Somebody *please* talk me out of this

Timo, it's probably easier for you to buy a car from wherever Steve recommends - at least that way the previous keeper on the logbook should have a bit of 'prestige' in their postcode - because that is what matters, right? You don't want the person who buys a car from you looking at the logbook and thinking "Oh dear, this chap has been to Milton Keynes" and walking away from the deal.

Having said that, I tend to avoid buying any car that has spent its life inside the M25, but that is mainly because they're often battle scarred and have spent hours upon hours crawling in stop-start traffic, and partly because I can't be arsed going to London.

Reply to
Pete M
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Have you been to High Wycombe?

Seriously, I really, really wouldn't.

Reply to
SteveH

Erm, you haven't been to High Wycombe have you? - it's like buying from Oldham. You just wouldn't.

Since when was High Wycombe inside the M25?

Reply to
SteveH

Indeed. Beats service history, for starters.

Place hasn't been the same since Steve left...

Oddly enough, there seem to more of the cars I'm interested in South Yorkshire than in London. Neither are very convenient, though.

Reply to
Timo Geusch

I have been to HW. Didn't enjoy it, but it's just a place.

Since when did I say it was inside the M25? I said I try not to buy things from inside the M25... :-p

Reply to
Pete M

Nothing unreasonable about wanting something to be 'just so', when you've shelled out good money for it.

LOL

What sort of time are we talking...

Reply to
JackH

On Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:54:25 +0000, SteveH spouted forth:

I've lived with a few miles of High Wycombe and worked there for years. I agree with SteveH on this one.Saying that, it depends where Timo means when he says "near" High Wycombe. The rest of South Bucks is Ok..

Mike P

Reply to
Mike P

I'm just saying I'd be very wary of anything coming out of High Wycombe, based on experience of living fairly close to the place for a while.

Reply to
SteveH

Hmmm... I'm no expert but surely that's all you'd want on an NA engine without uprated internals?

I know what you said about the engine in those being the same as the one in the 323 4x4 Turbo, but they surely they're not the exact same lump, just without a turbo bolted on in terms of things like compression ratio if nothing else?

Is one of those going to tick all the boxes for you in terms of a track toy, though?

Reply to
JackH

A lot of people seem to disagree with that one, though. Like the company that did the pre-purchase inspection on the 911 and then argued that some of the bodgier repair where acceptable "for the age of the car". I pointed out to them that I paid them to *find* the damn things, not to make a value judgement.

Well, Ikea opens at 11 so I'd want to be there around that time to make it quick.

10am at my place or I could pick you up at your place at a similar time.
Reply to
Timo Geusch

Actually they're near Aylesbury, not HW. My bad...

It's the four-door M3 Evo from this place:

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Reply to
Timo Geusch

I guessed it was that one.

Purple with white leather.....erm, 'there's lovely'

Thought you didn't want another Evo?

Anyway, I was much more interested in their 309.

Reply to
SteveH

It's an old car, so you can't expect it to be like new.

But like I say, when you're paying good money for it, and then shelling out more good money on it to get it how you want it to be, there's nothing wrong with wanting it to be 'reasonably good'.

Did they actually give you a statement of what the 'service' it was they were going to provide in terms of inspecting the car, would comprise of, as in a list of checkpoints etc?

Ok, I'll meet you at yours - if you come over here you're going out of your way, so to speak.

My mothers hails from Tilbury and I had the misfortune to have to spend time up there on and off over the years up until my Grandad passed away a couple of years ago, so I'm more than familiar with the territory / what we're likely to be greeted with when we get there. ;-)

Reply to
JackH

If you decide to save coins, although I do like that M3's colour combo, the £999 Xsara VTS has to be worth it just for a throwaway laugh heh!

Reply to
DanB

"PEUGEOT 309 1.9 GTi" ... "running on R1 carbs"

Reply to
Clive George

They all do that sir. My preferred colours would either be green or silver, but the "violent purple"[1] was very popular in the day.

Err, the "previous" Evo was a *Mitsubishi* Evo. The M3 Evo is not my first choice, granted, I'd prefer the less complicated 3l instead. However they've never made that many four doors in the first place so I can't be overly choosy.

Yeah, looked at that as well but if I could overcome my dislike of FWD performance/track sheds, I'd rather buy this one:

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The one would be a pain in the arse to drive to the track though.

[1] The official name of the colour is "violet blue".
Reply to
Timo Geusch

That's not really what I was after, but for a tuned car for good money I'd expect decent workmanship and people thinking through what they're doing.

I guess I just found the difference between someone who's learned the hard way to do things properly and someone who's marginal workmanship either mostly holds up or who doesn't value his time that much.

That's what I keep telling myself.

I'm pretty sure looking underneath the car was part of the inspection and I'm not sure (but can't prove) that they didn't do that. At least not properly.

The amusing part (with hindsight) was that when I pointed out to them that their failure to disclose just cost me a large wedge, I was told that this was my own fault because I "went to a known very good but expensive garage" and I could have had the repair "much cheaper". Well, the reason for going to said expensive and good place was because I wanted someone to undo a cheap repair and replace it with a *proper* repair.

I thank you.

Do we have to pack additional hardware? :)

Reply to
Timo Geusch

The Austin recovery lorry might be a tad more practical given the sort of vehicle I tend to buy, though.

Reply to
Timo Geusch

No, I looked at a few M3s - one guy offered me a swap of my RX7 for his M3 Evo which I would've agreed to apart from a little issue on the HPI.

Hmm? That one's a few hundred cheaper than the M3? Plus I might have a chance to sell it on for similar money *if* the rules of the BARC series don't change.

I think that might be more or less the same colour, actually.

Reply to
Timo Geusch

Yes. And it's also FWD. And I don't like driving FWD anywhere near the limit. Which means that unless I really can't find anything RWD and trackable for less than 3k, I'm not massively interested.

Reply to
Timo Geusch

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