Worth you both checking you are not on the brake line recall. I have just been written to saying that up to 2010 / 2011 they are doing a safety recall on the brake pipes.

My V8 Diesel sounded ok to drive, certainly not horrible and rattly. I got 26 mpg on average over 25,000 miles.

The 4.4 V8 is supposed to be even better. Austin Owen car sales have one for sale now and (I think it is a different one to the one on his site and I think he said he was about to drop the price on it)