FTO Questions...

timbob

timbob

timbob

Soldato
Joined
27 Nov 2002
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3,121
Remember a while ago I posted a thread asking preliminary questions about an FTO for the girlfriend? Well, things are on the move.

We went out today, and saw a lot of them, 7 or 8 that were pretty good, not quite the right spec, a few scratches. Then one perfect one.

It was a manual (the first we'd seen), GX spec - only 180bhp as opposed to the 200bhp mivec, but who's counting? Cheaper on the insurance anyway! Perfect condition bodywork, underside, all the usual good things.

So, I've got a list as long as my arm of suspect things to look out for, like the rusty roof, ARB bushes etc., but just thought I'd put the obligatory post up in motors in case someone comes up with anything I've missed off the "List of things to look out for when buying...."

Over to you... (Piggymon in particular!)
 
Well, she's been looking for something somewhere in the 150-200bhp category, nice looking, sporty but semi-practical (no back seat bench in the MR2 rules it out for example), about £5-6k, reliable.... The FTO seems to be the perfect car to fit the bill

The GX is the 2 litre 24v V6, but 180PS as opposed to the 200 in the GPX. It's plenty fast enough for her coming from an interstellar mileage, 13 year old TD Astra that's probably only pushing out 60bhp in it's knackered state! Insurance is about £750 fully comp (and only a tenner more to add myself as a named driver (hurrah!)), so not too bad in all honesty.
 
Piggymon said:
GX ?

Either GS or GR .. Avoid the GS as it's the 1.8 and really doesn't drive very well compared to the GR or the GPX ( MIVEC )
Click to expand...

Indeed - done a little research. Essentially it's the GR wearing a GPX body (interior kit, whatever exterior things are different, etc).

http://www.mivec.co.uk/ - go here, then onto FTO Lineup.
 
Well, we're off to see it again in a short while - gonna get down there for when they open.

I've got a list as long as my arm full of various things to look out for, and I've written down all the simple things I always forget to do - like checking every little switch on the dash, things like that.

I think it's good that this is the GX spec, as opposed to the faster GPX - for insurance reasons etc., one less thing to go wrong... Plus the fact that this is only one of 2 manuals within 100 miles of us (regardless of spec), and the car is so much tidier than any of the other GPXs (or GR/GXs) we've seen.
 
Well, we went, took it for another half hour test drive. Did most of that myself today, did all the usual testdrive things, including a brief spin up to nearly 8krpm :eek:! It's a pretty nippy car once it gets up into the rev range, despite being non-mivec - I was pleasantly surprised. Then spent about an hour and a half going over the car, checking it all out. It seems very very clean, and well looked after - with a wodge of reciepts in the FSH.

I could only find 2 down points on the whole car - there's a tiny oil drip from an union on the small pipe leading to or from the oil cooler at the front, and the brake pads are shot - a griding noise under braking. I don't think the pads are scored though, but they're not pristine anymore. The rubber bushes on the droplinks aren't in top condition, but none are shot, and nothing's moving about unduly.

My GF decided to go for it - she has it in writing that the oil drip and the brakes will be sorted in it's service and MOT before she picks it up. There's a very good warranty that comes included in the total price, with lots of things like headgasket failures, new clutches, braking system etc covered that I thought wouldn't be.

I think she's going down on Friday to pick it up, I have pics now, but forgot all my FTP passwords to get them up online, will do that later when i find where I wrote them!

/me is very jealous of the gf! :(
 
Unfortunately - it's not mine it's most definately for my gf... although hopefully I'll be put on the policy as a named driver!
 
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