A2Steve
A2OC Donor
Morning all
It is with great joy that I can say that we’ve got baby number 3 on the way. As happy as we are with the news, it does mean that being a 2 A2 family is to be no more. My project ‘Peppa’ has gone and been replaced with a big Hyundai Santa Fe 4x4. Not something that I ever saw us buying because it goes against any eco conscious feelings I have, but it’s surprising just how much space 3 full size children’s seats take up and needs must.
It also means that as lovely as Frankie is, being a 4 seater, she won’t be able to cope with family duties if the need ever arose. I wasn’t in a rush for her to go and just started keeping an eye out for a tidy 5 seater TDI if one caught my eye. As anyone who’s looked for an A2 knows, you can go for months without seeing anything suitable, so if one pops up then jump at it.
One popped up on autotrader on friday through my alert, even though I’d checked there 20 minutes before. It was a 2004 TDI 75 in white with a votex kit. Quite striking and a bargain so I took the chance on it. Rung the dealer in Southampton and agreed a price of £200 off the screen price based on me sending a courier to collect it yesterday. Unfortunately, when my courier got there, the dealer wouldn’t let the car go until I paid the screen price and denied that we had agreed a deal. I was kind of over a barrell then, I’d booked a courier and he’d already travelled 85 miles to collect it. I unhappily negotiated and agreed (reluctantly) to pay an extra £100.
I got a phonecall from the courier an hour or 2 later to say that there’s no water in there and when loading onto the van it was overheating. By this point, as you can imagine I was feeling pretty ‘done’ by the dealer.
When I got home last night I expected the worst, but looking over the car it actually looks to be a pretty decent car. The coolant is nice and clean and the ‘overheating’ is just the red coolant light on the DIS because the expansion sensor is probably faulty. It’s not factory white, but whoever did the respray has done a pretty darn good job. They’ve painted every square inch of metalwork inside and out and so far (apart from a few chips) I can’t find any blemishes in the sprayjob. Having taken it for a quick test run, it needs a full service, a new fuel filter and a new shock on the rear drivers side. Its interior is also a bit of a mishmash of sport and SE spec and 3 different colours so that will need attention. But, apart from that seems to drive pretty well.
I’ll have a better look at the weekend, but so far so good.
It is with great joy that I can say that we’ve got baby number 3 on the way. As happy as we are with the news, it does mean that being a 2 A2 family is to be no more. My project ‘Peppa’ has gone and been replaced with a big Hyundai Santa Fe 4x4. Not something that I ever saw us buying because it goes against any eco conscious feelings I have, but it’s surprising just how much space 3 full size children’s seats take up and needs must.
It also means that as lovely as Frankie is, being a 4 seater, she won’t be able to cope with family duties if the need ever arose. I wasn’t in a rush for her to go and just started keeping an eye out for a tidy 5 seater TDI if one caught my eye. As anyone who’s looked for an A2 knows, you can go for months without seeing anything suitable, so if one pops up then jump at it.
One popped up on autotrader on friday through my alert, even though I’d checked there 20 minutes before. It was a 2004 TDI 75 in white with a votex kit. Quite striking and a bargain so I took the chance on it. Rung the dealer in Southampton and agreed a price of £200 off the screen price based on me sending a courier to collect it yesterday. Unfortunately, when my courier got there, the dealer wouldn’t let the car go until I paid the screen price and denied that we had agreed a deal. I was kind of over a barrell then, I’d booked a courier and he’d already travelled 85 miles to collect it. I unhappily negotiated and agreed (reluctantly) to pay an extra £100.
I got a phonecall from the courier an hour or 2 later to say that there’s no water in there and when loading onto the van it was overheating. By this point, as you can imagine I was feeling pretty ‘done’ by the dealer.
When I got home last night I expected the worst, but looking over the car it actually looks to be a pretty decent car. The coolant is nice and clean and the ‘overheating’ is just the red coolant light on the DIS because the expansion sensor is probably faulty. It’s not factory white, but whoever did the respray has done a pretty darn good job. They’ve painted every square inch of metalwork inside and out and so far (apart from a few chips) I can’t find any blemishes in the sprayjob. Having taken it for a quick test run, it needs a full service, a new fuel filter and a new shock on the rear drivers side. Its interior is also a bit of a mishmash of sport and SE spec and 3 different colours so that will need attention. But, apart from that seems to drive pretty well.
I’ll have a better look at the weekend, but so far so good.