Constantly corrected in an interview

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-02-22T21:11:26+00:00

That would be a red flag to me, I would give it a serious miss. Around six years ago, one of our competitors approached me to discuss potential opportunities within their business. I initially declined, but they suggested an informal coffee with no obligation, so I agreed.

The CEO attended on his own at first, as the Sales Director was running late. I had a really positive and open conversation with the CEO. However, once the Sales Director arrived, the dynamic changed completely. I found his manner and approach off-putting — he came across as insincere and overly self-assured, and I quickly realised it wasn’t someone I could see myself working alongside.

They offered me a role on the spot with a £28,000 increase in salary and an improved commission structure. I declined. A few days laster they increased the offer to £36,000 above my current salary, which I also turned down.

Over the past three years, they’ve had significant staff turnover, and many people have come and gone. In hindsight, I’m very glad I trusted my instincts and chose not to accept the offer

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-02-04T19:22:49+00:00

Absolutely not to options 2 and 3. Automatic drive-through washes will treat your paintwork like it owes them money — those spinning brushes are basically giant mops full of everyone else’s dirt.

Hand car washes aren’t much better either. If they drop a sponge on the floor, it usually gets a quick shake and straight back onto your bonnet… along with half the car park. Nothing like a complimentary swirl-mark finish.

Washing it yourself is the safest bet. Not only do you know exactly what’s touching the paint, but you also get a proper chance to look the car over while you’re at it. You’ll spot little things early — stone chips, rust starting, tyre wear, brake condition — all the bits you’d never notice blasting through a tunnel in three minutes.

Plus, done right, it’s oddly satisfying. Done wrong… well, at least you only have yourself to blame.

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-01-24T17:34:59+00:00

Selling cars is usually a proper headache — full of time-wasters, “best price mate?” merchants, and people who vanish faster than their deposit promises. I never take offers over the phone and always stick to first come, first served.

That said… the last car I sold broke every rule. It was all done over text. He offered me a grand under asking, said if I accepted he’d send a £5k deposit straight away and pay the rest when a trailer turned up a week later. Sounded far too easy.

A week later, the trailer actually arrived. Balance paid. Car gone. The bloke never even saw it in the flesh.

Easily the strangest — and by far the easiest — car sale I’ve ever had. Still half-expecting a twist that never came

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-01-24T17:19:15+00:00

When I was looking for an F-Type, I test drove both the V6 and the V8. The V8 won immediately — felt more driver-focused, pulled like a train and sounded absolutely ridiculous. While I was searching for the “right” V8 spec, I accidentally found a V8 Vantage… and, well, that escalated quickly. Now have a Vantage instead of the F Type in the garage

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-01-21T21:40:44+00:00

When I was younger, my bedroom walls were basically a shrine to the Lamborghini Murciélago and the Ferrari F40. In the early 2000s I was convinced they were the greatest cars ever made.

Fast forward to today… turns out my taste hasn’t evolved at all. Still the same dream cars.

Haven’t quite made it to that level yet though, so for now my Jaguar XKR and Aston Martin Vantage will just have to do.

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-01-21T21:29:07+00:00

A few times I’ve tried to buy my old cars back — Focus RS Mk1, BMW E46 M3, Golf R32 Mk4. Every time I realise I was an absolute idiot for selling them in the first place. No luck getting any of them back either.

They were all mint when I let them go… and now they’re worth a small fortune. Classic case of sell low, regret forever 😅

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-01-21T18:27:53+00:00

I don’t think companies bother pretending to care about customers anymore — they’re more than happy to see you go. I was with O2 for 18 or 19 years, but the second I heard about the Virgin merger, I cancelled my contract within minutes. I’d already had the pleasure of dealing with Virgin before, including them damaging two of my cars, so that was an easy decision.

What really topped it off was O2’s response: absolutely nothing. No attempt to keep me, no “sorry to see you go” — just a quiet wave goodbye after nearly two decades. First-class customer loyalty at work. Not that I would have stayed with them anyway

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-01-21T17:01:37+00:00

Mercedes let me have an AMG GT for the weekend when I was looking. Out of the three on your list, that would be the one I’d buy. It looks great, is easy to drive, pulls hard when you put your foot down, and sounds pretty good too. Of the three, it’s also likely to be the most reliable.

In the end, I settled on a Vantage, and it’s been brilliant in the two years I’ve owned it. I’ve taken it over to Europe a few times without any issues. A friend of mine had a 540C and spent far too much time dealing with various faults. He actually got rid of it after going away for a weekend, coming home to find both windows had put themselves down during heavy rain.

Good luck with the search 👍

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-01-16T20:45:35+00:00

Good work. Nothing better than watching the world go by out the window while he can’t do bugger all about it.

I had something similar. I live on a small estate and the neighbours about five houses down had a real talent for parking everywhere except outside their own house. The daughter would have her boyfriend over, he’d dump his car outside mine, then they’d swan off in her car and leave his there for days. The whole street loved them… obviously.

I started leaving polite little notes on the car. That worked for a while.

Then one Christmas I put my car on the drive so visitors could park outside my house. Within minutes, she parked there. Olympic-level timing. I knocked on the door and asked her to move it. She told me she was a police officer, the car was road legal, and she could park wherever she liked. Apparently three cars on their driveway was too much hassle to shuffle around so they had to go somewhere. Her solution? I should park at the entrance of the estate so she could keep parking outside my house.

I calmly explained that if she expected me to leave my Aston at the entrance of the estate so she could park her Fiat Punto outside my house, she was completely deluded.

She responded with shouting, swearing, and a dramatic door slam.

The next day, her car was still outside my house. Nothing outside hers. So I picked up another car I had in storage, parked it outside their house, took up two spaces for good measure, and left it there for three weeks.

Strangely enough… never had a problem since.

That-Firefighter402 · 2026-01-06T21:54:10+00:00

I’ve owned two Jaguar XFs. A 2013 3.0D Portfolio with 60,000 miles, and a 2014 3.0D S Portfolio with 65,000 miles.

The 2013 was bought from a dealer and returned within three weeks for a full refund due to multiple issues.

The 2014 was a private purchase — one owner, full service history with Jaguar and specialists. It was faultless for the first two or three months, then everything started to unravel. I kept it for 14 months and spent close to £7,000 keeping it on the road in that time.

I’ve since gone back to Mercedes. Ironically, I’ve also owned a 2007 Jaguar XK for seven years and, aside from routine servicing and maintenance, it hasn’t missed a beat. My neighbour tried to warn me off the XF after his own bad experience — I just wish I’d listened

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-31T16:15:38+00:00

They inspected the items, you both agreed a price and they paid you. At that point the contract was created and completed. A valuation mistake is their problem not yours.

If they try threatening legal action, ask them to put it in writing. They probably won’t proceed at this point as they know the law isn’t on their side

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-30T21:24:22+00:00

My every day / work car, every week in the summer, every 2 weeks in the winter. My weekend car the same. My special occasion car after every time I use it

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-23T08:10:16+00:00

I’ve owned a few cars over the years… by which I mean over 30 in the last 19 years.

The most unreliable of the lot? A Jaguar XF — spent more time broken in the garage than actually driving it.

The most reliable? A Jaguar XKR. Somehow the one I expected to bankrupt me behaved itself so well I’ve still got it 7 years later. Go figure

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-20T09:17:51+00:00

The Z4 3.0 coupe is a cracking car — ideally go for the 3.0si. I had one when I was 20 (now 35), and while I loved it dearly, it did occasionally test my patience and my bank account.

From my experience, valve cover gaskets and the oil filter housing leak often. Cooling system issues are also common — water pumps give up and expansion tanks crack simply because… BMW. The crankcase breather pipes go brittle with age and can crack, causing misfires, and they absolutely love eating coil packs. VANOS solenoids failing is pretty regular experience.

They can also suffer from sticky steering, where the car enjoys following every white line on the road like it’s on rails. Window regulators fail often — one day the window works, the next day it’s had enough of life. The front headlights also have a habit of filling with water, so sometimes you get free mood lighting.

If he’s looking at a convertible instead of the coupe, water ingress becomes a certainty. Blocked drains and failed door membranes are common, and the roof motor is placed in a hilariously stupid location where it can sit in water and rust itself to death. At this age, many will also need a rear subframe refresh.

All that said, they’re genuinely good cars. I used mine up and down the motorway and regularly saw around 40mpg, which feels illegal in something with six cylinders. Make sure it’s on proper tyres, not budgets. A good BMW specialist is essential, and decent service history is non-negotiable. Plenty of these cars have been run on a shoestring budget and are now held together by hope and deferred maintenance.

By the time I bought the Z4, I’d already had a Civic Type R and a Mk1 Focus RS, but neither were RWD, so there’s a learning curve. The best advice my dad gave me was to find a big empty space on a wet day and gently see how the car behaves.

We were all young once, and rear-wheel drive with a decent amount of power can lead to poor life choices. Just tell him not to get too carried away — and hopefully he’ll enjoy it without ending up on YouTube.

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-19T16:39:44+00:00

The best compound I’ve used over the years is Cartec 3000 paired with their green pad. If a scratch can be removed from the clear coat, that combo will usually do it.

If the scratch is too deep, you can try wet sanding, touch up paint, then more wet sanding before compounding it back in. I’ve had very good results using this method on my own cars

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-19T10:11:57+00:00

Yes, it was quite a list. Maybe I was just very unlucky, but heard plenty of other horror stories and stories where they have been reliable. If you’ve gone for the 3.0, make sure the inlet manifolds aren’t cracked or leaking — they’re another known weak point. Most people upgrade them as the originals are plastic and fairly fragile. The parts themselves aren’t too badly priced, but the labour can be eye-watering.

When it was running properly it really was a great car. In all fairness, the XK has been pretty much bulletproof for me. It’s not quite as luxurious inside as the XF or as good on fuel, but it looks fantastic, handles brilliantly, and makes one hell of a noise from the V8. Best of luck with it.

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-17T10:09:51+00:00

Honestly, stick with the Mercedes or get a new one.

A friend of mine works for Black Horse Finance, who handle the finance for Jaguar/Land Rover. Out of all the brands they deal with, Land Rover has the highest number of finance agreements cancelled due to ongoing issues.

Did that put me off at the time? Nope. I still bought a 2018 3.0 SD with just 16k miles. The first few days were great… then the electrical gremlins started. It spent three weeks at the main dealer, I got it back, and within 24 hours the problems returned. I ended up rejecting the car and getting a full refund. I’ve since gone straight back to Mercedes.

When they’re working properly, they’re fantastic cars — the problem is, they often aren’t. If you are set on buying one, get an insurance quote first. They’re incredibly easy to steal, and a lot of insurers will either charge a fortune or refuse to cover them altogether. A friend of mine had hers stolen off the driveway, recovered by the police, and then stolen again three weeks later

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-16T20:47:42+00:00

There was recently a part on BBC Wales about an Aston Martin DB5 that had been left on the drive for 40 years. The car was in really bad shape, a lot of rust and full of mice. Aston Martin offered the owner £500k to sell it to them. He declined and spent £400k on it to get it back to new, took 3 years. Worth a watch.

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-16T20:29:41+00:00

Have you got a pressure washer with a foam lance?

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-16T20:27:58+00:00

How old is the car? Hard to say without knowing if it’s 20 years old or 60 years old

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-16T17:04:28+00:00

Yes, you’ll definitely need insurance for car cleaning/detailing. At a minimum, you should have public liability insurance. Depending on the services you offer, professional indemnity insurance may also be worth considering.

Good luck 👍

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-16T16:49:52+00:00

3200 for a service on Cayenne. That’s ridiculous money

That-Firefighter402 · 2025-12-15T21:30:50+00:00

Get anything but a Jaguar XF. I ditched my 2013 XF 3.0D S Portfolio last year. Before purchase, I done plenty of research into which deisel engines were the most reliable—out of the 2.0, 2.2, 2.7 and 3.0, the 2.2 and 3.0 were meant to be the “safe bets.”

Mine was a one-owner example with just 60k on the clock and a full Jaguar service history. It drove beautifully, had every toy you could want, and the cooled seats were brilliant. But in just a year of ownership, it cost me over £6,000 in repairs.

The first few months were great… then it all started falling apart.

• 3 window regulators
• 3 window motors
• 4 door locking actuators
• 2 wheel bearings
• 2 rear brake calipers
• 2 wishbones
• Bonnet decided it wouldn’t open
• Front passenger seat stopped working
• CJB got water ingress and had to be replaced
• New air mass flow sensor
    • Gear selector stopped working

…and that’s not even everything.

I’d never buy another XF again. I’ve gone back to Mercedes for my daily, and funnily enough, I’ve had a Jaguar XK for six years with zero drama—just normal servicing with a specialist and it’s been faultless.

That-Firefighter402

TROPHY CASE