oh no I dont know what to do now. I think 2.5K for all of the above is about right. but as for turbo it must be fine I noticed no smoke or farty sounds. so thanks for the input but is anyone brave enough to help me sum this all up :>

Hiay, This sounds like a genuine car being sold by a genuine seller.
The car has a good history with what sounds like a fairly new engine, and you spoke to his garage mechanic who confirmed what work and money has been spent.
I feel 2.5k is cheap for a car that has such a good history, IMO i'd buy it.

Go for it, you'll love it

Joe

cheers

I think I am going to get it, just need the push cheers

Power delivery could be something as simple as a stretched throttle cable

yeah true that I have got the money out the bank so I might go and give it a few more checks before I part with the cash

get it, you will always be abit suspicious of any car. ink black turbo sound lovely to me, it will only get snapped up by someone else,i'v been there, it's very annoying when it happens and you end up wishing u'd just gone for it :-)

OK I am going to have another check just before I buy it what shall I check out? I have the guide from here but is there any tell tail signs for turbo on its last legs? and how do you check wishbones?

Hi aza,


Turbo check should be in the buyers guide too. Basically take it for a test drive, stop, get out, leave engine running at idle and chat to the owner over a cuppa tea. Come back 5-10mins later and check for tell tail blueish smoke coming out of the exhaust. If there is smoke, the turbo is on its way out.


Re: Wishbones. When my front ones were knackered you could hunker down in front of the front tyre, hug the top of the tyre in your hands and pull/push on the wheel and feel a bit if give or play. When I changed the wishbones there was no movement at all.


If you have the cash it's cheap and straightforward to have the wishbones changed anyway. I think my new front wishbones were about £75 plus an hours labour by my local mechanic. Actually the wishbones could have been cheaper than £75. It was a while back. Don't go to a main Fiat garage/dealer as you'l have to remortgage your house and sell a kidney for this kind of work!!!

Oh yeah that's telltale and not "tell tail"

And my mother is an English teacher.....

The wishbones dont last long, so if they are knackered then just replace them - 90% of coupes probably need them changing!

I may be alone here, but I find it worrying that in 6yrs and 45k miles the owner as spent over 8k on the car. It should be absolutely mint if that is the case or he just does not look after it!

more like its an expensive garage I did mention a cam belt change was 1000 pounds at this garage that the owner uses

You're definately not alone bockers in thinking £8.5k spent over 6 years and 45k miles is wildly excessive. Personally I would walk away from it with alarm bells ringing in my head. A case of some cars having TOO much history!!! IMO figures of £1000 a year maintance are way off the mark too, at least I hope they are. (Have some fccukers got a vested interest in seeing that car sell !!!)

My 98 20vt (65k) has FSH and all reciepts and I doubt its total maintance bill would come to £500/yr. My bill last year came to around £600 but that includes 4 new tyres(still best part of a year left in them), cat back s/s powerflow exhaust (lifetime guarantee), standard servicing filters/fluids etc and off side wish bone.

^^^Yeah true. I think however, there comes a cross-over point when the car needs a wad spent to get it back to being a good to drive, reliable car. It may mean spending £1000-1500 and I'm not talking about the usual cambelt change either.
After that hurdle, you only have tyres and brakes to worry about for a number of years.

Its 8.5k not spent at powerfiat or motormech, so would be more like 5k if the owner didnt have his pants pulled down.

I've just read all 5 pages of this thread
Buying a coupe is about risk and how much you're prepared to take.
Low risk = buy from forum member/trusted garage = top money
High risk = unknown private seller = bottom money

It sounds to me like you're not keen on risk and you've got a £5k budget. Why are you looking at this car? Solo Italia have a 2000 Ink black turbo (with the high-back recaros )for £5,600 with 12 months warranty. This car is likely to hold it's value much better than the one you're looking at and you've got complete peace of mind.
Always buy the best car you can afford. Don't buy a cheap one and think you'll spend a bit to get it right.
The amount of money this car's had spent on it worries me.
AFAIK, this is a no-brainer if you want an ink black turbo.

I have brought it did all the tests outlined in the buyers guide checklist and its all good. Turbo had a bit of lag and the power delivery is not as crisp but I think its a streched throttle cable. I will upload pictures once I get it.

Thank you all very much for help and tips. You are a great help.

I will upload picky's soon after I have spent the weekend cleaning her up.

Cheers
aza

Congrats!

Now the fun begins!

cheers stan

Yes Congrats aza, welcome to the world of fiat coupe paranoia , and an ever-dwindling bank account but on the plus side you'll smile every time you see it in the morning.

Joe

yeah but cars dont ever make you money, unless your name is Boycie! cars are for fun and I went for the Coupe as it made me smile when I got it

Marlene!

These cars make me smile all the time, even when I'm threatening to burn it because it's pi**ing me off! or maybe that's just the pyromaniac in me.

Well lets hope you prove me wrong and enjoy trouble free ownership.

Welcome to our world

Well done aza.

She will certainly make you smile!

The evening I got mine home, I think I went back out to the car about 30 times just to have another look, before I finally accepted that the neighbours were getting hacked off with doors opening and closing, car driving off, coming back 20 minutes later, going in, coming out repeat repeat.

All this plus the sound of my inane giggling as I walked around her, gone midnight

Mind you I was back out at 6:30 the next morning

Enjoy matey.

Well after 2 days of ownership of the car in question breakdown has occurred. The Auxiliary belt has broken and I spent a sad hour on the side of the road.
So now I have to get it fixed, it happened at very low revs whilst turning round and I hope it has done no more damage.
Still it was fun while it lastest all of 2 days!

I hope I get more luck once it is fixed. : >

Aza

She's easing you in gently then

Don't let it put you off!

I do feel scared as I have never had a car break down before.
Maybe the car was not used to me.

I was not even driving it that hard. part of me wanted just to sell it straight away. As I felt so anxious, and now I know what everyone means by feeling paranoid about there coops!

That's life with owning one of these cars, after a while you'll get to know ever noise and when it sounds wrong you will know straight away.

I was sad to read that you had problems after only owning the car for one day, what is the situation now is it in a gargage for a new aux belt?

Joe

yeah it is being fixed tomorrow I have found a good local garage who did the engine change a year or so ago.
It is a horrible thing to happen especially after checking everything using the guide on this wonderful forum.

oh well lets hope everything will be done and not cost a fortune!