ST220 Advice

Ian · 3 Apr 2012 at 16:37

Hi All,

After 8 years of owning my current car, the time may have arrived to replace it. Have always had a soft spot for the ST and spotted http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201214461099294 which im going to have a nose at this evening.

From what ive read they are fairly bulletproof, but is there anything i should look out for? It seems pretty good value for the age/mileage compared to others.

Cheers
Ian

mike gunnz · 3 Apr 2012 at 16:42

I started a thread a few weeks ago when I was looking for my ideal car. Ended up with an 04 plate ST220 for 3 grand. There is some good advice in my thread that I received so may be worth you doing a search for it.

SoliD · 3 Apr 2012 at 17:47

Main bits to look for are

Rear Subframe creaking
Rust around lower edges of doors
Check all electrics work properly - ie seats/windscreen.
That the paintwork is in Performance Blue!

Makhaira · 3 Apr 2012 at 18:25

Other important points:

- Post 03 there was a significant cosmetic and mechanical facelift. You can tell by making sure it does have a 6-speed box. I wouldn't get a pre-facelift personally.
- If it's registered after March 2006 you're going to have to pay an extra £200 tax a year
- Subframe is a classic as mentioned above. Rust was taken care of in the facelift really.
- The alloys are diamond cut - they're a bugger to maintain so if they're tatty, factor in a couple of hundred quid for redoing the alloys

All of that said, I'm driving an 04 plate ST220, and I love every second

. For the money you'll get a hell of a lot of car! Enjoy!

DannyW · 3 Apr 2012 at 19:17

op that 05 plate car is showing 55k miles look at the wear on the bolster mine had done 120k and didnt look like that

they r good cars nice and cheap to run and fix just watch out for clocked cars, these things get driven

LiE · 3 Apr 2012 at 19:18

DannyW said:
op that 05 plate car is showing 55k miles look at the wear on the bolster mine had done 120k and didnt look like that

Probablylots of short trips around town. Just a guess.

DannyW · 3 Apr 2012 at 19:20

LiE said:
Probablylots of short trips around town. Just a guess.

mine was a family car owned from new driven by a guy and his wife did schools runs, shopping, then trips at weekend ect

if you can try find a car with 1 or 2 owners, avoid any more then 2 id say

SoliD · 3 Apr 2012 at 20:58

Makhaira said:
Other important points:

- Post 03 there was a significant cosmetic and mechanical facelift. You can tell by making sure it does have a 6-speed box. I wouldn't get a pre-facelift personally.
Rust was taken care of in the facelift really.

Definitely point a) and you get the much better interior.

Point b) not entirely true one of my doors was done under warranty at 6 years old, but it is less prone after 2004.

Janesy B · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:09

Don't think the rear bumper sagging issue has been mentioned.

SoliD · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:17

Janesy B said:
Don't think the rear bumper sagging issue has been mentioned.

No Good shout! Definitely an issue on nigh on all facelifts, but can be rectified to some extent with a simple mod.

Makhaira · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:23

SoliD said:
Definitely point a) and you get the much better interior.

Point b) not entirely true one of my doors was done under warranty at 6 years old, but it is less prone after 2004.

Agreed, hence the "really". It's uncommon after the facelift (as far as I'm aware at least!). Glad you got your sorted under warranty

.

Mine's getting a new set of shoes at the end of the month and a refurb on the alloys at the same time. Bye bye horrible diamond cut, hellooooo silver triple powder coat!

Makhaira · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:25

SoliD said:
No Good shout! Definitely an issue on nigh on all facelifts, but can be rectified to some extent with a simple mod.

Don't say that, mine has been (and still is) fine. Get those negative vibes away

.

Rather than us throwing our collective dribs and drabs of information at you OP, check out a forum like stdrivers.co.uk, since there will be a far greater wealth of information on there

.

SoliD · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:29

Makhaira said:
Agreed, hence the "really". It's uncommon after the facelift (as far as I'm aware at least!). Glad you got your sorted under warranty .

Mine's getting a new set of shoes at the end of the month and a refurb on the alloys at the same time. Bye bye horrible diamond cut, hellooooo silver triple powder coat!

Aye I was too considering it only had about 3 paint checks in its life. But 2 in my ownership.

My wheels lasted fairly well, they were starting to go cloudy but that was after 3 years of ownership, and they were only a few months old when I got the car. Just needed to wash and coat them regularly.

Makhaira said:
Don't say that, mine has been (and still is) fine. Get those negative vibes away .

Rather than us throwing our collective dribs and drabs of information at you OP, check out a forum like stdrivers.co.uk, since there will be a far greater wealth of information on there .

It will go eventually, might be worth doing some preventative maintenance to stop it. Good shout, although there is a lot of useful information in other threads on here if you do a search. We did have a lot of ST knowledge when they were the car to have (getting a bit long in the tooth now

)

Janesy B · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:31

Makhaira said:
Don't say that, mine has been (and still is) fine. Get those negative vibes away .

Rather than us throwing our collective dribs and drabs of information at you OP, check out a forum like stdrivers.co.uk, since there will be a far greater wealth of information on there .

You might want to look into preventing it before the weight of the bumper causes it to split at the top

Makhaira · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:34

SoliD said:
getting a bit long in the tooth now

No!! NO!!! You're a bad man, you take that back right now and wash your mouth out!!

Bad SoliD, go sit in the corner.

Janesy B said:
You might want to look into preventing it before the weight of the bumper causes it to split at the top

I was well aware of the fixes, but not the preventative maintenance (as stupid as that sounds). Off to read up now! Cheers.

SoliD · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:37

Makhaira said:
No!! NO!!! You're a bad man, you take that back right now and wash your mouth out!!

Bad SoliD, go sit in the corner.

I was well aware of the fixes, but not the preventative maintenance (as stupid as that sounds). Off to read up now! Cheers.

Well they are quite old, I would still have one though.

If you search on STdrivers will see a few of my posts about what I done to fix it.

Shimmy · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:41

These ever come with Sat Nav and phone?

SoliD · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:42

Shimmy said:
These ever come with Sat Nav and phone?

Yes, fairly rare option though unfortunately.

Makhaira · 3 Apr 2012 at 21:48

With the Sat Nav and Phone it's worth noting that nearly all variants have the buttons present, but not the electronics. Don't be fooled if you just see the Phone button there.

Been reading up on the bumper sag SoliD, and still going to leave it alone until it shows any signs of starting to move. Will do the fix as soon as it does, but for all I know it's already got foam pads in there that will last a while so I won't disturb them. I've not yet heard of one falling off immediately after being perfect so I'll keep the voice of paranoia in the cupboard for now

.

Big Chris · 4 Apr 2012 at 08:28

What are the figures like for owning one of these?

How much is a set of tyres?
Yearly costs to service/tax?
How far would you get on average out of a full tank? *edit* had a snoop around online and ~300 miles from 60L seems about the norm. That's £80+ a tank at the moment so perhaps a bit steep for me as I'd be filling it every 10 days or so at that rate...