Abarth with 178,000 miles, am I mad?

[jconnor98]

Good afternoon everyone,

Just curious as to everyone's opinion on what appears to be the highest mileage abarth knocking about. It's the abarth punto, however does have the rare essesse kit and what looks like the braking pack, or whatever it was called. Judging by mot history it's done around 20k per year since new, the mot history isn't too bad, it's never really failed on anything to cause any concern. I've read up as much information on these cars as I can stomach and from what I've read they are fairly robust and nobody seems to have any reports of anything going wrong other than the m32 gearbox which should be evident right away if that's bad. However the claims of ot being a fairly robust car only stretch to owners who have covered at most 100,000 miles, this is on 178,000 miles. However at 20k per annum of what I'm assuming would be the motorway miles I would think the cars had a fairly easy life? The stealer has the best part of no idea after I rang him today, just told me it drove nice and has a glovebox full with paperwork. It's a good 2 hour drive to view the car, but is 2k or more less than the next genuine essesse.
What does everyone think?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2019...

Thanks in advance.

[anonymous-user]

For under 2k that has to be worth a punt(o)

[monzaxjr]

One of the first things I look at when buying a car is what type of tyre's are on it. Generally gives an indication if the previous owner was a tightarse or not and if they've skimped on decent rubber they've probably skimped on other things. It does state new tyre's in the ad but who fitted them? The previous owner or dealer. Cheapo Joyroad rubber on this does not bode well. No mention of FSH either.

Edited by monzaxjr on Saturday 3rd August 13:25

[0a]

Funny how the photos just happen to miss out the driver’s side bolster

[mercedeslimos]

Looks decent. I'd buy that. Much prefer a higher-mileage car than one that's sat there all the time and does nothing at all. Cars don't like being idle. 20k is not too bad, and if the history is big it means someone has cared for it. Yes from me.

[jconnor98]

Well considering most of the previous MOT failures are for tyres having cords showing it doesnt look good! No mention of fsh, the dealer told me that it drives well, at least 6 times, and then said he hasn't looked at the paperwork but there is a glovebox full of it

[Wooda80]

monzaxjr said:

One of the first things I look at when buying a car is what type of tyre's are on it. Generally gives an indication if the previous owner was a tightarse or not and if they've skimped on decent rubber they've probably skimped on other things. It does state new tyre's in the ad but who fitted them? The previous owner or dealer. Cheapo Joyroad rubber on this does not bode well. No mention of FSH either.

Edited by monzaxjr on Saturday 3rd August 13:25

That's an interesting way to assess a car's condition.

Does "decent" rubber mean decent in terms of performance, or in terms of brand perception?

What are the things that could be "skimped" on that would be better indicated by tyre choice than by actually looking at those parts?

If a car had been "skimped" on, would it still get to 178000 miles?

If, as a dealer, the car came to me with worn out budget tyres and I replaced them with a set of part worn premium branded tyres just to overcome the mindset that you are describing, how much better would the rest of the car become?

[p4cks]

Wooda80 said:

That's an interesting way to assess a car's condition.

Does "decent" rubber mean decent in terms of performance, or in terms of brand perception?

What are the things that could be "skimped" on that would be better indicated by tyre choice than by actually looking at those parts?

If a car had been "skimped" on, would it still get to 178000 miles?

If, as a dealer, the car came to me with worn out budget tyres and I replaced them with a set of part worn premium branded tyres just to overcome the mindset that you are describing, how much better would the rest of the car become?

Quite. I have £32.50 Sunways (or whatever) on my £500 daily beater but it's also had a new catalytic converter and clutch so seemingly he'd reject it given that it doesn't have Brigestones on it. Very strange.

[Jasandjules]

As a sub 2k run about it seems ok - 180k in 11 years is what 15k a year or so? Unreliable cars won't be doing that kind of miles?

[DoubleD]

£2k for an old fiat punto with mega miles, no thanks.