There is a full buyers guide if you pay your tenner.
Tbh, there's loads of things to have a sift through:
Rear shocks. Have they been replaced? Usually leak which makes the back end feel floaty. It's a standard fault and worth seeing if they've been replaced.
Exhausts are very heavy and to lead to breaking of the welds. Also as they're heavy mounts can wear leading to flex and exhaust blowing. If it's on the standard exhaust check that.
Check the rear wheel well. Any crash, at any speed into the rear leads to it being crumpled. Have a look. It should be creasless. However, you will see a big f**k off what looks like metal panel super glued down in the rear. That is normal.
Car should have had a cambelt done at 72k or 5 years. This is about a £500 job so you want it done or off the asking price.
Cups come in Cup spec so check all your usual features are still present. Cup splitter (could have smashed.) Renault Speedline Turinis. Rear Cup spoiler. Also the suspension is different but you'll have a hard time looking at that when viewing a car.
Engines can be lumpy on idle and sound a little rough. This is kind of normal. It's a tough one this as clearly you don't want to be buying a s**tter but they do sound a bit like that. Alot of the depahser pulleys have started to go of late. This is moderaltley expensive and symptoms are a loud whining noise and engine sounding poor.
Tyres are about £80 a pop dependant on what you want. So make sure all are legal.
Check to make sure the car is water tight and no dampness in the car especially behind the seats. I can't remember which car it is, maybe the 182 but the window seals can be s**t leading to condensation.
If you get a chance to cane it make sure there is a 5k kick. And limiter should be about 7.2k. It won't rev this high until engine is FULLY, ok the water temp is fully there. There is a few different rev limits dependant on engine temp. I think there is one about 6k maybe wrong as I've hit that one. Next is 6.5k, which I have hit a few times and finally the fully raised 7.2k. May take a while to reach temp as it's quite cautious. Clearly hitting the limiter may indicate if it's been chipped.
Lock the steering right to left to make sure there are no loud clunks from worn mounts. You can get a bit of 'extra' turn when pulling away. This is normal.
Pull away in 1st and 2nd and try to listen for squeeking or knocking. This will be worn engine or gearbox mounts. Another common fault. Not too much to fix.
Cups came in Mondial or Iceberg. Mondial is the most common.
These cars respond s**t to mods and run low on power on a RR too. 172bhp will fast become 160's on a print out. So if you have one from the previous owner and think the engines f**ked it's not, that's normal. Chip, exhaust etc etc gives no power. If someone is saying it's 190 etc that's crap.
Lastly, just drive the car. Make sure it's quite smooth and pulls well. Shouldn't be any flat spots but will take a while to wind up and get going. On 172's there isn't alot below the 5k.
Hit some pot holes and listen for clunks.
Cars dont tend to rust.
Not sure if the Cups were different but 2003 plate 172s come with ESP as an on off switch and 53 plates get cruise. May build that into if you want those extras.
Engine mileage isn't a problem. Loads of people on here with >100k engines and going well. So if you want a lower priced car with high miles this is fine. They don't implode.
Also, have a look at a few RS's. 172's as well. Look for all the items mentioned then this will give you some expereince in deciding what's a good one and bad one.
PS Cups don't have ABS. You may know this, you may not. I think it's one of it's major down falls as there was no point in leaving it off for the sake of a small bit of weight.
Other than that, if you buy a s**tten it's simply bad luck.
