BG Clio 182 FF
Morning all 
I've been lurking on here for ages and I've finally decided to get myself a Clio 182 cup. I've found one locally but I have a few concerns. Hopefully you'll all point me in the right direction.
It's a Racing blue 182 cup with 80k on the clock, advertised for £2995.
Alloys and bodywork are a little tired but I guess it's to be expected on an 8 year old car. No probs with that.
My biggest question mark over the car is the timing belt/aux belt and dephaser. There is a garage invoice from 2011 which states "investigate engine noise" and the parts list shows "dephaser pulley" and "aux pulley". But no mention of the belt itself. Bill totals £600 including some other bits (plugs IIRC). Now I would think that if your going to the effort of changing the pulleys you would also change the belts? Or would just changing the pulleys be a cheapy/half-assed option. And £600 seems a lot for a couple of pulleys + labour (non-MD)
Reason i'm concerned is that the car looks like it's been run on a budget. All four tyres are cheap "non branded" jobbies and the car has been of the road for a while. Tax ran out in April. Car is being sold untaxed.
Also, when I asked when it was last serviced, the father said "last January" but the son (who is selling the car) quickly butted in and said "no, this January". I asked to see the service book and the last recorded service was January 2012 but I was told "it's definitely been serviced this year, if you buy the car we'll send the book away for you to get stamped up".
The guy is not budging much on price - offered him £2600 initially, then £2700 - wanted no less than £2750 (since he's only just fitted front disks and pads). After we went through the paperwork I told him I was going to have a think about it. Really not sure about it now. When I first saw the car I though "right, your coming home with me" but the more I looked, the more I found. A little disappointing to be honest.
In it's favour it does have a fresh MOT, a Milltek exhaust of some type and has just had new front disks and pads (presumably to get it through the MOT) otherwise I suspect the owner would not have bothered.
Am I right to be concerned? Or am I just being fussy? Walk away?
Sorry for the rambling post
I've been lurking on here for ages and I've finally decided to get myself a Clio 182 cup. I've found one locally but I have a few concerns. Hopefully you'll all point me in the right direction.
It's a Racing blue 182 cup with 80k on the clock, advertised for £2995.
Alloys and bodywork are a little tired but I guess it's to be expected on an 8 year old car. No probs with that.
My biggest question mark over the car is the timing belt/aux belt and dephaser. There is a garage invoice from 2011 which states "investigate engine noise" and the parts list shows "dephaser pulley" and "aux pulley". But no mention of the belt itself. Bill totals £600 including some other bits (plugs IIRC). Now I would think that if your going to the effort of changing the pulleys you would also change the belts? Or would just changing the pulleys be a cheapy/half-assed option. And £600 seems a lot for a couple of pulleys + labour (non-MD)
Reason i'm concerned is that the car looks like it's been run on a budget. All four tyres are cheap "non branded" jobbies and the car has been of the road for a while. Tax ran out in April. Car is being sold untaxed.
Also, when I asked when it was last serviced, the father said "last January" but the son (who is selling the car) quickly butted in and said "no, this January". I asked to see the service book and the last recorded service was January 2012 but I was told "it's definitely been serviced this year, if you buy the car we'll send the book away for you to get stamped up".
The guy is not budging much on price - offered him £2600 initially, then £2700 - wanted no less than £2750 (since he's only just fitted front disks and pads). After we went through the paperwork I told him I was going to have a think about it. Really not sure about it now. When I first saw the car I though "right, your coming home with me" but the more I looked, the more I found. A little disappointing to be honest.
In it's favour it does have a fresh MOT, a Milltek exhaust of some type and has just had new front disks and pads (presumably to get it through the MOT) otherwise I suspect the owner would not have bothered.
Am I right to be concerned? Or am I just being fussy? Walk away?
Sorry for the rambling post
