Just went to view a car, have a few questions...
- Thread starter cleanbluesky
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cleanbluesky said:
Not thrashing it when it's cold, and letting it cool down a bit before turning the engine off. There's no maintenance as such: it either works or it doesn't. Routine servicing doesn't include the turbo, except the oil change mentioned - at least it doesn't on my car and I've never heard of it being done on any petrol turbo. Although I wait to be corrected.
M
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ZG002 said:How long you planning on keeping it?...
You seem to be trying to talk yourself out of it..... go look on auto trader and ebay etc at a3's about that age with no FSH and check prices out.. its not hard to do
Hard to say really. There are some less expensive 1.8T on there with higher mileage and no FSH, there are also ones on there with higher mileage for more money.
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Meridian said:
There is no way of demonstrating this, unless I am mistaken. How long should you leave the engine running before turning the car off? Is there any way to check the turbo?
I don't think anyone has thrashed this car - he doesn't seem the type.
Meridian said:
The trouble is that you have no way of knowing this. Although one would assume that if the previous owner knows what he is on about then he would look after it.
It's a gamble to purchase second hand, you really don't know much about how the car has been driven in the past.
You said that you think the guy is sound, ask yourself if you would trust him to look after your car, if the answer is yes, go with it. As far as resale goes, as has already been pointed out - it depends if you intend to continue FSH, if yes, then tbh, on a car worth that much, I don't think you stand to lose much because of the previous owners self maintainence. If you are going to keep the car for a couple of years, chances are that if anything serious was to go wrong from his lack of servicing, you would find out before you came to sell it on.
It might be worthwhile asking him if he has kept any previous mot test sheets, you will be able to see what things it has failed on in the past - just to put your mind at rest. He should have kept any reciepts from parts that he would have changed for it to pass if it required work.
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silane said:
He said one thing has failed whilst he has owned the car, and that wasn't the turbo.
He seems about as honest as anyone would be whilst selling a car, he seems like a decent chap and probably has maintained the car very well.
The inside of the car is immaculate, the outside has a few dents and stone chips. It drives very well.
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D.Roberts said:
You'd leave a turbo car running for 5 minutes once you've arrived at your destination?
cleanbluesky said:
You are correct that all you can do is ask the owner and see what he says. You can have the turbo checked out, but get a specialist to do it (probably cheaper than a main dealer as well as better). Main things to worry about are excessive bearing play and carbonised oil.
From your point of view a turbo times is probably overkill. Generally you need to drive at least two miles off- or low-boost before caning it. I've got an oil temp guage and wait until about 80oC which is usually about five to ten minutes. You only need to leave the engine running after stopping if you were boosting seriously just before you stopped. If it was motorway cruising then thirty seconds before turning off is probably fine, whereas if you were thrashing down the twisties then give it a couple of minutes. If you were just trundling along in a 30mph zone for the last couple of minutes then just turn off as normal.
Now it has to be said that most of this comes word-of-mouth from other turbo owners; and there are some who say that the dangers are over-sold, and that you can drive them like any other car. Might be worth googling to see if Audi turbos have such issues.
M
the one thing i would say is I service and maintain all my own cars(bar bodywork) and i know i put a damn site more care and attention into it than ANY dealer/garage would.
Just because he's done it himself doenst mean that it wont be up to scratch prolly the opposite. as long as he has relevant receipts for regular service items i'd be happier with that than a dealer history, (having worked in a ford dealership i wouldn't trust those monkeys to service a pushbike)
Just because he's done it himself doenst mean that it wont be up to scratch prolly the opposite. as long as he has relevant receipts for regular service items i'd be happier with that than a dealer history, (having worked in a ford dealership i wouldn't trust those monkeys to service a pushbike)
He may well have done a good job, but CBS's worry is a reasonable one: what will it do for resale values? If you plan to keep the car until it dies then there's no problem, but it sounds like he wants to sell it on in a year or two.
I can only add (rather uselessly) that my first car (a Peugeot 309 GL) was owner serviced for the first 60k miles until bought it. I then main dealer serviced it (I was young and naive). It never broke down, and was finally sold by me at 96k miles. But yes, home servicing will probably knock 20% off the value of the car. That might not be as bad if the owner at least filled in the log when he did it, and kept every receipt, as other have said.
M
I can only add (rather uselessly) that my first car (a Peugeot 309 GL) was owner serviced for the first 60k miles until bought it. I then main dealer serviced it (I was young and naive). It never broke down, and was finally sold by me at 96k miles. But yes, home servicing will probably knock 20% off the value of the car. That might not be as bad if the owner at least filled in the log when he did it, and kept every receipt, as other have said.
M
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Explained my position and we negotiated down to £4,100 but he wont go any lower. I also think he has not been advertising it long although I was the first person to see the car.
Any thoughts on this price from the OcUK mob? It's much closer to the target price.
Any thoughts on this price from the OcUK mob? It's much closer to the target price.
cleanbluesky said:
walk away
and quickly
imho. Cant see any possible reason why you'd want to start a car before somebody came to view it unless there was something to hide
surely if he just wanted a one off check, he'd have done this before he made the decision to sell ...
cleanbluesky said:
just for the record.
You can only call yourself Doctor Cleanbluesky if you have a PHD. That PHD can be in whatever subject you want, Medicine (for the GPs at a doctors surgery) or in the case of one of my work colleagues, Nuclear Physics
but it is a protected title
you cannot call yourself a Doctor of IT because you're a 3rd line Analyst
you can however call yourself an IT Support Engineer if the job title takes your fancy.
The word "engineer" is meaingless as anybody can call themselves it. Doctors on the other hand, have to have a PHD qualification and studied however many years at uni (think its 5 off the top of me head) in a choosen subject, like psychology as my cousin does.
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The resale value of this car through the gap in the history is negligable - by the time you sell it this will be what, 11-13 years old?
How many cars of such age have complete service records? Very few. And of those that do, it makes the value increase by only small amounts.
How many cars of such age have complete service records? Very few. And of those that do, it makes the value increase by only small amounts.
Soldato
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When you are talking about service history it's all about evidence. The guy might be the best mechanic in the world and serviced it every month. But unless he can evidence that then you have to assume you are buying it with those services misssing.
Make a suitable adjust for the missing history.
Make a suitable adjust for the missing history.