I have been on look for a cheap run around here to get back and forth to work. Whilst my jag is the garage waiting for the garage start looking at it, that should happen this week and then for the warranty company to decide what they are going to do. Here is the thread if anyone wants to see.
Trying to find a cheap run around for less than 2k has been a bit of a challenge, I had two criteria at least 9 months MOT and something that I could sell on fairly easily afterwards. So I was looking at some the usual suspects in this area.
Ford focus 1.6 petrol £1.9K: that had 110k partial history as advertised turns out it had 70k with undocumented history.
Ford Fiesta £1.8k: these didn’t sit around for long.
Volvo C30 1.6 petrol 1.6k: another car that when you get there the partial history was woeful.
Mini 1.6 petrol £1.3k: 112k full service history 10 months MOT owned by a young student. On paper looked like a good buy. Until I turned up, exhaust blowing, oil leak and there was to much oil in the engine. I did consider it as they all seemed straight forward fixes. But decided not to.
Started looking at few other cars at this point.
Saab 9-3 1.9D £1.7k: 100k miles full service history. Appeared fine, steering was really woolly and the electric windows would go down but would come back up.
Toyota Avensis 2.0D £1.2k: 180k full service fresh mot. The dealer let me look around it, with the hard sell, then when I asked about a test drive he wouldn’t let me? Red flag! When I asked about his trade plates they were out of date.
Was starting to get disheartened by this point and questioning am I being too picky. Came to conclusion that I was just needed something anything in the next two weeks. So I just started looking at anything under 2k.
Found a 2003 clk 320 soft top, always liked these. Had 100k miles and full service history for £1.2k. Also found a low mileage 2005 Toyota corral 1.6 petrol for £1.8k. Both had a full year MOT and I arrange to view both.
It turned out that the Corolla was a 1 old lady owner, car had 39k miles on it. Serviced every year. Any advisory’s got done straight away. All invoice present. Car was being sold as she was given up driven due to ill health and I was dealing her son. She was lovely lady when she said hello.
The car inside looked like it hardly been used, underneath was clean as whistle as stored under a car port. Rear bumper had a scuff and the bite point on the clutch is high. All the usual signs of a old lady driver. Needs a gear box oil change and a aux belt doing jobs that I can sort out easily enough. Any way I didn’t bother with looking at the merc and bought the Corolla. It is definitely not my normal choice of car, but will do the job and should be easy enough to sell on after I am done with it.
Car issues, engine failure.
It appears that my Jaguar XF 3.0D S had a major engine failure Thursday night on the way home. Cruising along doing 70mph, cruise control on, slowed down to let some one pull in front of me to over take a lorry. Pressed resume then as the torque and speed increased there was big jolt and the...
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Trying to find a cheap run around for less than 2k has been a bit of a challenge, I had two criteria at least 9 months MOT and something that I could sell on fairly easily afterwards. So I was looking at some the usual suspects in this area.
Ford focus 1.6 petrol £1.9K: that had 110k partial history as advertised turns out it had 70k with undocumented history.
Ford Fiesta £1.8k: these didn’t sit around for long.
Volvo C30 1.6 petrol 1.6k: another car that when you get there the partial history was woeful.
Mini 1.6 petrol £1.3k: 112k full service history 10 months MOT owned by a young student. On paper looked like a good buy. Until I turned up, exhaust blowing, oil leak and there was to much oil in the engine. I did consider it as they all seemed straight forward fixes. But decided not to.
Started looking at few other cars at this point.
Saab 9-3 1.9D £1.7k: 100k miles full service history. Appeared fine, steering was really woolly and the electric windows would go down but would come back up.
Toyota Avensis 2.0D £1.2k: 180k full service fresh mot. The dealer let me look around it, with the hard sell, then when I asked about a test drive he wouldn’t let me? Red flag! When I asked about his trade plates they were out of date.
Was starting to get disheartened by this point and questioning am I being too picky. Came to conclusion that I was just needed something anything in the next two weeks. So I just started looking at anything under 2k.
Found a 2003 clk 320 soft top, always liked these. Had 100k miles and full service history for £1.2k. Also found a low mileage 2005 Toyota corral 1.6 petrol for £1.8k. Both had a full year MOT and I arrange to view both.
It turned out that the Corolla was a 1 old lady owner, car had 39k miles on it. Serviced every year. Any advisory’s got done straight away. All invoice present. Car was being sold as she was given up driven due to ill health and I was dealing her son. She was lovely lady when she said hello.
The car inside looked like it hardly been used, underneath was clean as whistle as stored under a car port. Rear bumper had a scuff and the bite point on the clutch is high. All the usual signs of a old lady driver. Needs a gear box oil change and a aux belt doing jobs that I can sort out easily enough. Any way I didn’t bother with looking at the merc and bought the Corolla. It is definitely not my normal choice of car, but will do the job and should be easy enough to sell on after I am done with it.
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