Advice buying a 172

[Xerphiel]

Hi all,

I'm seriously considering purchasing a clio 172, but I wanted to ask a few questions first.

My budget is about 2.5-3K, which seems to mean that I can buy one from 2002, 50k ~ miles.
Firstly, whats the reliability going to be at this age/mileage? What kind of things should I look for when test driving/inspecting?

Thanks for your help, greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[jonny_rs]

Look/hear for usual stuff when test driving the car and also the service history is quite important, to me anyway! 3K would obviously be better and also depending on how many miles you do a year, remember the cambelt needs to be done at 72k (or every 5 years I think,someone will correct me if im wrong) which is very expensive.

Hope this helps

 

[Sir_Dave]

All the info you need is here

 

[Dan1587]

When looking for mine, I wanted a standard one, and the one I bought was the only one I looked at that had, the VIN sticker in the drivers door shut and a full toolkit in the boot. Very few had service history.
If you join up, there is a buying guide that one of the lads on here put together, its really good. I got one within your price range, shop around, its the best thing to do.
Mine is a Metal Blue 2004 plate, 172, 40k, cruise and all the other toys of the non cup. I paid £2,900 due to it needing a cambelt.
And I love it...
But seriously, join up, its costs £12 a year (I think) and the guys on here are proper helpful.

 

[Goodj]

Look for a reciept for the cam/aux belts (& tensioners) to have been done.

And expect rattles, generally