Couple of Corolla T-Sport questions!

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Brace bar with bushes and a damper in it? What is the point in that, seems like it would do nothing at all to reinforce the structure.
 
I used to wonder why it was damped, but then who am I to question one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world

Im really curious to know, if anyone has the answer that would be great.

The only thing that i can think of is for reliability sake. If its too stiff it could damage the strut tops over time so they might have built in some tolerance to reduce stress.
 
They don't look it on one of the pictures. Plus you are allowed a certain percentage to be tinted on the front. I believe it's no more than 15%
 
They are and they're illegal.

Acme the EP3 is chain driven, it's faster, it's probably as reliable and it has an alarm too. Just get one of them.


More reliable I would say, and a far better car all round. However, you'd need to pay more than £2k for a nice one, especially with the relatively low mileage this one has, so the Corolla does have the one single advantage of cheapness.
 
That is a really terrible advert but you may get lucky as it does at least appear to have a decent service history. Not keen on the gangsta front tints though.

I know the OP pleaded for no negative comments but...

...it doesn't look like decent history to me? The last photographed stamped was in 2012, a year before the current owner bought the car. So it appears the current owner has perhaps purchased the car, done absolutely nothing to it service wise in the entire 2 years he's had it.

I am not sure I would be so keen to pay somebody £100 to take a car like that off sale without even seeing it.
 
I have been in contact with the seller and obtained a lot more details than seen in the advert before even thinking about asking her to take it off of eBay and arrange a viewing. She has apparently been driving it around locally for 2 or 3 years as a student, and has been very helpful trying to answer my questions despite the fact that she has said she isn't that au fait with cars.

It has been serviced/maintained independently since she has had it, hence why the book is only stamped up to 2012, she says it has been very reliable and has never broken down (I know to take this sort of thing with a pinch of salt), it had new spark plugs and an oil change two months ago, the battery was replaced a few months ago, the brake disks and pads were done two months ago as were two new tyres, there is apparently no issue with the heater/A/C blowing hot/cold, no other issues that she is aware of (or at least has mentioned) aside from the seat runner being damaged. She is also providing me with a replacement seat runner and bits so that I can sort it out before I drive it away, if I choose to buy it.

I also asked her if she could take me out for a drive in it and demonstrate that it shifts into all gears correctly, the clutch doesn't slip, it shifts onto the cam properly, there is no loud whine decelerating in third like in the other one I went to see, the ABS works correctly, and so on - she said that was absolutely fine.

The only issues with it which I am aware of are the seat, and the fact that it only has one key provided along with it. It is priced significantly under similar condition/mileage T-Sports at £2000, and I am happy to pay this for it if it is as described. I may try and knock the price down to £1900 because the MOT is due in October however. I'm not really fussed about the tints, tints can be removed, plus I doubt they would ever be picked up on anyway.

For this sort of money I am reasonably happy to sort out the odd little niggle here and there, as long as it is in good mechanical condition overall.

At the end of the day, even if I were to buy it for the full £2000, had a second key made, a brand new set of tyres fitted, and a few other bits and bobs, it will still be less than I *almost* paid for the other T-Sport I went to see.

More reliable I would say, and a far better car all round. However, you'd need to pay more than £2k for a nice one, especially with the relatively low mileage this one has, so the Corolla does have the one single advantage of cheapness.

And the fact that the insurance is £800 not £1600. :p
 
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It has been serviced/maintained independently since she has had it, hence why the book is only stamped up to 2012,

Why would you pay an independent to service your car (Those other stamps are from independents anyway) and not have them stamp the book?


I also asked her if she could take me out for a drive in it and demonstrate that it shifts into all gears correctly, the clutch doesn't slip, it shifts onto the cam properly, there is no loud whine decelerating in third like in the other one I went to see, the ABS works correctly, and so on - she said that was absolutely fine.

Surely you'd drive it yourself. Nobody buys a used £2k performance hatch without a thorough test drive.


It is priced significantly under similar condition/mileage T-Sports at £2000

I would want to know why this is.
 
It's got a 2 month MOT!?

Regardless of how much of a dog or otherwise it is - do not buy it without it getting a 12 month ticket put on (By the seller, to be clear)
 
[TW]Fox;28460640 said:
Why would you pay an independent to service your car (Those other stamps are from independents anyway) and not have them stamp the book?




Surely you'd drive it yourself. Nobody buys a used £2k performance hatch without a thorough test drive.




I would want to know why this is.

She said it has been serviced by her friend who is a mechanic, just like my car has been serviced by a mixture of myself and my friend who is a mechanic. He doesn't stamp my book, I don't even have a book to stamp.

I would prefer to test drive it, but I can't legally test drive it can I? :confused:
I could ask her to let me do a few laps of a car-park in it, or I could risk driving it illegally, those are about my only options...

And it is £2000 because she needs to clear up the room on her driveway, the very same reason I'm selling the Polo for £500 when it is worth more like £800.
 
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Drive it in an industrial estate for a few mins then, or get day insurance

- do not buy a car with little to no mot (unless it's for near scrap) -
 
did they give you any reason as to why the timing chain was replaced at 67k?

as for induction kits and sucking hot air I ran a temp sensor in the engine bay next to the filter and on the move temps were within a couple degrees of ambient. The intake manifold also has a spacer of some kind between it and the head that's made of plastic of some kind, it wont heat soak until you stop and switch the engine off in my experience. it was cold to the touch after a drive, then five minutes later would be too hot to touch.
 
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I am not sure why the timing chain was replaced at 67K, this was done before she purchased the car.

I have asked her if she can take me to an industrial estate/large carpark/etc so that I can drive it for a few minutes to check everything feels okay.

I did look at day car insurance, for some reason I cant get quotes. (age related?)

There isn't really time for the MOT to get sorted, she was open from the start about when the MOT was due. It isn't ideal, but it is a risk I am reasonably willing to take. As I said I will discuss with her and perhaps try and get the price dropped slightly because of this.
 
Rubbish - it gets mot'd or she gets no money and you find another car

don't be so naive - it's not as if an MOT test is even all that thorough! if it's rough enough to fail that then you're in real trouble.

Its' value without it is significantly lower than £2k (i.e £1k or less), it needs to be treated as an unknown fail
 
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