One for Jorgy!! And me... :?

[mouseflakes]

Grey car is now on Autotrader at £595.

[andmcit]

Interesting to see it's listed as "Trade"

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/ww ... RegLetter=

Andrew

[XMX]

Interesting to see it's listed as "Trade"
http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/ww ... RegLetter=
Andrew

SO

Although the seller has blanked off the Registration plates with 'FOR SALE' plates which seem to held on with some sort of tape (So who has these sort plates at home I don't) are they a trader ?

I WAS 100% correct then in my intuition/thoughts
Those stick on number plates get plenty of use then IMHO, pity they could not afford a set of white background with the Black 'FOR SALE' font for the front when they take the photo shots of for sale cars with the profits made from past sales,rather than the yellow back ground ones
So will 'Mr Arnott' AKA 'Brett' off the forum ever post again, if he read this thread
Has any one got the balls to drop him a PM to remind of its existence

[DerekW]

I'm impressed, if I ever sell one of my XMs (unlikely) I'll do it well away from forum members .

Incidentally, I've just renewed the insurance on my V6 exclusive (reg 1999, 20000 model, 75k, unmarked but not immaculate - I seldom clean it , but everything works). I went to one of the "compare" sites and they gave a market value of £600! WTFH? I changed it to 3k, was I being over/under optimistic?

Anyway, eventually insured it through AA, 5,000 mile limit, including roadside assist and NCB protection, for £179. That'll do me.

Derek

[Dean]

Hi Derek

So long as the cars value doesnt exceed 100k i dont think it makes a difference to your premium, and telling them its worth 3k wont make any difference when it comes to a claim either sadly, they will just give you book price if your car were to be writen off which would be £600 by the looks of things when in reality 3k is about right i would think.
The only way around this would be to have classic insurance, you get an agreed valuation and in the case of my dads Stag free, full european breakdown cover and all for well under £200 a year.

Stupid really, if you had to go and buy a MK2 V6 tomorrow you would want a hell of a lot more than £600 Derek thats for sure

D

[jorgy]

Right,

I just spent my weekend and about £120 having gone from Glasgow down to Statrofrd-upon-Avon to collect this car, for the stated autotrader price.

Sadly it's not as good as we'd like to think. Summary, in random order, I highlighted the most serious imo:

1. Paint has plenty of scratches, all around, that are not visible on the photos. Otherwise paint looks relatively fresh -just a shame.

2. NS sill is badly repaired at the level of the front jacking point. OS sill paint has pealled off and there's surface rust at the level of the front jacking point.

3. BOTH STRUT TOPS NEED IMMEDIATE REPLACEMENT. They are totally rusty and I wouldn't drive away on them -could go at any moment-. I have photos of that. I said to seller this wouldn't have passed an MOT no way -they're a garage also doing MOTs, so assume they've put the fresh MOT on the car-.


4. Hydractive is off service (e-valves not "cloncking" on door open or timeout after closing), one obvious problem is with the driver's door switch (os, not activating interior lights). Car was soft, so I pressume it's on comfort spheres. Also boot switch ready to snap (half broken).

5. Trip computers os both sides, totally off. Seller says they flick on intermittenly, but not when I was there. Control button on stalk is stuck -u can't depress it). No idea what could be happening there.

6. Rear gate shutting is problematic, something is not good there but can't tell what -I'd say something forbids it from closing as deep as it should. They had washed the car before I go, and some water had ingressed through the sealing rubber. NS light quarter is clearly missplaced, but that's not the problem.

7. Sunroof works slowly, and the wires can be heard suffering.

8. Cooling liquid was missing about 1 liter from "top" mark. Didn't have time to ask why. Supposedely car had just been serviced and passed an MOT.

9. Petrol gauge was as low as it can be. Seller assured me it works, just that they've only put 1 gallon in car.

10. Didn't check engine temperature as I didn't have the chance to see it warming up.

11. Plastic dash facia behind steering wheel is broken in places, and u can easily snap it off its mounts -what have they been doing, hammering it?!-.

12. Screws missing (?) at the dashboard at the level of the footbrake lever as when pulling to release....the whole dash wants to come with it!

13. All electric windows working good.

14. Leather interior in good condition, better than I expected.

15. Climate is working well (flaps etc adjust), fan speeds not all working but most of (transistors going).

16. Climate compressor doesn't work as one of 2 cables is chopped off and couldn't find the other end (seller said didn't know).

17. Remote plip is not present at all. Car comes with 2 keys (different ones). Passenger barrel lock is spinning, driver okay.

18. Hydraulics: didn't try/measure anything, just steering assistance from end to end (on gravel), which was good.

19. No radio, and Citroen connector has been cut and an DIN connector spliced on the wires.

20. Too High-Temp warning light coming on with ingition ON, goes off when started, temp obviously not high.

21. "Brand new exhaust" is not-so-new, it's already rusted at the tip.

Finally, I still I've not been able to drive the car!!! I started up engine once (bit noisy but this must be the typical noise of FDV), let it run for 5 mins, then switched off to take time to examine other bits as petrol was very low. On 2nd start up, I got blue fumes within a few secs from engine bay. Switch off, found aircon compressor pulley was distorted (shaft not straight anymore), belt and pulley burning hot. Seller thought it might be that they overtightened the brand new belt, so he untightened it but of course pulley didn't come back to straight... I suggested that it must be the bearing that has seized, and indeed on a starter spin it was locked solid -belt slipping on it-. They couldn't explain "how it has seized just from driving it from the workshop out to the frontyard after putting a new belt ".

So, car stayed there, I'm back home, £120 less in my pocket and no car, and the agreement is I'll buy it when/if they repair the bearing, and they'll deliver it for free to my indy in Glasgow, for immediate strut top replacement (I happen to have 2 second hand). On site, I stated there's of course no way I'm paying £600 for this car, so price is still to be discussed.

In the meanwhile, I see he is still having it for sale on ebay and just added a note for the "enthusiasts". FYI, bearing is 100% seized and car doesn't go anywhere (unless "u take it on 3 batteries with u (no belt, no alternator)" as the suggested I do lol). I said I'm not *that* adventurous, and I wouldn't drive it anywhere with these strut tops anyway. Not even an sms to me, just in the way of apologising or so. All in all, I don't trust them one bit (as mechanics and as people), they're just lucky I need a 2lt manual.

We'll see, I'm calling them tomorrow. I've spent already too much time and money on their case and I don't want to see that time and money *wasted*. I've decided I can live without trip computers, even without Hydractive, and also no aircon -next owner can spend their days faultfinding (hope they are keen with electronics). I'll need to pass it though a *real* MOT though.

cheers
George

[andmcit]

Flippin'eck George - strut tops sound very iffy.

A sad story - by the sound of things definitely the wrong people to have in their possession a needy Xm!
Very strong willed (but eminently sensible) walking away empty handed - I'm impressed! I have done similar
things myself in the past and the anger you feel must be intense. Did you travel by train or car as being
in the same position I'd have probably tried meeting up with white Xm man 70 miles away to recover
something from the travel time/cost!!

Another 70 miles again and you'd have been at my barn too...

Done now so not worth brooding - I'd leave the Stratford car well alone by the sounds of things although
there were some positives in the long list. The quest for a manual Xm continues...

Andrew

[andmcit]

Mind, I do feel sorry for the winning bidder of the 42k mile car on ebay
- that auction is still running unfortunately.

Somebody is going to be a VERY unhappy bunny - and a lot poorer too.

Andrew

[jorgy]

Some photos

strut top -on lightly rubbing this with just 1 finger, it'd all go off, together with lots of brown ex-strut top metal flakes...Regreting for not having put a screwdriver through it at the scene. (This is the "good" one, other side worse).

pulley -notice how it's bent, that's where it stayed even when they slackened the belt. I believe that, sadly, *they* unnecessarily provoked this by overtightening.

scratches -all the white things visible are the below-paint antirust layer. Car had similar ones all around.

G

[XMX]

Mind, I do feel sorry for the winning bidder of the 42k mile car on ebay
- that auction is still running unfortunately.
Somebody is going to be a VERY unhappy bunny - and a lot poorer too.
Andrew

Hi Andrew,
If your referring to the White one on E-BAY reg. number 'R672 PKV' (Sellers location Manby, Lincolnshire) the same XM is being currently offered on GUMTREE (Location London) for £985

IIRC this one may have been discussed before in a thread/posting a while ago , (I've had a quick search but didn't find anything) can anyone else maybe remember ?