One car I looked at was at an Honda dealer. Nothing but Honda for sale of course with the odd Ford/Vauxhall and this Sport Venture I went to view. I asked how come you have this for sale, a part ex? No he replied, we sometimes like to get in a one off something different, our buyer liked this MX-5 so he acquired it from their source of used cars, wherever that was.
It was an absolute belter, 22k on the clock and still had black paint on the suspension and chassis parts, a rarity for a 7 year old.
Sadly it was just too much money then for me to pay, now it seems it was cheap.
Mazda dealer local to me wouldn’t budge on price on a Sport Tech, wouldn’t properly repair a door dent, wouldn’t fit a new screen (it had a very bad chip on the driver’s sight line) and wouldn’t refurb a couple of alloys. Now you expect a SH car to have problems but these mentioned stood out like sore thumb in an otherwise tidy low mileage car. They wanted top top money, wouldn’t pay it, I left rather annoyed at their attitude.
I spoke to the dealer yesterday. He told me there is little evidence of any corrosion and that the NCs don’t corrode like the earlier versions, said the car is clean, wheel rims did not need any work or restoration, just a clean. He said that the MOT history also shows no advisories for corrosion. He was fairly certain the three current advisories (front tyres and rear brake pads) were done but needed to check.
He reckoned that AA / RAC inspectors can put faults on their reports to justify their high inspection fees, and he could not hold the car for me to wait for the inspector and the report.
He strongly advised me to visit to look at the car. I can’t do that so I think I’ll have to look for one closer to London.
In this buoyant market they will sell it at full price so they don’t need hassle from you, they just want someone local to come in and have it unfortunately.
They obviously have not watched this, NCs are rusting, that one is 11 years old, so it’s started already.
I know people disagree, but I always like to buy fairly local, so you can take it back to have the inevitable fault fixed during warranty.
That’s why it’s so important to get under it and check for rust, anything older than 5-6 years in my opinion could already have a fair bit of rust starting unless it’s been cared for and/or undersealed from new.
Regarding the rust issues, a lot will depend on how the car has been used in it’s lifetime - Some are everyday transport, and others (Mine included) are just a toy and only go out in fair weather conditions - Wet and salty roads avoided in all circumstances…!
