Today was a sad day … returned my stunning British Racing Green 20 MY SVR to the finance company as a voluntary return. Never before have I had a car that has received so many compliments from people in the street, people stopping me in car parks , anywhere in fact..
Rare colour and only seen two others like it in my almost three years of ownership. The car was almost faultless in those three years and took us on fabulous road trips . Sublime vehicle which took us on a tour of Italy, over the Alps, touring villages of Lake Como, down to the Cinque Terre, Tuscany, Florence, Sienna, Umbria and down to the Amalfi Coast… back up to Verona, Garda, Stelvio etc…what a trip.. what a car!

I am fortunate enough to have used it as transport for business around the country making trips to Scotland to Cornwall a doddle , it returned 26-28 mpg and would cruise all day long .
Alas it quickly racked up the miles and I have just handed it back with 74,000 miles on the clock..

Why have I got rid of it you ask when the car was so perfect? Mileage was getting higher, although most of it was motorway miles.. but the ‘theft’ issue did its value no good whatsoever with insurance costs trebling during my ownership and subsequent resale values freefalling !
Fortunately because of the business mileage issue I have always purchased my cars on a PCP finance product so it has been the finance house that has taken the loss…

The car was due a major service and also would be requiring four new tyres thus a £2 k bill was facing me.. The PcP balloon payment due in 18 months was also higher than the current value of the car so it was a no brainer… why keep a car for another almost two years and lose a load of money? Thus I exercised the little known voluntary termination and just handed the car back..

Providing you have completed over 50% of the finance agreement (not term but 50% of the overall value) you can just hand the car back and walk away..thus painful as it was it was the most sensible thing to do!


So if anyone is looking for a fabulous , well looked after and cherished SVR keep an eye open over the next few weeks for BA69OMT! Car was perfect! It’s currently at BCA auctions at Blackbushe and over the coming days will be going through the auction at a price significantly less than what it owed!

If anyone has dreamed of owning one then just do it… this was my third one and they have all been outstanding reliable cars that , other than the insurance issue, were relatively reasonable to run..

What to replace it with? New Range Rover products are just ridiculously expensive and personally I think they will price themselves out of the market, finance is astronomical and the cost to me has gone beyond reasonable ..the L461 is lovely but I can’t justify that amount of money on a car that will quickly rack up the miles and freefall in value.

So what did I buy? Another SVR ! This time a stunning 12,000 mile one that’s also immaculate and super well cared for! Can’t beat a decent SVR…

For those toying with the idea just do it.. they are fabulous and keep your eyes open for BA69OMT .. she’ll be a great buy!

Great story Farmer Chalk. And it's good to see that not everything in this world is all doom and gloom. Robin
2008 Range Rover Sport TDV8
Gone:
Jaguar S-Type V8 4.2 Sport
MGZTT 190 2.5