ok….. so that's the puff piece as it would read on piston heads or on ebay.
Now here's more of the detail and real information that explains the price:
1. The mileage is high - It's just gone over 95k. The engines on these cars are generally bulletproof but that also means that the car is just a little worn.
It's not as tight as other examples and rattles a little. Since it just had it's MOT it can't have anything majorly wrong with it.
2. It's a cat D - If you search on trevski220 then you will see what made it a cat D. The car was never really fixed. A car reversed into it in a carpark and pushed it into a bollard at the back. 2 clams, instant right off because the insurance company would only replace not repair at the time. The mark on the front clam is about the size of a 10 pence piece just below the light (pictured below). The rear has a little crack under the exhaust pipe (pictured) and had a crack at the top of the clam when I got it. I had the top crack bonded with fibreglass and the turbo spoiler was put on the top. Invisible!
3. The bodywork - It's not that bad considering it's done 95k but as you can imagine there's a lot of stone chips at the front. They have been touched up, but if you wanted a perfect car you could get it blown over. The bubbles are not that bad compared to a lot of others to be fair, but it's mostly apparent at the bottom of the doors (pictured below). There are some fibreglass stress marks on the rear clam at points. My front number plate is attracted to kerbs and as such, under the number plate plinth there are some cracks (not visible unless underneath the car)
4. Original Radiator - Yup… it's still going, but I don't sit in traffic a lot so it doesn't get that much of a workout.
5. The original cam chain - It never rattled, so I never changed it.
6. EML is on - The error is because the ECU was from an Astra and the error says it can't find the traction control. Murray Lotus tried to sort it, but decided it wasn't that important and passed it through it's MOT anyway.
I've had issues recently with the car which are all sorted now including:
- Not starting/immobiliser (new ECU)
- Running rough (new coil pack)
- Losing coolant (thought it was the radiator on it's way but it was the header tank cap)
- Binding brakes (new rear callipers)
I'm trying to be perfectly honest about this car because I'm not out to con anyone. There's a tonne of things on this advert that people wouldn't normally mention but I want people to know what they are buying. It's a 11 year old car with 95k on the clock!
The car is not by any means perfect or pristine, but I think that the price reflects this. I would rather that it went to someone who knows these cars and knows what they are doing as then they know what they are getting themselves into.
Alternatively someone looking for a project car or is going to strip most of the parts off and replace them anyway. I will not sell it to some newbie who just wants a cheap vx.
Feel free to ask any questions or ridicule my car in anyway, either on this thread or by PM.
After getting my ear bitten off to price my car higher, I'm going to invite offers around £4750, but by all means make me a stupid offer. I can only say no after all.
I also have a calypso red factory hard top in a bag. I will be selling this separately for £500, but if you want it with the car then I'll offer it to you at £450.
Thanks for looking folks.
Mostly water