Just bought car - lots of problems!

[krazysteve]

:roll:  Ignore them, they're leading you astray.
Go get your money back and find a better one.
Sorry to say £1500 isn't much of a budget for a decent car, add another 1000 and you will find a sweet one.

Nah only needs another 500.  s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

[Bernie]

I've just had an email from the dealer who is coming to pick the car up after Boxing Day to fix the dials and replace the cross member - fair enough.

I said to him that I like the car and so does the wife but it needs to be made roadworthy. I'm not bothered about the shocks and the O2 sensor as I can deal with them when it's MOT time but more concerned about this power steering problem. Does anyone know if the leak on the power steering would fail an MOT? I see a liquid can be bought to put in the power steering fluid I think that makes a permanant seal in the system, so maybe I could just have under the car steam cleaned once i've done that so there would be no trace of the leak?

If it's only got 3 months MOT I'd get him to redo it now with a full 12months

[StuC]

I'd also be weary of the quality of the subframe repair. Worst case is that they just weld and paint yours up.  s:shock: :shock: s:shock:
Best case will be that they buy a cheap secondhand frame of eBay, which is prolly already touring from the inside as we speak. There is documented experiences on here if dodgy rear secondhand frames.
They are unlikely to buy a new one at about £300, which really is the best option.

+1 to 12 months not minimum, that's not done at their "mates" mot station.

[Wabbitkilla]

PeteT bought his from a dealer in Bolton with 12 months mot.  Duff rear light and bent front offside shock.

[s12vea]

I've seen that car before. Pretty sure it was for sale my a member on here? I believe he traded in at a garage.
It may look smart on the outside but looks pretty rotten underneath.
Best of luck with getting the result your after from the dealer, just hope they play fairly.

[Anonymous]

Honestly walk away, these cars can have a bad rep for having dodgy engines when they are miss treated and not looked after, yours is probably one of the worst I have heard about and you don't really know how good your engine is.

[Anonymous]

I'm beginning to wonder if it's the car I nearly had the rear cage out of, which Rob purchased. I'll see if I can find the pics

[Richard41]

Honestly walk away, these cars can have a bad rep for having dodgy engines when they are miss treated and not looked after, yours is probably one of the worst I have heard about and you don't really know how good your engine is.

+1 reject it and get your money back ASAP, save yourself a world of disappointment.

[cyclehead]

...Finally there is a huge hole in the rear cross member, maybe 4 inches in length, garage said it can't be welded?...Will the cross member be repairable in any way?

I did some mods to my crossmember (big cuts to fit 2GR engine necessitated reinforcement).  Crossmember is straightforward to remove but you'll need rear end realignment after reinstalling it*.   To modify mine I removed it, bought some .090 thick steel plate, trimmed the bits the way I wanted, dropped it with a welder, reinstalled.  I'd think you could do the same with a rust rotted crossmember.  The worry is that the entire crossmember may be eaten up from the inside with nothing much good to weld onto.  Welders hate rusted parts - must have clean metal to weld. You'd be able to tell for sure if you have the whole thing out on a bench to inspect.  But be prepared to replace it.

Oh yeah, I did my own rear end alignment with fishing line and a steel scale.  I hate letting shops touch my car!

[adam p]

I'm beginning to wonder if it's the car I nearly had the rear cage out of, which Rob purchased. I'll see if I can find the pics

This is sounding worse and worse. Yes if you could try and find the pics that's would be great out of interest.

[cabbydave]

Where are you from Adam?

[adam p]

Where are you from Adam?

In on the Wirral mate.

[Davegtst]

Why would you let the dealer only do the cross member and the speedo?  Make sure they fix every single thing wrong with the car or let them have it back.   From what you have said there is still quite a few hundred pounds worth of repairs needed which you'll end up paying for.

[cptspaulding]

That's the worst Mk3 purchase I've seen in 18 months as a member here. Complete shocker. For the cost of the work to have that done at a garage, it's beyond economical repair IMHO. Doing it yourself, it's a project

Get shot. Get your money back.

[onion86]

I've seen that car before. Pretty sure it was for sale my a member on here? I believe he traded in at a garage.
It may look smart on the outside but looks pretty rotten underneath.
Best of luck with getting the result your after from the dealer, just hope they play fairly.

+1 I definitely recognise the numberplate. Can't think for the life of me who's it was though  s:? :? s:?

[1979scotte]

Get it sent  back to the dealer even if he'd let you have it for free too many problems could be lurking.
I really hate dealers. Have been stitched twice by them. Although no where near as bad as this.
Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Good news the car I was thinking about reg starts V81 !

[krazysteve]

This one?
 m http://www.motors.co.uk/car-36576832/sp m

[Richard41]

Why would you let the dealer only do the cross member and the speedo?  Make sure they fix every single thing wrong with the car or let them have it back.   From what you have said there is still quite a few hundred pounds worth of repairs needed which you'll end up paying for.

+1.

tell him you want the car independently inspected, AA will do it and if he has nothing to hide (which given the state of the car he clearly has) he won't have a problem with that.

[Wabbitkilla]

Looking at the other cars the dealer is selling it looks like you seriously just have to reject the car and get your money back. He is not going to spend the amount of money needed to repair it properly.

[krazysteve]

Looking at the other cars the dealer is selling it looks like you seriously just have to reject the car and get your money back. He is not going to spend the amount of money needed to repair it properly.

+1  pity though it does look pretty good in pic's.

[adam p]

This one?
 m http://www.motors.co.uk/car-36576832/sp m

Yeah that's the one. In the Autotrader it was advertised with 100,000 miles on the clock, in another ad 105,000 miles and when I bought it, it had 109,000 miles on it. He said he advertised it before he took it in. That red towing eye was taken off before I looked at it, so I suppose you could say I didn't buy the car that was advertised. Just taken the tax holder out of the windscreen and noticed 2 chips underneath where the holder was. They're within an inch of each other so not even sure if that could be repaired or yet another MOT failure to add to the list of problems...

The guy who sold it to the garage said it had been featured on this website with the website name on the back bumper, so I would assume it has or had plenty of mods on it. The only mods visable are the induction kit and lowering springs (which have a lot of surface rust on them). Service history goes up to 95,000 miles or it's got almost full service history.

I always kept my track and race cars in tip top condition and i'm sure that most people who are serious about track days do also, so I don't know what happened in this case, maybe the guy ran out of money and couldn't maintain it  s:( s:(

[adam p]

Ok i've just done a search for the MD of Bradley Fold Garage (Phil Holt) and this info came up. The guy owns 3 companies at the same address and one of the companies only started up in October this year. I paid him £1450 into his own bank account due to his Paypal card machine not working correctly.

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Holtys Limited is a Private Limited Company registered on 9 October 2014, about 2 months ago.
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Key Data
Company Name
Holtys Limited
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Holtys Ltd
Status
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Category
Private Limited Company
Company Number
09257107
Registered Address
Bradley Fold Garage Yard
Bradley Lane
Bolton
BL26RF
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Incorporation Date
9 October 2014
Company Age
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Connected Companies
JPS Car Sales Limited
270 Bridgeman Street, Bolton, BL3 6SA
JPS Holding Company Limited
270 Bridgeman Street, Bolton, BL3 6SA
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[Notts lad]

It does look nice but Take it back mate you've been sold a shed, can be fixed but will cost a hell of a lot, just for the cross member I was trying to get one but couldn't get a 2nd hand one, so priced up a new one £400, luckily mine managed to get it welded. Hope u get it sorted

[adam p]

I had a full inspection done on the car and there are quite a number of things that make it unroadworthy and an mot failure:

F/O/S tyre below legal limit
Front tyres on wrong way round (directional)
Side light bulb not working
Rear crossmember dangerously corroded.
R/O/S roll bar link excessive play
Excessive travel in brake pedal. Maybe just needs bleeding?
Front shocks need replacing
Power steering pipe cross threaded.

So there are some serious and not so serious faults. I emailed and contacted the dealer just before Christmas Eve to let him know the problem with the crossmember. He promised me that the car would be collected 3 days in a row before actually collecting it on the 4th occasion which was midday yesterday. I also emailed him the list of all the other faults yesterday and asked for him to contact me with his proposals when he has had chance to look over the car. I haven't heard back from him yet but it has only been 1.5 days since it was collected so I'll leave it until Friday before contacting him again.

I really like the car so if he's prepared to replace the crossmember, shocks and sort the power steering leak then I am prepared to sort out the other issues myself over the next couple of months before the mots due. After all I only paid £1450 for the car anyway so can afford to spend £300-£400 and it would still be a cheap car. I'd driven a few hundred miles in it over the last 2 weeks and it hasn't used any oil so presume the engine must be good. The crossmember's on offer at £209 inc vat at the moment but whether he would prefer to pay to fix the faults or refund me and sell it on to another unsuspecting person remains to be seen...