57 replies to this topic

[JimmyJamJerusalem]

Goose's comments over in JG's thread got me thinking about the cool stories I've heard over the years behind people's VX purchases or VX's they didn't buy.... So if you've got a cool tale to tell, let's have it

[Goosenka]

Simple really the guy was selling at a very cheap price. 16k miles, mint stage 2 tuned N/a, and the only reason he was selling was because his wife was pregnant and he was caught by her screwing someone else She was forcing him to sell at a bargain price to teach him a lesson. Poor bugger

[2GOOD]

I'm assuming that the previous owner isn't/wasn't on here

[Wolfstone]

Put a deposit down with Vauxhall on my VX without even seeing the car and without even test driving one. I saw it advertised on autotrader but it was back at Luton being worked on when I went to view it. They then delayed delivering the car to me so I ended up with what is now TurboBob's car for 4 weeks which I ragged mercilessly.

Edited by Wolfstone, 15 May 2012 - 06:24 PM.

[Goosenka]

I'm assuming that the previous owner isn't/wasn't on here

He knows who he is

[rob999]

Jimmy said cool stories Ken!!

[Wolfstone]

Shouldn't you be putting fires out rather than stoking them?

[The Batman]

I bought an na from somewhere silly up north was the mintest na for sale 19k miles Almost had it 2years now and spent an absolute fortune on it and it's done 20k miles and isn't very mint anymore well cosmetically mint not many original parts on it all now I am the mint destroyer

Edited by joe_589, 15 May 2012 - 06:28 PM.

[Darcini]

"mint" has always been a bit of an abstract term in your eyes, hasn't it Joe....

[The Batman]

it was definately mint before i got hold of it

[rob999]

It was pink after you bought it too. A little known resprayed fact.

[Ormes]

OK so not that interesting but my purchase story... Had a grandad mobile of a Honda Accord 2.4 Auto which developed gearbox gremlins and Honda messed me around to the point I could have driven it through the showroom window. Wanted to chop it in and get something for my premature mid life crisis. Had the VX and about a dozen other cars on the list. Was driving around looking at various garages and saw my VXT on the forecourt of a Vauxhall garage. It was on my drive later that day. I still remember the drive home thinking "wow, I must be mad, wow". Nearly 2 years later, and the VX is now my weekend car, and unless I fall on hard times, I won't sell.

[JG]

Here we go then:

I test drove this in July 2004 (towards the end of my test drive career)





I had driven Elise's and Exiges, but the looks and the way the vx drove just blew me away. I then looked at a few more:

This rab, i was sure i wanted red was really cheap, but unfortunately condition was poor


In the meantime i met Adam:

(running over the RAC man)


On his way back from Le Mans 2005


Adam was great, he used to let me drive his VX (I did nearly die one evening of hypothermia fitting a Regal with him until some daft hour in the night)

I saw a couple more:
This one was great (i think it was 17k which was a bit more than i could afford)


I briefly (thank god ) thought about an LY, but this one was a bit rough though, and it was vandalised the following day


Adam and i went to look at a Red Speedster (imported from Ireland) and it wasn't great, pretty low spec, a few miles, and not a VX per se. it was very cheap at £12.5k though. On the way back from that viewing Adam phone Steve whom he had met a few months prior when trying to buy his car. Steve in the end couldn't bring himself to do it. But the need for more pace for the family and a weak moment and we persuaded him to sell it. Without seeing it, i placed a deposit. I then saw the car for the first time in a Tesco car park, had a short pax in it, but my mind was already made up. I had to have it. we talked ball park pricing which was aready 2.5k more than i had. Unfortunately A PX offer was made for it, which was more than 1k more than the ballpark and i went 3.5k over budget. I still owe it all to Adam really.

I was worth it too, it was the best i'd ever seen.

First pic

[Mike (Cliffie)]

I had an 2003 Impreza which in 2008 went into residual freefall and I was losing £100 a week or more on it so I stuck it up on PistonHeads with a swap for Lotus Elise S1 or £8,500. Had an email from a wee fellow from Glasgow saying he had a VX220 which was nearly the same and he would do a swap. After a few weeks of haggling, I set off straight from work up to Blackpool at the same time he set off from Glasgow to Blackpool and we swapped cars which neither had seen before in a dark pub car park in October 2008. Before I had set off the bloody light switch failed on me. I did say to my wife at the time after she saw it; "Don't worry hunny, it will only stay till Spring and we can sell it for a profit after I have cleaned it up"... Oh well.

Edited by Cliffie, 15 May 2012 - 07:11 PM.

[ArticMonkey]

After doing all I could with my old r26 I wanted to test RWD and a lotus type car was always on the cards. Owning a Renault you are always seen as the underdog and wanted something of similar style but bang for your buck great performance. This is when I started looking at the vx220 and went along to Fabs BBQ meet to have a gander at the choice out there. Having in my head that a SC would be really cool I got a pax ride in techies vx which as soon as he went to WOT sold it for me. Also seeing the styles and tastes of all the owners I was made up. Remember seeing Cliffie's car and fabs LY which were the two colours I wanted. Ended up selling my r26 in 5 days of the meet and getting a £36 flight to Belfast to buy a SC vx I had never seen or driven. Picked it up, got the eight hour ferry back to Liverpool and drove home 4 hours to sunny Essex in the same day. The rest is history

[Mangham54]

I bought an na from somewhere silly up north was the mintest na for sale 19k miles

Almost had it 2years now and spent an absolute fortune on it and it's done 20k miles and isn't very mint anymore well cosmetically mint not many original parts on it all now

I am the mint destroyer

fcuk me sideways... You have had this current car 2years!!!

Kerry was pretty mint... To say the least :wub

[badgerade]

Had a drive in my boss's NA which he was selling... then spent a bit of time on the PH classifieds - spotted a car at Adrian Blyth, called him about a PX on my Leon FR and got a surprising number back. Went to 'have a look' the following weekend and ended up sticking the deposit on my credit card. Oops.

[JimmyJamJerusalem]

That's similar to how I bought my old VXR.

It was just before the 2008 national at Llandow which was set to be my first trackday. I was driving about in an NA which I decided didn't have enough grunt so started searching for a VXR. Managed to talk a member who wsa looking to sell a VXR down to £15k which was a bonkers price for 2008 but when I saw it I decided £15k was too much all hell broke loose at the time, some of you may remember the thread

Spent the next few weeks scouring the net lookig for another when a mint super low mileage VXR cropped up in Belfast for top dollar.... There were two or three of us on the forum after a VXR at the time so I jumped on a plane with a rucksack full of cash for what was probably the most paranoid few hours of my life!!!

The seller wsa super dodgy but I spent ages looking over the car and decided that I didn't care how dodgy he was, I was having it!!! Drove it home from Belfast that night in torrential rain on the bald ass original A048's it had left the factory on which was nice Loved every minute of it though!!!

The car was immense and I seriously regret selling it. I couldn't bastardise such a lovely VXR for Time Attack so in it's place I now have a CAT C Frankenstein with the residual value of a S Reg Mondeo It's much quicker though in it's defense

[ChrisS1]

all hell broke loose at the time, some of you may remember the thread

Imran?

[DarrylB]

Test drove a mates VXT and knew I had to have one - and it had to be a mandarin....plain and simple.


I nearly ended buying Joe's! we exchanged PM's...he was going on holiday and when he came back it was gonna be a done deal.......unfortunately for me, he returned on the first sunny day we had that year (2008 I think) took the car out and just couldn't part with it...the rest they say is history for poor KE02 :-(


Then after a year of searching, I spotted one for sale just outside Liverpool - I pounced and booked my train ticket. Paid the deposit and returned to London a happy chap. I arranged a day to collect the car, and booked another train to St Helens...now im not superstitious at all but I walked into the kitchen that morning to see these 2 books on the side and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the coincidence:

My train was the 2pm to lime street station

Basically, it was meant to be