ah let down,
no retro ford owner should ever have to resort to a halfords technician replacing the battery (and yes ive worked at halfords whilst at uni i know how incompetent some of the staff can be and also how some of the real car enthusiasts can be very good but the ratio of good halfords staff to shit ones is about 1 who knows what there doing out of 30)

 

^
Indeed, last place I'd take my XR2. Good thing there is a very experienced local mechanic near me who knows what he's doing.