HFS's Cars
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The ST is definitely the 7A-FE in the UK too, though it has 10bhp more than the US version as far as I'm aware.
The sticker on that Celica was at the back of the engine bay and it definitely said 3S-GE. I'll try and pop along today and take more photos.
Thanks for your offer, I may well take you up on it at some point
Funnily enough, the same dealership with the Celica also had an MX-3, albeit the 1.6 version. Registered 1998, same price as the Celica (£1699), under 60k miles and in pretty good nick. I seem to recall the 1.6 in the MX-3 is a de-tuned version of the one in the NA MX-5? I might have a go in it if I pop to the garage today.Is your new purchase the one that'll be receiving a new engine at some point?...
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Finally test-drove another car today.
Honda CR-X Del Sol 1.5 VXi
I've been wanting to drive one of these forever. Some people got into Evos, or Skylines, or Imprezas after playing GT - I got into Del Sols. I like the way they look from all angles and I like the design of the interior. I also like that it's a Honda with all the benefits of being such - great engines, reliability, economy etc.
So that's the background story on why I wanted to drive one. I spotted this one on Autotrader and the price (more on that later) and spec caught my eye. It's a 1.5 single-cam VTEC but different to that in the Civic I drove a number of months back. This one is more performance orientated (the Civic was a VTEC-E with a low changeover point) and being the Japanese version of the D15B rather than the asthmatic European and USDM versions it makes about 130bhp.
Weather: crappy. Raining loads, so the roof went on (manually - this one isn't the "Trans-Top"). Engine very smooth, no odd noises, oil looked good, no holes in the exhaust. Few little rust spots in odd places - arches, trailing edge of windscreen surround, trailing edge of rear arches where they meet the lights, but nothing serious. Steering felt very good, weightier and quicker than the Civic I drove (though equipped with a nasty aftermarket wheel), gearshift very good (again, better than the Civic), pedals all good, ABS light didn't extinguish (any clues?). Lots of power and a great sound, handled well, bit of scuttle shake over the crappy roads I tested on.
The best bit - the price. £995.
One of the cheapest I've seen, normally for a CR-X in decent condition you're looking at £500 more than that minimum. Unfortunately at that price it's likely to disappear pretty soon which leaves me kicking myself a bit that I didn't get around to selling my own car sooner.
That said, it's motivated me to call my local garage (back home, as opposed to at uni) to find out how much my sump will cost to change on my Fiesta and the good news is they're about £50 cheaper than anywhere else I've found so I'll get it booked in soon. There's now very little stopping me selling my car so I'll probably put it up for sale very soon.
Incidentally, I do have a "secret plan B" regarding what may replace the Fiesta but it won't be revealed until (if) I actually buy one...
Honda CR-X Del Sol 1.5 VXi
I've been wanting to drive one of these forever. Some people got into Evos, or Skylines, or Imprezas after playing GT - I got into Del Sols. I like the way they look from all angles and I like the design of the interior. I also like that it's a Honda with all the benefits of being such - great engines, reliability, economy etc.
So that's the background story on why I wanted to drive one. I spotted this one on Autotrader and the price (more on that later) and spec caught my eye. It's a 1.5 single-cam VTEC but different to that in the Civic I drove a number of months back. This one is more performance orientated (the Civic was a VTEC-E with a low changeover point) and being the Japanese version of the D15B rather than the asthmatic European and USDM versions it makes about 130bhp.
Weather: crappy. Raining loads, so the roof went on (manually - this one isn't the "Trans-Top"). Engine very smooth, no odd noises, oil looked good, no holes in the exhaust. Few little rust spots in odd places - arches, trailing edge of windscreen surround, trailing edge of rear arches where they meet the lights, but nothing serious. Steering felt very good, weightier and quicker than the Civic I drove (though equipped with a nasty aftermarket wheel), gearshift very good (again, better than the Civic), pedals all good, ABS light didn't extinguish (any clues?). Lots of power and a great sound, handled well, bit of scuttle shake over the crappy roads I tested on.
The best bit - the price. £995.
One of the cheapest I've seen, normally for a CR-X in decent condition you're looking at £500 more than that minimum. Unfortunately at that price it's likely to disappear pretty soon which leaves me kicking myself a bit that I didn't get around to selling my own car sooner.
That said, it's motivated me to call my local garage (back home, as opposed to at uni) to find out how much my sump will cost to change on my Fiesta and the good news is they're about £50 cheaper than anywhere else I've found so I'll get it booked in soon. There's now very little stopping me selling my car so I'll probably put it up for sale very soon.
Incidentally, I do have a "secret plan B" regarding what may replace the Fiesta but it won't be revealed until (if) I actually buy one...
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- GTP_Jondot
Those after-market rims work surprisingly well on that. It looks rather nice.
Although make sure you leave a bit in the budget for replacing that Ripspeed from Halfords steering wheel. It's quite evil.
...also, is it me or is the car a slightly different shade of silver from the edge of the door backwards?
Although make sure you leave a bit in the budget for replacing that Ripspeed from Halfords steering wheel. It's quite evil.
...also, is it me or is the car a slightly different shade of silver from the edge of the door backwards?
- 10,620
- gtp_jimprower
May be just the pic, but if it is, I'd avoid it. Good sign of a wreck, that.
Who around here owned a Del Sol previously? Keef? I forget...
Who around here owned a Del Sol previously? Keef? I forget...
- 6,584
- Kent, UK
- GTP_Jondot
That was my worry. I did a bit of Auto Trader sleuthing, and the pics on there seem to demonstrate the same issue:
I mean it could just be a re-spray from a nasty scratch, but you never know. Although I can't quite work out which bit is the 'right' colour, so to speak, so it looks almost like half the car's been painted the wrong colour.
I mean it could just be a re-spray from a nasty scratch, but you never know. Although I can't quite work out which bit is the 'right' colour, so to speak, so it looks almost like half the car's been painted the wrong colour.
Joey D
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Yup and he liked to spray perfume in it.
Is there some sort of carfax type thing in the UK that allows you to get a vehicle history report? That might be the thing to do.
- 87,271
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- GTP_Famine
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I didn't notice the slight colour difference. I did a slightly not-so-good thing of only viewing the car indoors, and in the rain. I couldn't feel anything (indeed, the steering was nice and straight unlike the MX-5 and FTO that I drove, incidentally both also Japanese imports) but it is something to take into consideration. There weren't any other clues that it'd been in an accident - shut lines were all fine, no rattly or badly-fitting trim etc so it may just have been a re-spray for a scrape at some stage.
Joey - you can do history checks but it depends when it was imported from Japan - it's initial history would probably be pretty much un-traceable, and even if you could trace it it'd be in Japanese...
If I did buy the car (it's getting closer to the sort of time I can actually buy rather than just look...) the steering wheel, gearknob and wheels would all be changed in reasonable haste.
Cheers, I'd considered some of those things. I'd probably have it checked in a diagnostic test if I were to look into the car in more detail. For under a grand it's not too much of a big deal. 👍
Joey - you can do history checks but it depends when it was imported from Japan - it's initial history would probably be pretty much un-traceable, and even if you could trace it it'd be in Japanese...
If I did buy the car (it's getting closer to the sort of time I can actually buy rather than just look...) the steering wheel, gearknob and wheels would all be changed in reasonable haste.
Cheers, I'd considered some of those things. I'd probably have it checked in a diagnostic test if I were to look into the car in more detail. For under a grand it's not too much of a big deal. 👍
Rotary Junkie
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Nothing per se, it's just that my next car will be something I can make my own, after driving something utterly and completely stock for the past six and a half years, and because I've liked 'Sols for so long I have loads of ideas for them.
To my knowledge the wheels aren't stock either (though they do suit the car I'll admit) - I think the VXi came with steelies originally.
Go for it. You could take a shower when you go to the car wash. And when it rains. And when kids throw water balloons at you for driving a del Sol.
(ie. the roof leaks.)
I'm aware. This one seemed okay though - I checked the seals and they all... well, sealed... and the carpets didn't seem to have suffered from water ingress which is more than can be said for the Fiesta.I'm surprised that nobody's noticed the irony that I dislike sunroofs with a passion yet I'm prepared to drive a car on which the roof can be removed entirely...
I see where you're coming from though obviously it's a personal preference thing. I like the Civic (though to my knowledge the Del Sol I'm looking at is lighter than the EK Civics I've looked at... 1027kg vs. 1118kg) but they're just not as interesting to me.
If I were to compare the 1.5 Civic I've looked at and the 1.5 CR-X, the Civic would be more practical, more economical and potentially drier; the CR-X quicker, more fun and more distinctive. The CR-X would be much harder to justify over the Civic had I not wanted one since well before I could drive...
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316 posts, 11 months and still no car, and that's no brainer when seeing how you guys are doing it.. If you want it, buy it. Different shades of silver? So what, if you don't notice it while you're driving? If you care about paint you're going to re-spray it sooner or later anyway (stone chips, scratches, dents etc). The bits you don't want can be sold to some chav, it's literally perfect. Just buy the damn thing and burn your Fiesta..
- 87,271
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- GTP_Famine
Cars tend to come in one colour (Harlequin Golf/Polo are exceptions). When they're not in one colour it's because a bit has been replaced while in someone's care. And bits like body panels tend only to be replaced for one reason - a crash.
Different coloured panels are a good indicator of crash damage - and crash damage can cover a whole spectrum of fail. Take the crash I had last week. My damage was non-existant. The Megane that hit me was written off - but if you just replaced the bonnet with a new one (in a slightly different shade of silver, of course), no-one would ever know. Along comes hfs and buys the Megane 'cos he's had a brain injury and just wants it and not only is his insurance ridiculous (Cat C/D cars written off and returned to the road attract HUGE premiums) but a suspiciously large number of front-end parts need replacing over the next 18 months...
Now in the case of the Del Slow here, the door might be a different colour. Rarely is door damage caused by driving sideways into someone (especially in a FWD car) so you can rightly surmise that it's been hit from the side by someone else - meaning it's been the static object in a collision. Do you reckon only the door was damaged and needed replacing? That would be a very curiously specific accident...
If something has been crashed and repaired properly there's no real impediment to owning it - except in the case of write-offs which attract higher insurance premiums. If the crash was repaired at the behest of the owner who continued to drive it afterwards, that's a good sign (if bought by someone else to repair and sell on at a profit, it's a bad sign) that it has been done properly.
Ultimately, where the purchase is the second most expensive most people make and the primary means of conducting their life, caution is prudent. Who cares if a door is a different shade of silver? The buyer should.
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316 posts, 11 months and still no car, and that's no brainer when seeing how you guys are doing it.. If you want it, buy it. Different shades of silver? So what, if you don't notice it while you're driving? If you care about paint you're going to re-spray it sooner or later anyway (stone chips, scratches, dents etc). The bits you don't want can be sold to some chav, it's literally perfect. Just buy the damn thing and burn your Fiesta..
To be fair, the main reason it's taken so long is that earlier on this year my finances took a rather large hit and I had to put the plan on ice for a bit. Regardless, I don't see the problem in having a thread about the whole process. As I mentioned right in the very first post it's just an opportunity for me to try out a few cars from a series of things I've liked but never been able to afford before, and discuss it all with like-minded people.
Whether people like or dislike the things I've got on my shortlist is largely irrelevant as long as I can gain some information from people who may have owned the cars before or know someone who's owned them - or be able to provide helpful advice such as Leo's comment about the ABS light or Famine's comment about crash damage.
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My point exactly, if you don't notice anything weird, if everything looks okay and you don't even see a weld seam, go ahead. It's an old car (in the sense of paint and imperfections), you can't expect immaculate condition (especially for this price). For all we know (because we know nothing), driver one day opened the door and smashed it into a curb or a light pole..
He should check it out before he buys it, I would, but it shouldn't put him off, and we shouldn't speculate.It's perfectly normal to find different shades of paint on an older car if you try hard enough, whether it be collisions, dents or surface rust that has made the owner getting the panel painted.
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That's not what you said though...
eiriksmil
It's a clue that it's got some less-desirable history you should know about - and even if it drives straight, a lot of components are stressed during a collision and can fail unexpectedly.
Incidentally, I've known people drive cars with all sorts of horrific maladies and not noticed anything wrong with them. One was a police driver who drove his girlfriend's Fiesta with a front tyre on 8psi.
Aesthetically, a different shade on one panel is a giant "so what". Mechanically it's a big, flashing warning sign that you need to be considerably more thorough.
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Incidentally, I've just seen this:
Given all possibilities for the car I doubt this one the most. At £995 the car is very cheap indeed in comparison to others I've seen advertised, and from having kept an eye on what this particular garage do, they generally seem to take cars in part-ex (as opposed to buying them cheaply at auction and selling for a large profit, like many cheap used car dealerships) and sell them on very cheaply to free up space - their main business seems to be in German saloons and the like for upwards of £8k. The very cheap Rover 45 I mentioned a few months back was from the same dealer.
At this price it would have been very uneconomical for the previous owner to repair and then chop in immediately for something else.
Unfortunately I'm home this weekend a good 90-odd miles away but if the car is still for sale when I return then I may consider buying it out of my savings before I even sell my current car. Luckily I have enough space for both and it means I'd be in no great rush to sell the Fiesta.
Given all possibilities for the car I doubt this one the most. At £995 the car is very cheap indeed in comparison to others I've seen advertised, and from having kept an eye on what this particular garage do, they generally seem to take cars in part-ex (as opposed to buying them cheaply at auction and selling for a large profit, like many cheap used car dealerships) and sell them on very cheaply to free up space - their main business seems to be in German saloons and the like for upwards of £8k. The very cheap Rover 45 I mentioned a few months back was from the same dealer.
At this price it would have been very uneconomical for the previous owner to repair and then chop in immediately for something else.
Unfortunately I'm home this weekend a good 90-odd miles away but if the car is still for sale when I return then I may consider buying it out of my savings before I even sell my current car. Luckily I have enough space for both and it means I'd be in no great rush to sell the Fiesta.
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Yes. Cat C/D cars are typically bought by an individual to repair and then sell on for the usual market price of that car if undamaged. Sometimes by small used car places too. Most dealerships won't touch a Cat D with a 78 foot pole.
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Is that "yes", you agree or "yes", you disagree? My assumption is that if someone's bought it to repair and sell for a profit then they've failed massively as assuming the dealership is making a profit on whatever they bought it for, the previous owner must have got an absolute pittance for the car in part-ex - so I'm assuming that if it has been damaged at some point, the old owner must have at least been driving it for a reasonable amount of time. It would have been a complete waste of money for the previous owner to repair recently if it's being sold for less than a grand at a dealer.
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- 6,584
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- GTP_Jondot
- It's rusting
- It's been lowered
- The bonnet doesn't fit properly
- There's a scuff on the front bumper
- Those rims are absolutely disgusting
- Aftermarket seats 'only anchored at 3 points'
- It's got an HKS exhaust, so it'll probably sound like a chavtastic Corsa
- It's the same colour as one of Hyacinth Bucket's hats
- It's £1400.
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^
10. And the engine ...
(exterior looks very bad).
10. And the engine ...
(exterior looks very bad).
- 2,235
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What the hell is wrong with the engine?
Dude.. It's a 15 year old Honda we're talking about, it's not a Porsche or a Ming vase. What do you expect anyway, mint condition, immaculate interior, 10k miles, serviced every year, one previous lady owner for under £1k? What are you driving anyway, a brand new car with a 7 year warranty?
Dude.. It's a 15 year old Honda we're talking about, it's not a Porsche or a Ming vase. What do you expect anyway, mint condition, immaculate interior, 10k miles, serviced every year, one previous lady owner for under £1k? What are you driving anyway, a brand new car with a 7 year warranty?
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