Paging anyone around Stockport / Manchester

Where abouts in Stockport?

Not entirely sure, but having had a look at the pics, it appears it's not really Stockport, but Bramhall.

Sort of sets my mind at ease, that, 'cos Bramhall in general is quite a posh area, and the car has been pictured on the drive of what looks like a very posh house.

Yes... so was my M reg Golf TDI.

-- JackH

Heh, this is true..... but there's evidence that it's been looked after.

How much checking out do you need, I'm in Didsbury

Just to ensure it's what it says it is, really..... car looks clean enough in the pics, but want to be sure the mileage is fairly accurate, it doesn't smoke and the timing chain doesn't slap around.

Ok send me the ad and I'll make enquiries. Spamtrap email address is active.

Emailed.

Cheers.

I thought I'd post my findings on here for entertainment value:

Lovely guy selling it, I spent about an hour with him. He showed me all the paperwork which is in order, bills for all the work he's had done, recent MOT, V5, fully stamped service book etc etc. Mileage verified by the docs and was 84,105 Bodywork good apart from:

-The stonechips he mentioned (which I couldn't see because it was raining)

-Some small random scratches on the NS front door (probably from being parked next to a thorny bush?)

-The black paint on the OS mirror fixing was flaking off Engine started first time from cold, there was a little chain noise (he was explaining about something to do with the plastic guides I didn't quite understand). Fluids very clean. Exhaust in very good nick. No smoke. Interior as the photos, the leather maybe a bit more cracked than they look in the photos but still comfy and not smelly. The heater controls worked fine as did the rest of the dash apart from the clock as per the description. There's a 6CD changer in the boot but it's been jammed for the last seven years and he can't get his CDs out "I'd quite like them back at some point" the spare wheel is an alloy and mint with a mint tyre. The boot carpet has suffered water ingress as per the description. Suspension all good, no bounciness. Steering lovely, not even the usual screeching on full lock! All the signs were that he's really looked after the car while he was driving it. I was tempted to buy it myself! Then it descended into chaos... I tried to check operation of the gearbox and pressed the clutch... it went straight down and didn't come back up! Now the guy had just reversed it out of his drive and moved it to a position where it was easier to get a look around it so it was obviously working when he started the car. We fiddled around for ages but to no avail. He said the car's been standing for 6 months and that the mechanic said to him when he had a new clutch about a year ago that if it was standing and wet the cluctch might be sticky. But we had the engine totally warm up, we tried all sorts and all we achieved was to get the clutch pedal to return but then it was jammed in the up position. Despite this, I could select gears with the engine running so the clutch was jammed in the disengaged position. I was about to leave so he switched off the engine but I decided to go back and try again as we'd done some more fiddling with the clutch. The engine wouldn't start - I cranked it over about four times, for quite a while each time but all I got was a petrol smell. He said "first time it's failed to start in seven years" so I said "I must bring bad luck" and got out of there. I think the car's a victim of having stood outside in damp Manchester for half a year. It's been mechanically well cared for. I felt really sorry for the seller as he was genuine and clearly frustrated at the problems. He's getting his mechanic out to get it sorted and I asked him to let me know.

Bloody hell, that's efficient service!

Thanks for taking a look, sounds like it's a bit worse for wear - almost certainly needs a clutch cylinder anda good service.

Seems like it's not the one for me, regardless of how genuine the seller was, it could need a fair bit spending to get it right again due to it standing for so long.

Nah, service yeah, but I bet the clutch cylinder is ok. It'll be rust on the mainshaft.

Hmm, how much is it again.....

Possibly. Sounds exactly like what I had with a failing clutch cylinder.

He said he'll take £550 for it and end the auction.....

If it were closer I probably would, but it's going to cost me close on £100 to collect, so it's not really worth it for me.

Apart from the clutch and the random hot start trouble, nice car.

Fraser

Dang, it's sat there for how long? :-(

In news: snipped-for-privacy@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, fishman decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

You still got the blokes number?

I might just have that for myself if the Rangie flogs.

I've had a few interested parties this afternoon, it's got 36 watchers, and I've got three people coming to see it tomorrow.

If you have, and you use MSN, gimme a shout

grunty_70 @ the usual not very cold mail.com