A neighbour of mine has owned his plus from new and when he asked me if I want to buy it, my ears pricked up.
The car is immaculate, so I asked about what history the car had.
He tells me there is no history because he has done all of the servicing himself, with the oil changes being done "for cash" at his local.

When I asked when the cam and auxiliary belts were last changed he said "They have never been replaced,they are in excellent condition"

He's a nice old chap in his seventies, who loves his coupe, but doesn't really know much about cars.
I didn't really argue with him, but did say that I thought that maybe they should be replaced sometime soon!

I did wonder whay a plus had ordinary disks on. I guess at some point he replaced them with some cheap ones.

Still its a lovely car for someone.

So he services it himself but can't do an oil change and thinks a 10 year old belt is fine.

Lovely

ps. Plus didn't have drilled, that was the LE.

The plus did have drilled discs as standard

10 years on standard belts is pretty impressive though! Seems the quality isn't that bad then

Bet he just thought those holes got in there because it was so old. "Do you have some new ones, cause mine grew holes in 'em. Damn mosquito's!"

How many miles?

When I first bought my coupe in 2007 I took it to Rog at Poweritalia for a health check. He said that although the cam belt had been changed, whoever did it had reused the original auxiliary belts and tensioners. Considering my car left the factory in early 1998, that made my aux belts over 9 years old. Not a bad effort!

my porto had its cambelt changed, but when rog (power italia) changed it again for me, he discovered that the tensioner had not been put back on it, and the cam cover had been cut in half to get it off!

my broom yellow has no record of the cam belt being changed - 97 (R) on 75k

Trouble is people still think it costs £1000+ to change it and avoid it. I still get shocked people when i tell them i dont take the engine out.

I have decided to give this car a new home.
I couldn't bear the thought of letting a 1 owner moonie plus with 69K miles get away.

She'll be be well looked after all right.

Now the question is should I drive it the 100 miles for the belt change or pay for a truck?

He has only done 1k miles a year for the last three years.

That is a good question.

How lucky do you feel or more to the point how devastated would you be if it died?

Trailer it. And have the garage push it on the ramp. Actually - don't let anyone else but you keep the key until it's changed. I had the same concern with LE 0001. If I'd have bought it, it would have meant driving it from Germany to the UK, 1000 miles, to get the 7-year old belt changed. So I already arranged a trailer!

Have a look at the aux belts and the cambelt. If they look like mine did then personally I wouldn't drive it.

definitely don't risk it...

Mate did you buy this?

I had a chat with the guy, but the lack of history and original belts etc put me off!

Plus he wanted 4K, which was far too much considering...

Yep I have bought it.

Lets just say that I managed to do a deal that works for me.
The car will be going straight to Joes for a full service so hopefully it should be back on track.

Did you see the car or just call the guy? - he loved his car, but knew nothing about coupes.

I got it offered to me for a fair bit left, but with the amount of work it needed and his £10 oil changes it put me off!! He also didn't believe me that the cambelt was overdue at 10 years since it had only done 69K...got a bit tiresome trying to explain it all! Really nice guy though.

Didn't see it as it was in Gloucester. Bit too far for a nose.

He truly knew nothing about Coupes. He told me he kept some sort of risk strategy which he had maintained for the last 50 years. Basically, he risked not having to change components until they failed! Reckoned it had never caught him out, ever! Crazy, and not the best way to maintain cars.

Still, hope you enjoy it. Did look lovely, and apparently the interior was like new! Remember it had a replacement turbo after 20k or something?

Post some pics up man, I want to see what I missed out on.

Girl at work never changed the belts on her Lexus is200 - lasted exactly 267,421 miles..............