Last week at Mallory Park, my 172 blew up. I've been looking for another car as it's not feasible to fix the 172. I've been looking at 197's. Last week, I had arranged to view one in Bristol, which is about an hour and a half from me. It wasn't until Friday evening where the seller sent me a photo of the engine bay for me to see it has had a replacement engine. Because of that, I cancelled the viewing. Luckily I saw it then and didn't make the three hour round trip to find it out.
Anyway, yesterday I arranged to view another in Croydon (S.London). We took about an hour to get there, had a look around the car and picked up on various things that needed doing... 4 new tyres, cambelt, service, new air conditioning pump (as the pipes under the bonnet were not getting cold). So those were already going to set me back around £1.5k. I wasn't told about any of that, so we left.
I then phoned somebody else about another and he was located in Birmingham. So my mate offered to take me up there. Two more of our friends jumped in with it. After the two hour journey up there, we had a look round the car. One of my mates is a trader and another works in a bodyshop so I left them pretty much to it. Again, things needed doing... 4 new tyres, a service, etc... This time the air-con did work. But the car has been in an accident as both rear quarter panels had been re-sprayed a very bad job done. I asked for the service history and after going back in the house, he couldn't find it and then realised he left it at his parents, about two hours away. So I don't know anything what's happened. So even if I was interested, I wouldn't have taken it away without the history. Why doesn't somebody keep all that with the car... especially if you're trying to sell it! And he knew we had to drive about two hours up and the reason why he didn't tell me about ANY of this before we left!!! Grrr!
So I don't know what to do... have kind of seen three Clio's all with timewaster sellers and not buyers (i.e. me) for once. I have £5k cash on me and willing to put more in. I may be arranging to view a couple more during the weekn once the owners get back to me. But if these fall through, I'm going to have to look at an alternative and... an S3 is looking like the replacement.
Rant over.
Anyway, yesterday I arranged to view another in Croydon (S.London). We took about an hour to get there, had a look around the car and picked up on various things that needed doing... 4 new tyres, cambelt, service, new air conditioning pump (as the pipes under the bonnet were not getting cold). So those were already going to set me back around £1.5k. I wasn't told about any of that, so we left.
I then phoned somebody else about another and he was located in Birmingham. So my mate offered to take me up there. Two more of our friends jumped in with it. After the two hour journey up there, we had a look round the car. One of my mates is a trader and another works in a bodyshop so I left them pretty much to it. Again, things needed doing... 4 new tyres, a service, etc... This time the air-con did work. But the car has been in an accident as both rear quarter panels had been re-sprayed a very bad job done. I asked for the service history and after going back in the house, he couldn't find it and then realised he left it at his parents, about two hours away. So I don't know anything what's happened. So even if I was interested, I wouldn't have taken it away without the history. Why doesn't somebody keep all that with the car... especially if you're trying to sell it! And he knew we had to drive about two hours up and the reason why he didn't tell me about ANY of this before we left!!! Grrr!
So I don't know what to do... have kind of seen three Clio's all with timewaster sellers and not buyers (i.e. me) for once. I have £5k cash on me and willing to put more in. I may be arranging to view a couple more during the weekn once the owners get back to me. But if these fall through, I'm going to have to look at an alternative and... an S3 is looking like the replacement.
Rant over.