Sending thanks to all that have helped. I GOT ONE!!!!

Buying a ‘5 and Insurance advice Buying Advice
2

 Many thanks to all who have helped me sorting out the good from the bad and the ugly.  I saw 6 cars on Tuesday including two cut and shuts, one cat D, one (26000 miles) re sprayed wings, front and back bumper and 19 dents!  Local Mazda dealer, body filler packed into holes both sides of the rear of the sills, rust blown bubbles at the sills, you can push the bubbles and water comes out from different bubbles and gets sucked back in again.  Good fun but not what I expect in a car.  (Approved mazda again).  All these cars were described by dealers as immaculate and they all looked over the cars as I asked them to and told me they had never been repaired and were close to perfect.  They all said I shouldn’t look to closely at cars, (I should just turn up and give them money apparently).  They all said they had inspected the cars at the places I told them and there was nothing to report.  One, 56K very good condition except the paint was cracked at the seam in the door wells at the top of the sills.  A new rear half had been suck on!  Cut and shut.  I told the dealer and he said “I can’t see that”.  I pointed put the grinding wheel marks on both sides of the lip at the bottom of the sills, he couldn’t see that either.  Nor could he see where the rear quarters of the car met the sills and the edges was very unevenly cut and did not meet the sills.<o:p></o:p>

I bought a Mk2 Sport today, hardtop, in red 47K smiles.  Very good condition.  Normality has returned to the universe.  <o:p></o:p>

Thanks you all for your help.  I has been much harder to find a good car than I thought it would be.  I’m appalled at the knocked up junk in most dealers and private sales also.  May my crashed MK1 now rest in peace.<o:p></o:p>

I’ll post some pics of the MK2 tomorrow.<o:p></o:p>

Thanks for all the help given.<o:p></o:p>

 

3

 That’s great news, although your experiences make me wonder whether I will ever find the right car myself.  I doubt I’d be able to spot some of the bodges that you seem to have encountered. I’m hoping to have a look at a few cars over the weekend, so fingers crossed.  Looking forward to seeing the pictures of your car.

4

 

 Hi<o:p></o:p>

No pictures yet due to the all day rain!<o:p></o:p>

Things to check:-<o:p></o:p>

1.  The inside of the car should not smell like mould and the area of the hood round the lower part should not be moldy with white spots.  There is a gap in the carpet behind the each seat on the parcel shelf about 8 inches long.  It is a slit that each side is finished with edging.  Under the carpet there is a piece of sound insulation.  It is rubber side up under carpet and a thick blanket like material under that.  You can put your hand in each side against the metal of the car.  The sound insulation should be dry or just damp at worse.  If it is wet the rain rail may have gone or the drains behind each seat may be blocked or the hood / window seam is leaking.  Do you know where the drains are?  Right behind the upper seat belt mounts there is a well on each side, the well has a hole in you can just get the end of your finger in.  It’s had to find but have a good poke about and you’ll find them.  One on each side.  If your finger comes out wet the drains are blocked.  I saw one car and my finger came out with thick mud on!!  If the drains are blocked you could have rotting sills.<o:p></o:p>

2.  Has it been looked after?  Open the boot and under the boot lid there is a lip running along the boot lid.  Under there are two lights that are the rear number plate lamps.  There is a small drain hole between them.  Unless changed due to crash damage, this is a good area to check the overall condition of the car.  They rust all around the two lamps.  No rust, well looked after car!  very rusty, so are the insides of the sills and rear wheel arches too.  The warmth of the lamps make rust form round the lamps.<o:p></o:p>

3.  Over spray / dry spray.  Unless done very professionally and a top job done, if a front or rear wing has been sprayed there will always be a slight amount of overspray inside the wheel arches somewhere.  Usually on the plastic of the front arches.  Places that are hard to mask, where plastic or rubber meets paint work.  You might see just a small thin line of paint the same colour as the car, splatters of paint or just a small amount of spray somewhere.  Check the other side to compare.  This is the same for all rubber on the car, round the rear of the hood, on the window strips, windscreen rubber.  When they get painted there is no plastic arch liners or rubber of any kind on the car.  If you see any paint however small inside the wheel arches or rubber parts anywhere the closest panel has been re sprayed on the car.  Crash damage.  Have you got a fridge magnet??  Hold the edge of the fridge magnets and just touch the suspecting part.  Get used to how much the magnet sticks, just use the edge.  If there is filler under the paint the edge of the magnet won’t stick or be very weak.  You only want a weak stick any way so you can tell.  So what if the car is full of body filler?  Vibration will make it fall out and crack over time.  If you bump the right wing yourself in two years do you expect a great lump to fall off the left rear of your car?  Water will get under with time, and in weather like we have just had, or any freezing weather the water will expand and push the filler out.  Take note, due to the bad weather we have just had there are lots of cars that had bumps, they have been repaired and a lot of owners have traded them in after the repair.  Dry spray will make the paint work feel rough even after polishing.  The paint on these cars is finished well, there are no marks, bubbles, runs or anything at all.  All insurance work done to a car comes with a 5 year guarantee or more.  This should be with the paperwork if not done in a back street repair shop.  Make sure all the gaps between panels are the same distance top and bottom, Mazda do before they sell the car new.  Make sure the lamps front and back are snug in the car and the same all round.  If the car looks really shiny it may have been power mopped, this is quite aggressive and may take the shine off places like the ends of the mirrors or wheel arches where they protrude. <o:p></o:p>

4.  Open the bonnet, look at the top of the engine, is it covered with aluminum oxide dust?  Rub your hand on it and feel.  Also in here, the power steering reservoir, is the bolt holding it rusty and is the bottle its self rusting around the neck?  Are the other nuts and bolts rusty in there that holds everything down?  Any one can polish the paint of a car so it looks nice.  What’s it really like?<o:p></o:p>

5. Hood.  If used a lot or just old it cracks in two places above each door window where it folds back.  Check there, above the door windows for cracking on the edge or worse.  Also a small vertical tear a few inches back from where the door closes.  If there any of these you’ll be replacing the hood in a year or two at best, budge £350 to £400. <o:p></o:p>

6.  Take a torch, open the doors and look inside the front wings with the torch and used the gaps above, between and under the hinges, look for damage.<o:p></o:p>

7.  Wheel arches and sills.  The rear wheel arches rust as they get a build up of mud stuck to them which holds water even in dry weather.  Run your fingers round the inside of the rear arch edges.  Pull out any mud and fell for rust all round the inside.  Bottom of the rear wheel arch where it meets the sills.  They should not be swollen with rust and no bubbles around the rear of the sills.<o:p></o:p>

8.  Look under the car front and back.  How rusty is it?  Use the torch and have a good look at the sills.<o:p></o:p>

9.  Mileage and owners.  High mileage cars have done lots of motorway work, 80 mph at 3k revs.  No clutch work or brake work and can be better then low mileage cars with lots of owners.<o:p></o:p>

10.  Pay more from a dealer only if you are getting warrantee, new MOT and barging a service or a new hood.  They don’t pay VAT on the work and get trade prices!<o:p></o:p>

11.  Look at the V5, it has the last two owners.  Take the names and addresses off the V5 and phone them up.  They don’t mind.  “Hi I looked at the car you used to own today, How was it for you?  Did you ever get it repaired?

12.  Have the carpet out of the boot.  The metal floor of the boot should look even along it’s ridges.  It’s a hard place to repair and most body shops won’t go to this length to hide rear end damage.

Good luck.  It’s not the car you buy that makes a difference it’s the twenty you walk away from!  Hope this helps.<o:p></o:p>

 

5

 Pleased that you finally got one!

I have read your threads with interest, is amazing how many service histories arn’t as full when you check them or they try to fob you off with a mileage based service

There must be a lot of Mazda dealers resting easier in their beds now that you will not be finding the errors of their ways.  In reality I think there are few salespersons who know cars or really care about customers but at the end of the day its a hard world, they are in it to make money and as they say let the buyer beware!

6

 Many thanks for the buying tips, above. They are very much appreciated and will come in very useful. I went to look at a car at the weekend at a local dealers. Despite them using the words “Immaculate” and “Pristine”, the car was pretty tatty, with lots of dents, broken number plate surround and misted up windows, to name but a few of the fairly obvious faults. I didn’t even bother driving it, but it would have been annoying if I’d driven any distance to see this car.

7

“Has it been looked after?  Open the boot and under the boot lid there is a lip running along the boot lid.  Under there are two lights that are the rear number plate lamps.  There is a small drain hole between them.  Unless changed due to crash damage, this is a good area to check the overall condition of the car.  They rust all around the two lamps.  No rust, well looked after car!  very rusty, so are the insides of the sills and rear wheel arches too.  The warmth of the lamps make rust form round the lamps.”

Good write up but re the above point, rusty bootlids were so common that Mazda replaced plenty under warranty. 

My car had rust around the bootlid lamps and it is a two owner, low mileage, FMSH car that’s been garaged all its life.  It’s a design flaw - when driving in wet weather the lamp panel gets soaked.  Water gets in through the drain hole and rots from within and water also soaks the foam grommets around the lamps causing rust around the apertures.  It’s unrealistic to expect owners to dry off the lamp panel every time they go out in the wet.

No rust on my sills or arches yet though - fingers crossed.