My advice would be buy the best you can afford,buy cheap pay twice. Lol. I paid £6K for mine & it was a low owner & had 65K on the clock, 1996 N reg with full sh even then it need a few new sensors to get it running 100%

The earlier cars had Dizzys but later ones had Coilpacks. Timing chains can be noisey , ticking noise at low revs, so if you look at a 100K plus cars check its been serviced regular or had the chains done. Heard its a big job & expensive depending on who you know. Door handles can cause problems as can the heater matrix, ie it leaks.Look for damp carpet. Also ask what oil its been run on as they do get very hot & Oil temp can get high in the summer & when driven hard, not sure what grade it was now but good quality oil is a must, same as with an RS.

The best thing is look at a few & see if you can borrow the ECU scanner as that will tell you if any fault codes have been logged in the ECU.

As said very good cars but thirsty, not cossie quick but they are so easy to drive. Mine made 199 bhp on PE rolling road with Exhaust & filter. Would have another tomorrow, easiest car I ever had to sell. 1yr on I sold it for what I paid.