Anyone had one? Any good? One has come up cheap, '04 plate, 35K miles, looking for a winter run around thats cheap and reliable, this seems to fit the bill.

 

main fault is gearboxs. they handle like a double decker though i had one few yrs ago and thought it was very nasty in build quality but depends how much you pay i supose

 

It's up for less than £2K, what's the fault with the gearboxes and how common is it?

Thanks

 

wants to be between 1k and 1600 no matter what

 

gear boxes crunch then dont go into 2 or 4 also very common

 

do these suffer with timing chain strech?

 

mate has one been faultless in 60k miles....apart from 2 gearbox rebuilds

 

yes engine manigement light will come on and if so worth checking cam cover off and check the protrusion on the tensioner if it is fully extended new chain and tensioner are needed another common fault
but thats why you can get these on a 2004 for just over a grand
mate of mine has a car sales gets them for 650 ish from scottish moter auctions quite often has hios fingers burnt with gearboxs but all cars have there problems

 

one of the lads bought one of these for £250..only had a couple of dents in it and a bit dirty inside.aswell as being horrible and plastic..used it to go on the sucata run, through france spain and portugal and it never missed a beat..but would i fuck pay more than £500 for one..loads better cars for under 2 grand..up here at least

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...s/10?logcode=p

This is it, judging by the feedback on here, gonna go for something else I think

 

Yes, first thing that came to mind when I saw the thread title!

 

Theres a reason a 35k mile car thats so new is only £2k

 

As some one has said, Timing Chains a big issue on these!! early sign of chain wear is tacho needle fluctuates, then MIL light gives a cam/crank sensor fault, rattle on start up and remove timing cover and see if tensioner sticks out more than 10mm.

Approx £700 - £900 to repair if garage does it!!!