Back off holiday, I realised I was quite a distance over the service interval of 10,000 miles, (2000 miles over), so booked car into my dealer for the 8 year service. I decided the get the outstanding faults fixed at the same time, thinking it would not be tooo expensive over the service cost. Trouble was I had not bargained for an additional item I had not spotted.

All service and repair jobs in the UK now have VAT tax at 20% added so final invoices can get rather large as was my case.

First up was the service at £276 before tax. The only interesting item was "fuel injector cleaner". I am assuming this is something that is poured into the fuel tank.

As well as the service items there is a safety check done with a list of items including tyres, with a red/yellow/green rating on each one. This came up with Red on the rear brakes, with the pads 100% worn, i.e. on the steel backing, and the discs below the wear thickness. So these unexpected items had to be done at a cost of £89 for the discs, and £73 for the pads, plus the fitting, so the total came to £249 all before tax.

Then the driver door latch was replaced, as the car had been failing to lock on the plipper since last year, but only intermittently; a good slam of the driver door normally cured it, but on holiday it finally failed so I had to use the key. This little job was £170 for the latch plus labour making a total of £249.

Then the infamous hunting issue was attended to ( see the many posts by people on this forum). I have had the hunting syndrome during warm-up since I bought the car, so finally resolved to fix it. This turned out to be the cheapest job of all, at 30 minutes labour (£43.75). The service rep told me that they have to ring up Jaguar with the VIN number to get a number issued which allows them to download the software fix.

Anyway the final bill did keep within 3 figures, but not by much so it was all fairly eye-watering. The dreaded VAT tax came to £164 !! A nice little earner for our government.

The upshot is that I am now rather poorer, but the hunting is gone, I can lock the car remotely, and the car is running beautifully. So my budget for work on the MG Midget has gone and she will have to wait until next year.

Oh, and they told me the bottom bushes on all four spring units were worn and would need replacement at the next service. These bushes are cheap to buy but expensive in labour to replace. I have already started saving up !

 

If I added correctly and converted correctly, that comes to $1,517.69 USD. If you had all that done here it would have been closer to $2,500 USD!!! Seems to me you came out pretty good.

 

Hi Hlgeorge

First thing to tell you the dealer is a franchised main agent for Jaguar situated in the heart of the rich part of Cheshire. So one would expect high charges, as there are a lot of very rich people around the place, (Wilmslow). However, they are a small dealership and not part of any national chain. The guys are real car enthusiasts too and seem able to make the sales of new cars.

However, what they DO offer is the "Regency Service" for those whose cars are over 3 years old like mine. With this, I get 10% off the parts and 25% off the normal labour rate for maintenance and repairs. Of course, it you think about it, a car 3 years old or less will be on warranty, so any extraneous repairs will be at Jaguar expense, not the owner.

I am surprised at what you could pay in the US, I would have thought it would be around the same or less, as you don't have the very high VAT tax we have of 20% or do you have state-based taxes that match up ?

 

Fraser,I've an off topic question. I've asked it before and it was never clearly answered. Regarding VAT (20%) - Is that the extent of the main taxation/revenue source to which Britain manages itself, or do citizens also pay an income tax? What would you estimate the average Brit's (not rich Brit) total tax is as a percentage of total income?

 

Hi Steve

You won't want to come to work in the UK when you consider the following taxes

- 20% tax on salaries for everything over a tax-free allowance of £6475, but if pay is over £100k a year, the allowance ceases.

- Another 20% tax on anything over £35000 (making it 40%)
- National Insurance Contribution of 12% for everything over the tax free allowance up to income of £40,000, then 2% for everything above that
- 20% VAT on almost everything except food, newspapers/books, and childrens clothes. House fuel is at a lower rate of 8%
- huge duty on road fuels on which VAT is then added, (a tax on a tax), so our petrol price (gas) is around 1.35 per litre !!
- huge duties on booz and ****
- death duties

Tax in the UK is 40% of GDP, need I go on !! We are on the road to ruin.

Income Tax allowances tableIncome Tax allowances
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
Personal Allowance (1)
£6,475
£6,475
£7,475
Income limit for Personal Allowance
Not applicable
£100,000
£100,000

Income Tax allowances tableIncome Tax allowances
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
Personal Allowance (1)
£6,475
£6,475
£7,475
Income limit for Personal Allowance
Not applicable
£100,000
£100,000

 

Wow, makes you want to go on the dole!