buying A2 sport

A

adrian

Past Member
I am new to this site, so I am thinking of buying a 03 tdi sport that's advertised not to far from me, I have requested the mot history to check any major faults, one fault that has come up every year for 3 years is rear brakes binding. front tyres wearing on the inside, all shocks need replacing (possibly due to the mot carried out at Quick-Fit) and the final one states rear shock absorber bump stops corroded, I didn't think A2s corroded. the car has covered 100,000 miles £4500 can anyone advise if this is a reasonable price, and is the front tyre scrubbing something that A2s do, you would think the owner would have had it re-tracked.
I would appreciate any comments.
Adrian.
 
adrian said:
I am new to this site, so I am thinking of buying a 03 tdi sport that's advertised not to far from me, I have requested the mot history to check any major faults, one fault that has come up every year for 3 years is rear brakes binding. front tyres wearing on the inside, all shocks need replacing (possibly due to the mot carried out at Quick-Fit) and the final one states rear shock absorber bump stops corroded, I didn't think A2s corroded. the car has covered 100,000 miles £4500 can anyone advise if this is a reasonable price, and is the front tyre scrubbing something that A2s do, you would think the owner would have had it re-tracked.
I would appreciate any comments.
Adrian.
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If these are all advisories then they are not major components and the car would not pass if they were significant. In fact they must be advisories or the car would have been without an MOT all this time.
As for the rear bump stops you are correct, they are plastic and foam, so they must have meant that they were broken (a VERY common fault)
Binding brakes show up on the brake test even if it is a slight bind, again if it was a major bind it would have definitely failed.
Tyre wear on the inside is almost certainly due to tracking, if it was play in any of the components (bearings, track rod ends etc) then that too would have caused a fail.

Your best option might be to ask the seller to MOT it and see what happens this time (all of the work MIGHT have been done, who knows.

Failing that just make an offer that leaves you enough to sort out the issues if they are genuine.

Shock absorbers and bump stops are cheap enough, tracking is not expensive, so if you like the car I wouldn't let these things put you off.

Steve B
 
Hello and welcome.

It sounds to me like all these faults could be considered age related. None of them sound too much of a disaster and can easily be fixable. Only the body is alloy, all component parts are generally steel, so will we susceptible corrosion like any other car, like strut tops, wishbones, and all those bits that get dirty will generally be at risk.

Tyre wear is the sign of tracking (possibly camber) being out of alignment and should be fixable by having a professional wheel alignment after you have put new tyres on.

As for the price, don't know. Guesstimate say £1000 to put right the advisories at a garage, is it worth £5,500? to you. Will the seller fix some of the problems or even knock money off? What a car is worth is a very subjective thing i think.

I find that MOT places of ten put down stuff that they only think are issues. Like last year I had advisories on 'slight play in both strut tops' did nothing, this year passed with no advisories. I've also had "rear indicator lenses discoloured", they are white with orange bulbs so very 'not orange' indeed. Sometimes I wonder if they need to fill a quota for advisories.

Chris
 
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The TDi sports are a good choice of car Adrian. In my humble opinion the £4,500 price tag is a tad bit steep. There are cheaper ones available on ebay and autotrader at the moment for around the £3,000 mark - all the very best with you search.
Ta
Dave
:)
 
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