The Rig

iTrader: (13)

uk turbo, 1995,no engine mods, has a turbo timer, what do these actually do ?
has a sunroof, electric, thats quite rare isnt it ?
no boost gauges or anything, it did have a dump valve but this was taken off as it was getting bad fuel economy, was 17 mpg,now about 28 mpg.

has a decat back exhaust,proddrive blue/black interior, is this good bad ?

it has had a new centre disc,, he didnt say dif, definatley centre disc, whats this ?

also new clutch and gearbox rebuilt, it does have 120k on it !!
has all receipts and a cobra thatcham alarm,asking £4k or nearest.

will have 12 mths MOT too.

sound o.k ?

cheers for any info

[Davey]

The turbo timer simply keeps the engine running for a preset amount of time after the keys have been removed to allow the turbo to cool down, as for center disc, god knows.. lol..

Sounds a bit rich for a 11 year old car with 120k on the clock! Shop around you'll be able to find much better than that.

As for stateing no engine mods then going on to describe how it has a VTA dump valve and its got a decat and turbo timer would suggest it might have had other things done to it or maybe regularly driven in a spirited manor.

The Rig

iTrader: (13)

my only restriction is i want one in white, these dont come around too often !
VTA dump valve, come on, no acrinims, please LOL

its not alot of "accessories" tho is it, for a 11 yr old scoob ?

id offer £3500 and no more if i did want it.
i can afford to wait so thats not a problem, just the color is lol

cheers.....

[Davey]

Vent to Air...

I'd be slightly dubious about any car with performance modifications, especially as the owner is trying to cash in on it being "un-modified"..

Ignoring that its still a 120k 11 year old car for £4000!..

The Rig

iTrader: (13)

is £3500 a fair price, or is this still too high ?

thedeester1

£3000-3500 seems fair providing its a good example. Check the sunroof with a bucket of water over it. The seals get old and crack. The first time you drive in a thunder storm you can get wet.
Center disk is probably center differential.
Never heard of a dump valve loosing 10mpg but id dont know everything.
Give the engine 1 hard rev when the car is stood and watch the rev counter.
It should not fall too quickly and the car nearly stall. Not too sure about the flat 4 but on most "good engines" the needle should drop to 3k revs and kinda pause before falling back to idle. If the rev needle drops too quickly the piston rings are probably warn loosing a bit of compression. Check the oil yourself. If its overly dirty then dont bother the car probably hasnt been looked after too well.
Drive the car and see if the steering wheel is level when the cars driving in a straight line.
With the car on a straight road let any pressure off the steering wheel and see if the car wants to pull to one side. Most cars will pull very slightly left becuase of road camber but anything too violent could mean the car has been "bumped" or a brake caliper is stuck.

[Davey]

No offence but that is pretty awful "tyre kicking" advice... The oil is a good one, but on a 120k miles I would expect it to turn the oil nasty pretty quick as the engine will have pleanty of coke and is probably burning a little.

thedeester1

None taken. Tyre kicking is what it is but some dont even go that far to look for some basic faults. They see a car which the present owner has spent the last 2 weeks washing and polishing and buy it cause "It Looks OK".
If someone isnt sure of their mechanical skills they should really get the car inspected by the AA or whoever.

Oh forgot to mention an HPI check and past MOT history is always a good idea.

[Davey]

I agree, paper work is a GEM! A nice history of un-interupted MOT's, a fully stamped up service book and a nice pile of invoices is a good start.. Then check the engine over, general rule of thumb: any that doesnt seem quite right probably isnt.

Wouldnt trust any of these car check sevices unless they offer a guarentee, its just a monkey with a checklist at the end of the day.

thedeester1

A full service on a car that old would make me jump for JOY...lol.
Yea the AA usually do whats equivilent to an MOT. It will at least point out worn bushes ETC. but you can usually feel if something isnt right when you drive the car. Another good one is take the test drive with the radio off. An old car salesmans trick was to put on the radio and turn it up and waffle about the sound quality while on the test drive so you couldnt hear all the un-gainly noises...

[Davey]

And the heaters!