Pics first - these are from the Autotrader ad I havent taken any of my own yet as its filthy from the drive back :
It is a 2.0 Twinspark Sportwagon in top of the range Veloce trim
I didnt pay anywhere near the £1999 comedy screen price - When I first saw it for sale it was on for £1200 but as it was almost 200 miles away in Norwich and the dealer had had it for a while I'd agreed the deal over the phone at £950 on the basis that I would pay cash, it would have a new MOT and he would check and confirm a long list of things which I sent him by email before I made the trip to collect it.
I paid a £200 deposit over the phone - by credit card just in case
Thankfully after looking at the ridiculous journey it would have meant by train to collect which would also have meant I was on my own and fully committed to buying whether I liked it or not my best mate agreed to drive me there for the cost of the train ticket.
7am start, fry up halfway there and 4 hours later two tired brummies rock up at the dealers forecourt.
First impressions good - we have a look round it before going to meet the dealer and it looks as good as it does in the pics. 4 matching Dunlops with plenty of tread, bodywork straight with no rust and no evidence of accident damage or previous paintwork.
Met the seller and got the keys and thats where the fun began
He had told me by email on Friday that everything was checked and all good apart from the a/c which works but is not very cold - I'd emailed him back and told him I could live with that as long as everything else was A1 which he said it was.
When we got there he then added that there was a problem with the wipers - they only work on manual sweep or full speed - no intermittent and no lower speed ( I was aware of this as a common fault - similar to E30's it requires the wiper contacts to be cleaned and re-greased ) - no big deal but I was annoyed as fully functional wipers were on the checklist he had confirmed was all good less than 24 hours previously
He also added that there is a warning light on the dash saying one of the rear lights is out when it isnt - again all lights on dash coming on and then going out as they should was a condition of the deal.
We then went back out to the car and found my list of things I wanted checking and he had confirmed were all good on friday clearly hadnt been checked at all
First thing we notice is that as soon as you turn the ignition on the radiator fan comes on, and after leaving it running for 10 minutes or so whilst we crawl all over it the temp gauge is still on the bottom
The rad looks brand new so there have obviously been some cooling system issues which the seller hadnt declared but there is some wiring bodgery with the fan relays in the engine bay plus I've since found out a resistor is actually missing from the fan housing which controls the low-speed fan.
Drivers side rear electric window goes down - and then wont go back up
By this time i'm p1$$ed off
However we drive it up the road and back and it drives lovely - the engine is the smoothest 4 cylinder I have ever experienced and sounds wonderful. It pulls well and the steering and suspension are sharp with no knocks or rattles.
Clutch and gearbox nice and light with no strange noises.
We drive back and its decision time - do I walk or do I buy ?
What p1$$ed me off the most was the seller putting me in the position where I had to renegotiate.
If he'd upheld his side of the deal and actually checked everything I'd asked him to check I would have paid him what we agreed.
It looks like he hadnt bothered on the basis that he knew I was coming a long way and that I probably wouldnt want to walk away even with the faults.
I think what he didnt bank on was 2 tired and obviously p1$$ed off brummies standing up to him.
I told him I was annoyed because he hadnt held up his part of the deal - he pleaded ignorance - said he'd asked his "mechanic" to check everything after it passed the MOT and been told it was all good - he then pleaded poverty saying he couldnt afford to drop the price.
I offered him a deal - £800 or we would walk - basing it on that I knew I could fix the wipers and rear window and £150 should be enough to fix the cooling system ( new stat & temp sensor, good used fan relays, wiring check )
He took it - although I think if I'd I'd turned up on my own using a 1 way train ticket it would have been a different story
Drive back was pretty uneventful - just long.
The temp gauge did get off the bottom once we'd been on the road a while but not even near the 1/4 mark let alone halfway where it should sit - and as soon as we stopped it dropped to nothing again ( heaters ok though )
Brakes are pretty good although I think its been stood a while as the MOT expired in June and there is some corrosion on the discs.
So its now on my drive.
Had a good look over it yesterday - first jobs this week will be to get it in for a cambelt which is long overdue and get a new stat and hopefully the fan fixed at the same time.
alfaowner.com forum is very good - all these niggles seem common and fixable without too much aggro or expense and then I can enjoy it until something else breaks
Heart over head definately - I will find out whether it was brave or stupid once Its in the workshop - luckily there is an Alfa specialist who is well respected on the alfaowner forum less than 2 miles from my house
At the end of the day whats the most I can lose on an £800 with full MOT
With the morsels it has its worth more than that in bits anyway !
but if we all drove the same stuff all the time life would be very dull !
