The XJR went to our most conveniently located dealer, Marshall Motor Group at Peterborough, for its service and a bit of warranty work. The service manager called to say that all the brake pads would need replacing and that he'd ordered a new CD changer to replace the non-functioning one. As for the dashboard creak, they couldn't road-test the XJ because one of its front tyres was illegal. I'd anticipated this and lined up a new set with our friends at Pirelli, which would arrive the same day as the new CD unit.

'We couldn't hear the rattle,' said the service manager when I collected the car, explaining that they'd already tightened up the facia before they fitted the tyres and road-tested it. How bloody annoying, then, to hear that familiar, irritating and insistent creak even before the first roundabout...