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...had been driven by Jeremy Clarkson and quite possibly Chas Hallet and friends????

There is a look at me Red XKR BF56LTE 33,500 miles on Pistonheads for £46,950 and they make a point of the fact Clarkson has driven it!!  Looks overpriced and given the current price of fuel will be there for a while. Of course if you have the cash there are bargains to be had. So what would you buy for £45k!  An Alpina B3 for me.

i would buy for 45K or less either the VW Golf R32 or the Jaguar XF V8 supercharged.

nah i wouldn't buy a car Clarkson has owned.  have you seen the way he drives?!  ok, its for tv only maybe, and i know he's a good driver, but still, you wouldn't would you?!

as for 45k.  assuming you mean a single car and avoiding sensible thoughts, I'd be a banke and go for a 911.

Errrrrr.....  I have!!!

I bought the original HSV GTS press car from the British importer a year or so after they first came out.  I was aware it had been used by the press, and was assured that the car had been fully serviced and any critical components fully checked or replaced - yeah I didn't believe that either!!!

Still, using common sense and a good knowledge of cars I made sure that it was all in working order.  It was.

It was only a couple of months after I had bought it that a friend sent a clipping from a magazine (can't remember the name - the one before Evo?!?!) and there it was going sideways!!

Then my wife bought me one of Clarksons many videos and guess what!!! 

However, I did own the car for 18 months and apart from a resistor in the AC, nothing went wrong. 

If as a press car it has been kept in A1 condition is it really a problem. Hopefully they would change the clutch before putting it out on the forecourt.

A car that spent most of its time sitting unused, was serviced on the mileage not the time, used for very short journeys only and regularly kerbed by careless parking could be more troublesome.