To buy or not to buy!? HELP

[Camvandam]

Alright guys,

Looking at buying a E30 318is RED

I did a HPI check and it came back as insurance theft (what does this even mean??) - the owner said to me that it was a write off due to someone going round it with a screw driver to every panel and then this bloke brought it from insurance company and repaired it.

Good bits - engines fine, m tech 2 kit, interior mint, electrics good and power flow exhaust, mint condition bbs alloys and LSD working.

Bad bits - rust of rear left boot seal so water leaks in, speedo & rev counter not working, brakes need cleaning, tracking needs doing, has no log book and only 1 previous MOT (08-08-2011) cert with it.

Only things really putting me off is....HPI check insurance theft, no log book, only 1 mot cert, the speedo and rev counter and obviously no previous service history.

If I did buy this car do you think it would be hard to sell on in the future due to this HPI flag up?

Any views would be wicked as I am supposed to be telling the guy soon whether I want it or not.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Cheers,
Cameron.

[The_Diddler]

I wouldn't touch it buddy.

I would imagine you would have to declare its status to your insurance company at the very least.

As for been written off and now back on the road, i'm sure the car would have had to be tested by VOSA or something, depending on its right-off category.

I'm sure somebody with more knowledge will be along soon......

[Brianmoooore]

You are missing one rather important bit of info. How much can you get it for?

[Camvandam]

£1000

And Diddler he said to me its been VIC checked after the write off and thats when he got MOT done week after, but has 'miss placed' the VIC form.

[Brianmoooore]

I would imagine you would have to declare its status to your insurance company at the very least.

As for been written off and now back on the road, i'm sure the car would have had to be tested by VOSA or something, depending on its right-off category.

I'm sure somebody with more knowledge will be along soon......

Status doesn't need to be declared to anyone. It will only have been near VOSA if it was classified cat C, and then only to check its identity. They have no interest whatsoever in the standard of repairs, which for a car with paint damage only, wouldn't even have needed to be sorted at the time of the inspection.

[Brianmoooore]

£1000

And Diddler he said to me its been VIC checked after the write off and thats when he got MOT done week after, but has 'miss placed' the VIC form.

With the slipper diff. and a GENUINE tech II kit, you aren't going to lose out if you break it.
'Misplaced' VIC form needs checking out though.

[Jim320i]

Is there not a way of checking if its stolen? The words insurance theft seem a bit odd. Fairly good price for what it has fitted, no log book, or history, just seems odd.

[Camvandam]

What do you think?? And it says M Technic on it?

I'd love it as a daily, but if I could sell for more than maybe it'd be worth getting and selling on?

[Camvandam]

Sorry about the image links look like they didn't work, copy and paste into address bar and have a gander see what you think.

And yeah, insurance theft seems odd too. Although wouldn't stolen had shown up on HPI check or been flagged up when he took it for MOT in 2011?

[polsta]

If he's trying to sell it for a grand with all those issues and boot rust and cat c and no history even , it sounds like a dog, what makes you think you could buy and sell for a profit worth bothering, and what do you think anyone looking for one would think of you selling it so soon after buying, they would avoid it like you'd be better of doing as diddler says above

[Camvandam]

[polsta]

Wonder what it's like under that kit, If its genuine kit and an actual LSD it would be a good breaker to get for 800, paying out to fix all the issues cat c no history, there's not much profit to be made like there would be if it had full history and hpi clear, or maybe a good buy to just rag about in yourself, it's probably been abused by a bruvved up boy racer

[Camvandam]

Well I checked all the sills etc and its clean as anything. Quite impressed. He owns a MK3 Golf breakers yard and is moving location and wants to get rid of this so he doesn't have to trawl it round with him.

[polsta]

Pacer pete summarisation is what's needed here..

[Camvandam]

Anymore opinions?

[sunnyr83]

Offer him peanuts if he needs it shifting quick, get it serviced, get all the papers sorted and enjoy.

What more opinions are you after exactly?!

[polsta]

Offer him peanuts if he needs it shifting quick, get it serviced, get all the papers sorted and enjoy.

What more opinions are you after exactly?!

think he wants to hear to be told to buy it, sell it the next day for a large profit or having ques of people here offering him big bucks for it

[IlovM42]

don't buy it..... let it to me

just kidding, looks ok, have some nice parts on it to

[Rich320I]

think most e30s have issues mate, it just how much you want to spend on one before getting it home and discovering how much extra will need to be spent.

on that basis, the above doesn't look a bad motor if you can get it cheap enough, and your happy to spend sometime tinkering and fixing any issues could be a nice motor, that will hold value as its a IS and had some nice additional Kit,

personally i wouldn't buy an e30 thinking your going to run the jet wash over it and turn a bag of profit

[harry_p]

It's never going to be worth a lot, but if it's solid and drives well then it might be worth a punt to use as is and break or sell on for breaking when it starts needing too much money spending on it.

[Camvandam]

I don't want to sell on I wanted to keep! Just was skepectial of the hpi flag up and wanted to see if you daily E30 users thought it was worth £1000!
Want this as a daily so wanted to know if things are easy DIY like the bad points, etc.

Also what's the MPG on these things seen a few posts on this forum saying 34-42 on long runs and driving like a granny haha.

Cheers for your views guys.

[Rich320I]

my 325 gets about 25mpg around town nearly 30 on a run if not a bit more, id imagine youd push 30+ around town and abit on a run with the 1.8 with a good service.

e30s are very easy to work on and very well engineered cars, so any defects you should be able to readily fix yourself, if your reasonable with a spanner

the clocks not working could be numerous things, personally id swap them out for a working set 30min job

the rust you can see probably isnt the only just on the car, so have a read through the wiki on here for other suspect areas.

the cheaper you can buy it the better, bottom line is if you want it and have some basic mechanical knowledge itl most likely be a decent car. just remeber all e30s are old cars now and therefore need decent maintenance and may need fixing more often than a 12 plate corsa

[Brianmoooore]

You can't get an idea of iS fuel consumption figures by looking at those of a 325! The iS engine is much more sophisticated, and this is reflected in the fuel figures. 30MPG or better should be easily obtainable in normal use, and on long runs, 40 MPG is realistic.
The trouble with E30s is that their inherent build quality means that they can be run and run with minimal maintenance, meaning that when you get one there's a good chance that a fair bit of work is required to get it back into A1 condition. When you do get it to this condition though, I can assure you that it's going to be FAR more reliable than any 12 plate Corsa (Ugh!), require far less maintenance, and have far lower overall running costs.
Don't worry about minor things like the clocks. Once you get it bought, we can soon sort out things like that, and, whatever you do, don't succumb to changing random parts and making random adjustments without diagnosing a problem properly first.

[Camvandam]

Seems alright then, will probably be worse MPG than what I have at the moment, but at least I can drive in style.

So this car is definitely worth £1000?

[pacerpete]

I'd offer £786 , tomorrow

[polsta]

I'd offer £786 , tomorrow

look at the pics , cant we have a proper pacer pete summery of it

[ross_jsy]

It's worth a grand purely for the interior, m-tech and diff. I say get it bought, if it craps itself then break it

[polsta]

id try 800 cash like i said, like above if it is a genuine lsd (youd need to check) then parts wise its worth a grand

if hes moving yard etc like you say and wants rid, then he might take it, but bet its a 150k+ car and been abused

[Rich320I]

the car like anything is worth what you want to pay for it and what the guy will accept.

[Camvandam]

Very precise? Haha. Why £786 lol.

[capnmchl]

I wouldn't pay £1k for it.

Make an offer of £7-800. If he's realistic and wants rid of it, he'll take it. Without a log book and any history, that's all its worth.

[Camvandam]

Decent, I will have a closer look at it Saturday when I nip round with a few friends for more eyes on it. I will offer him £800 see if he takes it. If not then I will push to £900. How can I check if its genuine LSD? And how can I make sure the kit is genuine too?