what?
And completely out of the blue, Ed was ringing me to pick my brain about a telly thing.
Totally unrelated.
So then I had to go,
you're supposed to be being told about my Range Rover and you're supposed to be
arbitrate. I can't I can't talk to you about this because it'll feel like I'm
trying to sway you. So he's like, OK, that's fine.
I'll just wait for them to get in touch.
How strange.
It's so strange.
It's still really freaky.
I was like, what are the chances?
The man's never rung me before and yet here we are.
So anyway, we talked about the telly thing.
And I said, well, I suppose we'll be speaking again soon about warranties.
But until then, you know, I won't try and sway your decision.
And then nothing.
And I was all that happened was out of the blue.
I got another email from warranty wise.
It said,
your case has been flagged due to posts made on social media regarding this matter.
And we'd like to offer a goodwill gesture of 1000 and 98
pounds and 32 P.
And I was a bit confused because I hadn't made any posts on social media.
Oh, so it turns out this is some kind of standard message for people who are
basically being troublesome.
And I guess normally when someone's really shouting their mouth off on on social
media, this is one of the ways they'll try and shut it down.
So I'd obviously been flagged on the system as trouble maker.
But I hadn't posted anything at all anywhere.
So this was, you know, but anyway, so they'd offered me this goodwill gesture,
but it's still not the three and a half grand.
It's just over a thousand pounds.
So majority of the bill is mine to pay if I want to get this sorted.
So I was mulling this over and still waiting for them to tell a China,
which that never happened.
In that gap, enter Ben Thomas of V8 vault.
In fact, you met him at an auction, didn't you?
And he said to you, I did Richard still trying to sell his Range Rover.
Yeah, that's right.
And I think you said, yes, he is.
It's it's yes, he is.
He said, oh, he said, oh, I'd love I'd love to sell it for him.
Well, I'm sure I could sell it for him or something to that effect.
And I said, OK, yeah.
Well, so I think you said just drop Richard a line, which he did initially
through Instagram DM and he said, two things that cheered me up.
First was he went, it might not be your timing chain tensioners.
It might be something much simpler and cheaper.
And even if it is, if your timing chain itself is still tight,
then it's just the tensioners.
That is a much quicker, simpler, cheaper job.
And I've got an engine guy can do that, you know, trade rates.
So don't worry, you are not looking down the barrel of three and a half grand.
It's probably the case, unless things are much worse than they seem.
The second thing he said to cheer me up was you went, I'll take your car in.
I can't take it for stock, but I will sell it on your behalf.
So I was like, this is perfect.
I just want this car gone.
We back and forth on to establish the terms of how this would work on this sale
or return thing. So according to the message was I dug out.
He said, whatever the car sells for will deduct whatever its cost to sort the
engine and then whatever remains over 9000 pounds will split 5050.
So if it costs a grand to sort the engine and the car sells for 12 grand,
we've got 11 grand, that's two grand over the nine threshold.
So then it'll take a grand of that.
I get to keep the rest.
So that seemed like fair enough.
So in July 2024, I drove up to Stockport one Sunday where V8 Volta based
and I handed the car over to Ben's business partner and he said he'd be in touch.
So in the end, he got the timing change.
Tensions replaced as a precaution, but just with his guys, much cheaper way of doing it.
And in fact, the rattling noise was the supercharger coupler.
Another known thing on those engines, they just get a bit noisy.
And that was dead, simple and cheap to fix.
And he did a service so all in that was 740 quid it costs.
So it seems like it's pretty good and it's now engine running smoothly.
All good to make the car look nice.
Ben then had the wheels refurbed, which they probably needed.
And he had an interested buyer who wasn't happy about the condition of the seats.
So he got a trimmer in to smarten up the front seats a little bit
and he had some paint done on the front bumper.
So all in the costs that he forwarded to me, it was 1280 pounds.
But the car is looking good.
The engine's all good on the 2nd of August.
He messaged me and said, looks like the car's sold.
And then three days later, he says, yeah, someone's put down his deposit.
And they've agreed a price of 11200 and fifty pounds.
So minus costs, that's 9970
Ben will take 400 and 85 quid as per our deal.
So I'm set to walk away with just under nine and a half grand.
So it's like, OK, well, at this point,
the car is sold, I'll just take that and move on.
And then on the 13th of August, I noticed my cars back on the vehicle Instagram,
where they tend to advertise their wares.
So I messaged Ben to ask what's going on.
And he said the buyer bailed out because the car was a day late coming back
from the seat trimmers and the buyer said, I don't believe this car exists
and walks away, which is bizarre.
But so that's that.
It's the middle of August.
The car is, in fact, not sold.
I don't hear anything at all until the 2nd of October.
When out of the blue, Ben messages me and goes, can I have your bank details?
And then says, oh, the car's been collected next week.
I was like, that's fantastic.
What did you get for it?
And Ben says, I got 11000 pounds.
So minus costs, Ben's cut is now 300 and sixty quid.
Under our agreement, I'm taking home 9300 and sixty pounds.
So it's like, well, yeah, it's disappointing, but it is what it is.
The market's gone soft.
I just need that car gone now.
So I'm not I'm not going to complain.
I haven't actually done these maths when I got Ben's message saying it's sold
for eleven grand because then he said he spent nearest damn it.
1500 quid sorting the car.
And even though I'd added up the numbers, he sent me to 1280
But anyway, he says with a sale price of eleven
grand and the 1500 quid costs, well,
I should have been walking away with nine to fifty under our deal.
But he's told me nine and a half.
So at this point, I didn't notice this.
I'm just like, fine, I will just take nine and a half grand
for that bloody car to be sold.
Then things get a bit strange because
it's thirteen days later from Ben's message saying the car's sold.
I'm on piston heads and someone has put a link to a car and classic auction
that ended on the second of October and it's my car.
And I was a bit like,
why didn't Ben tell me he was putting the car into an auction?
Because, you know, I could have mentioned it on social media and things and maybe
given it a bit of a push.
But what's doubly confusing is that the auction has ended on the second of
October with a winning bid of 13000 pounds.
And Ben told me the car sold for eleven.
So.
Bit puzzled.
So I took a screen grab of the auction
page with the winning bid declared as thirteen, sent it to Ben.
And Ben replied, is there a problem?
Actually, he wrote, is there an issue?
And then he said he had three cars going through auctions.
There was my car, there was an E 500 Mercedes,
there was another Range Rover, all three buyers bailed.
And so he put together a deal with an underbidder.
And that's where the eleven came from.
So it didn't sell for the thirteen declared on the site.
Then things get even more complicated because I started getting penalty charge
notices through for my car, that's not my car anymore.
And they were for the London congestion charge.
So on the 30th of October, a message ban, I said,
have you got any proof of when the new buyer collected the car or when the V five
was sent off to change the registered keeper?
So I just need something that proves that the date on which it changed hands and
it's not mine anymore, because I haven't had anything through from DVLA yet to
confirm that it's not mine.
I don't hear anything back.
I'm getting more penalty charge notices through a chase Ben on the 4th of November.
The following day, he replied to say, let me grab those details for you.
And then again, there was nothing.
And now I'm getting not only congestion charge fines, but also parking fines from
around London.
So on the 3rd of December, a chase Ben again.
This is two months after the car sold, right?
So it should have by now change of keeper should have gone through with a DVLA.
They're pretty quick at doing that.
But searching the reg on the DVLA website
shows that the last time a V five C was issued was in 2021 when I bought the car.
So it clearly hasn't been processed.
So the 4th of December, I chased him again on WhatsApp and said,
you know, I need your help here with some proof.
And his reply was just to send me the full name and address of the guy who's bought
the car and then he followed that by saying he'll send a V 62 form now.
And that's an application for a vehicle registration certificate,
along with a reprint of sales invoice showing the date of sale.
He reckons this will cancel the PCNs if he sends this to DVLA.
But it doesn't seem to work.
I don't know if he did send this stuff, but certainly nothing changes.
I'm getting more and more fines through.
I've now got bailiffs contacting me for unpaid fines.
And I get a notice for an uninsured vehicle,
which is just I sing on the cake at this point.
So I wrote the DVLA myself and said, look, I don't own this car anymore.
On the 14th of January, I messaged Ben and I asked him if he'd sent off those
things that he promised to on the 21st of January, I finally get confirmation from
the DVLA, I get a little slip that says we acknowledge you are no longer the
registered keeper of this car.
So that's fine.
Just after that, Ben sent me a copy of the sale or return agreement dated
the 15th of August, 2024, listing me as the previous keeper, giving the car reg,
stating the sale price of nine and a half thousand pounds and saying all vehicle
correspondence, please forward to V eight volt, which was a bit odd and not
entirely what I asked for.
But it's like, OK, well, I've got a bit of paperwork here.
This will help because I'm now trying to fend off all of these fines.
The trouble is anything after the date,
the DVLA acknowledged that I no longer the registered keeper is easy enough to
fend off because I have a proper official bit of paper.
Everything from before that, I am still in the eyes of the law,
the registered keeper of that car and liable for any fines that are
rebuilt up against its registration number.
So any fine between October, 2024 and January, 2025 is my
responsibility. And one of the debt collection agencies that I'm now having
to deal with says the easiest way to do this if you don't want bailiffs at your
door is just to pay the fines and then you can test them.
Don't try and contest whether it's still an outstanding debt.
And it's like a farce sake.
So there's another debt collector asking for a proper sales invoice.
They won't accept the one that Ben sent me with my deal.
Tills are the details of the buyer.
This is now May, 2025.
And I asked Ben on the 1st of May if I can have that.
And he says, let me know exactly what you need, which I sort of already said.
But I repeated it.
He doesn't send me anything or indeed reply to that message.
It's now cost me over three grand to pay off all these fines.
Three grand.
Some of it I'm in the process of claiming back.
Some of it it seems like I'm just going to get nowhere because
particularly in the early days, October, November, after the car was supposedly sold,
it's still in my name.
And these places won't accept the proof that I have that it was sold.
So he should have sent.
He should have the caution of left his hands without the V five of the ownership changing.
No, well, so the DVLA, their rules are it is the seller's responsibility to
correctly complete a change of registered keepers slip that comes on your V five C.
Yeah.
So in my absence, yes.
Ben Thomas should have filled out the V five C on my behalf
with the buyer of the car whose details he had because he sent them to me full address.
And so, yeah, I didn't know why he hadn't.
Or at this point, I'm wondering if just it was sent off and lost in the post or something,
you know, there's been some failing at the DVLA's end.
I just don't know.
But in the end, I get some money back, but I'm still out of pocket to at least
1600 quid.
That is ridiculous.
Kind of stopped counting because it was getting too depressing how much I'd had to pay out.
But, you know, when you've got bailiffs involved, it's just it's quite stressful
apart from anything else.
So anyway, it is still don't know what's going on with the
new owner, but I have checked several times, including this week.
That Range Rover doesn't seem to have been taxed once since I sold it.
Really?
It was also running around without an MOT at the moment.
It seems to have an MOT, but I don't know how that's been achieved.
And it still has no tax.
And also to give an idea of the the person who's bought it, although they live
in a very swanky neighborhood in West London.
But, you know, I had that notice of an uninsured vehicle through as well.
So I assume that, you know, tax insurance MOT, these are things that they think are
optional.
And as of the time we're speaking,
last I checked the DVLA website still says that car last had a new V5C issued
in 2021, which is when I bought it.
What?
So I have a bit of paper from the DVLA that confirms I'm not the registered
keeper, but clearly nor is the new owner.
So that car has no registered keeper.
It lives in no man's land.
So if the current owner is still racking up parking
fines and congestion fines and things like that, I assume they're just like,
I don't know, floating in the ether.
They're not coming to me anymore, thank God.
It's got like V5 immunity.
It's weird, isn't it?
I've never heard this before.
Maybe some listeners have and this is a common problem, but I've never been in
the situation where you just go, well, this car is registered to no one.
Well, that feels like a loophole that shouldn't exist.
Go back to a previous part of this story, which is that
apparently the winning bidder on the online auction
through which it was eventually sold bailed out and the car went to an underbidder
for two grand less than that winning bid.
And I've been mulling on this and it just
it didn't smell right.
So because we know the nice people at
Car and Classic, they sponsored this podcast, so I rang them.
We do.
Just out of interest, I know you can't tell me everything,
but could you just confirm that at your end, did this car
sell for the price on screen or did the buyer drop out?
And they checked their system and they said, yeah,
the winning bidder paid us 13000 pounds,
which then minus commission, they pass on to the seller.
So this didn't tell Tally with Ben's story.
The car did sell for 13000 pounds.
He absolutely categorically said it's sold for eleven.
So
I've got a bit like I've lost a load of money
paying for these PCNs that I can't challenge.
I kind of want to let this whole thing go.
But between the fines and the mystery
gap between what's it sold for and what I was told it's sold for,
it's still on my mind.
So in the end,
I thought I at least want to tell this story on the podcast now that it feels
like most of it is sorted out, but there is one loose thread and it is this disparity
in the money that it's sold for.
So I thought I have to give Ben Thomas the right of reply.
So I messaged him
and I said, look, I've held off from talking about this publicly,
but I will at some point tell this story.
And before I do, I've got two questions.
Now, why didn't you fill in the V5C to change the register keeper?
Yeah. And why did you tell me the car sold for 11000 pounds when it
actually sold for 13000
Ben replied to my WhatsApp message and said the V5C issue could have been sorted
in January when I supplied the invoice above.
All it took was a V62 form on your end as the registered keeper,
as you would slash should have been advised by the DVLA when you called.
No, that's fair enough.
And it was sorted in January.
In fact, it has already been sorted by the time he did send me that because I'd
written to the DVLA.
But it was too late to stop this tidal wave of fines.
And the fact is, if you just filled out the correct form on the day the car was
sold and sent it off, I wouldn't have had all these months of running up
fines and having to fight them.
That's part of the part of your labor costs for selling a car for somebody.
Yeah, it's also it takes like a minute to do, isn't it?
It's not a complicated form.
It's just too too set to details.
Ben continued in his reply and in response to your second question,
if you want a breakdown of costs, I incurred prepping the vehicle.
You will see that the figures balanced with regard to what was received from
C&C versus what you netted back to your account, which was, I might add,
exactly what I said I would return to you pre-agreed before the sale was completed.
So if you decide to have some sort of public rant,
you will leave me no choice but to instruct legal proceedings against you for defamation.
I'm sure neither of us have time for that.
So the ball is in your court.
Defamation is, of course, when someone makes an untrue statement and that this
could be considered to damage someone's reputation.
Nothing I've said about my dealings with Ben Thomas is untrue.
So I don't think there is any case for defamation.
As for his reputation being damaged, it's not for me to say.
I can only talk about my experience with dealing with him.
There are plenty of other reviews of V8Volt online and a website called V8Volt-Review.com
that someone has set up to share their experiences as well.
So it's not like I'm the only person putting out my thoughts on Ben Thomas and V8Volt.
I replied to Ben when he sent that message and said,
there's no defamation stating fact and reminding him he told me the car sold for
11 when it actually sold for 13 and at no point did we pre-agree an amount.
We only agree terms, which I've already explained on here.
And I also reminded him that all of this was in writing on the exact
WhatsApp thread that we were still talking on.
So it's there and I've got the screen grubs in case the thread got somehow deleted.
So, you know, I had the receipts.
Ben replied, the first buyer was a no show.
I'm sure your source will tell you that.
So I spent money prepping and then you expect me to basically work for zero.
In fact, no, you expect me to spend money on your car as a gift.
Then sell it for free.
I don't think I'm going to win that argument if this is how you think.
I'm not going around in circles arguing with you, Richard.
If you want to try and cause me harm, then I can't stop you.
I can only fight my corner.
So I sent Ben screen grabs of our earlier conversations
talking about the terms of the deal just to remind him that I still had these.
And this is exactly what he said to me because he seemed to have forgotten.
And I also asked him again if he could just explain why.
And again, I have the screen grab of this.
He said, unequivocally, the car sold for £11,000.
And Ben replied, I was absorbing costs.
You clearly think I was galvanting living a lavish lifestyle with the few hundred
quid I paid myself for the trouble of selling your car.
So I sent him the grab of the deal terms that he had risen out.
I sent that back to him again just to remind him.
This back and forth went on for a little longer.
And then Ben wrote, I'm not entertaining this any longer, Richard.
Like I said, any public defamation will be swiftly met with legal follow up.
If you have a credible complaint where I need to be involved between you and the
DVLA still, then I will do what is necessary.
Otherwise, you're clearly just fishing for a story to drag my name through the mud,
which I find disgusting.
And that is the last message I've ever received from Ben Thomas at V8 Vault.
He still hasn't explained what happened to the V5C and why the car was never
put into the name of the new registered keeper.
He still hasn't explained why he definitely told me the car sold for
£11,000 when current classic were able to confirm that it sold for £13,000.
And I'm technically few grand out of pocket.
What were those fines and everything?
So that's the saga of the Range Rover.
I warned people it wasn't interesting.
I still don't think it's interesting.
It's just deeply annoying.
But I am the only person in the world who has been financially punished by a
Range Rover, and it wasn't anything to do with the Range Rover itself.
I feel for you.
I think Mr. V8 Vault has got away very lightly.
Well, I know that your view on this would be slightly more punishing.
But like I say, I really want to move on from this.
It's not worth taking any further.
I would just have to write it off to a bad experience overall.
You know, it could have gone better.
And you live and learn.
I'd love to hear from the listeners on how they would deal with it and whether
they've got any similar weird debar calls.
And also, I don't know if anyone else would deal with it.
How I would deal with it, which would involve huge amounts of old piss.
And oh, God, there we go.
Jars of live locusts.
If you've been at our recent live shows,
you may have heard Johnny allude to how he dealt with a situation involving the
items he's just mentioned, but I don't think it's one to put on record on the podcast.
But actually, speaking of live shows,
we are in London tomorrow, Tuesday, the night of June and again on Wednesday,
the 10th of June at the London Concourse.
Tickets to our show gets you into the Concourse itself, which is a lovely afternoon out.
So you could do that, take some time off work, come to the Concourse,
have a look at some really cool cars and then come indoors at five o'clock.
And I tell you what, as an extra,
I'm not sure it sweetens the deal, but we'll do it anyway.
Johnny will tell the story about the urine and the locusts only for live shows.
We don't record them anymore.
So it is a live only experience.
So yeah, Skype off work Tuesday, the 9th or Wednesday, the 10th tickets from the
London Concourse website or go to smithandstift.com.
We have a live show page there.
We'd love to have you along.
It is a really special show.
It's a great show.
I'm really sorry.
That Range Rover story has taken up so much time.
We are, in fact, out of time for this podcast.
Anyway, it's off my back now.
I don't have to keep telling that story.
You don't have to keep listening to it at live shows.
Well, I have to explain it in a slightly more
sweary version that I've been telling to live audiences.
You're so good, Rich.
Before we go, you're so, you're so patient.
The three things to tell you.
The first is that because Johnny has a YouTube channel called The Late Break Show
on which he's never quite sure what's coming up.
So confound me this week.
Tell me, you know, I think I know.
And I'm pretty sure it's a substantial update on my my Subaru and Pretz
Matra Rancho project,
which has been done at Yorkshire car restorations.
So there's that.
And the other piece of news I can share with you is I met someone recently who said,
I feel really lucky that I managed to get a photograph with Colin McCrae's.
That was before he died.
Colin McCrae's before.
Yeah, but he then said straight away that was before he died.
Oh, oh, no.
Um, OK, I say a second thing.
I've got to tell you is that I've got books out.
Look, here's one of them.
It's called Petrelhead.
I'm saying look for the video viewers.
I promise we wouldn't do things like that anyway.
If you're just listening, I have a book called Petrelhead out.
It's a collection of my Evo columns from the last 20 odd years.
Each one has a little explainer, a bit of background info to it.
So it's not just the columns themselves.
There is bonus content as well.
And the third thing I'm going to share with you is that there is no evidence
that the Bermuda Triangle is more or less dangerous than any other bit of sea.
Really?
Yeah, apparently they've looked into it.
It's just it's a myth.
All right, well, anyway, look, I'm sorry that a lot of this was me
droning on with a not very interesting story about some about my old Range Rover.
But anyway, by guns now.
So let's all move on with our lives and hopefully we'll see some of you tomorrow
or on Wednesday at our live show at the London Concourse.
Everyone else will be back on Friday with an otter sock.
Until then, goodbye.
Bye, guys.
Cheers, guys.
Love you, guys.
With a Z.
Is there a way here today that you could show support?
Well, you could join our Patreon.
One wonders that it brings
early shows and extra notes on that side of things.
You could buy our merchandise.
We've mugs and hats, but still no ties.
One day we will make those pies.
But in the meantime, guys, hey, guys.
Like and subscribe and maybe leave a nice review.
Like and subscribe.
We know you know just what to do.
Like and subscribe.
We don't want to take the piss.
Like and subscribe.
But we were told to ask for this.
Like and subscribe.
Like and subscribe.
Like and subscribe.
Like and subscribe.
Now we've got cameras on us. I had this sudden urge to wave when I said goodbye, but sort
of like a...
I did double thumbs up at the end of an 80s TV series.
Oh did you? I was going to do like a contestant on Going for Gold, doing that sort of awkward
wave.
Shall we do that, ready?
About this episode
The Range Rover story on Smith and Sniff starts with the host explaining why he bought rather than leased—his Jaguar I-Pace was ending its lease, and his wife said “it's pointless leasing a car during this sort of covid era.” He then lands on a 2010 L322 full-size Range Rover, sells it via Collecting Cars, and gets pulled into a long saga of timing-chain worries, warranty disputes, and DVLA paperwork fallout. Along the way, the hosts also trade classic Jaguar XJ40 trivia and headlight nicknames.
Richard finally explains why selling his old car was quite a protracted process. Also in this episode, an amazing fact about Niki Lauda, an unfortunate name for a gardening business, a ghost on a doorbell camera, and another excellent car from Car & Classic.
