thanks again for replies
and yea, I am looking to hopefully get a car with the 60/40 split seats that fold
I'm a bit confused again from the cam belt/chain talk.... so on the B7 there's a belt for the cams and then also a chain on the back? is that right? and the B8 is all chain?
on another note I went to see that car on sat. was pretty tidy to be fair! couldn't see any bumps/scrapes on the body, interior was very clean too! a few small quibbles I had with it though:
-main and fog likes had condensation on the inside
-one of the bose speaker grills had taken a small knock so had a small crack (probably un-noticeable if pulled back in line)
-ashtray silver fascia was loose ( looked like easy fix but didn't want to mess as I don't own it
)
-symphony radio (with cassette deck) didn't play mps cd's...but a retrofit radio/nav was on the cards anyway.
-fixed rear seats and not the folding split ones
pretty big boot still but dunno if I'd regret not having them.
-a license plate bulb was out
would get leds anyway
slightly more concerning was when I checked the coolant the liquid was orangey and left a orange residue around the inside of the expansion tank :\ looks a bit like rusty/copper tainted water..... but I did take a pic and my mate said it's normal and just does that
brake discs looked a little worn, think the fronts more more so, was a lip around the edge of the disc maybe 2 mm?
under the drivers side door on the underside of the car it looked like where you would put the car jack was bent :\ not sure if it may have actually just been the plastic (or whatever) under car panels that stop dirt/stuff flicking up onto the metal.
the car seemed to run flawlessly to be fair, started up didn't notice any shaking or lumping of the engine (was from cold...I was touching the engine before hand
), gear changes were smooth to me through each gear up and down, pulling well in low revs and stuck to the road
though I didn't get the engine up to temp or chance to really give it a bit of a high rev throttle as there was a bit of traffic about and we didn't go all that far and went round in a relatively small lap of the local area. only got up to about 5krpm when pulling away from lights before another roundabout
but did feel good in the gears.
also forgot to test the all round parking sensors...I also believe the car is fitted with a tracker after looking though some of the manuals in the glove box.
the car did have a parrot system or something installed too, little controller on the dash by the steering wheel and there was also an ipod connector in the glovebox. now I asked the guy and he didn't know much about it and said it was aftermarket and would have been added after. I'm not sure it it's just for music or for bluetooth to phones too (as the guy seemed to suggest too). if it's BT for phones I'd keep it... if not.... it'll be gone as I don't use ipods
so things I've learned:
-take a mechanic/someone really savvy with the type of car you're going to see xD
-push for longer test drives or alone
so sounds good? I can try and get some picks up later of some of the questionably things. need to find a mech friend to come along with me for maybe another test drive, or just get an RAC/AA check for £250? (i think price for AWD). HPI was clear as the guy did it for me in the office as we were talking about it. also car has a lot of paper work and seems it's had quite a bit of work the past few years replacing things here and there. cambelt was done at like 55k so going to need doing again in the next 10-15k (95k current). this and brakes and lights points to argue value down?