Looking for a Vantage - OU07 BFZ

[shrimpled]

Hello Everyone,

I've been a long time lurker on this forum and I have picked up some fantastic insight and knowledge on the car of my dreams and i'm now hopefully in a position to buy a Vantage and this car has caught my eye. It's currently for sale at trade Price Car Essex for £34,995. Has anyone on here any knowledge of the car itself? Previous Owners etc?

Has anyone ever dealt with Trade Price Cars based near Wickford, Essex?

Also, in your experience, it states that the car has a full AMSH bar one - i'm not sure if this means it missed it's service or whether it was done at an Independent. If it has missed a service should this be something that bothers me at all? Especially looking at a resale at some point

Many thanks for any help and buying tips you can offer me, James

[gibbon]

shrimpled said:

Hello Everyone,

I've been a long time lurker on this forum and I have picked up some fantastic insight and knowledge on the car of my dreams and i'm now hopefully in a position to buy a Vantage and this car has caught my eye. It's currently for sale at trade Price Car Essex for £34,995. Has anyone on here any knowledge of the car itself? Previous Owners etc?

Has anyone ever dealt with Trade Price Cars based near Wickford, Essex?

Also, in your experience, it states that the car has a full AMSH bar one - i'm not sure if this means it missed it's service or whether it was done at an Independent. If it has missed a service should this be something that bothers me at all? Especially looking at a resale at some point

Many thanks for any help and buying tips you can offer me, James

I have no experience of that car or dealer, but having recently bought a similar car, and investigated and viewed several, i would say check for missing services, many I saw had missed annual services due to perceived low miles. I would also look for extra spends and maintenance over the standard service, many had ignored advisories, check the advisory sheet the main dealers provide.

A missing service would personally bother me, not only for the obvious reasons, but for me its indicative of the way the car has been kept and used.

[mikey k]

Looks like a cleanish 4.3 (not 4.o like the ad says)
Its had the wheels powder coated
Bit of a scratch in the passenger seat leather?
Either Blue tooth or cruise control is missing off the steering
Sat nav is not seated properly
Bit of wear on the drivers seat by the handbrake as well.
Price is low for a MY07 car

Worth a drive and a haggle
I wouldn't worry about one service missing

[Cockernee]

shrimpled said:

Hello Everyone,

I've been a long time lurker on this forum and I have picked up some fantastic insight and knowledge on the car of my dreams and i'm now hopefully in a position to buy a Vantage and this car has caught my eye. It's currently for sale at trade Price Car Essex for £34,995. Has anyone on here any knowledge of the car itself? Previous Owners etc?

Has anyone ever dealt with Trade Price Cars based near Wickford, Essex?

Also, in your experience, it states that the car has a full AMSH bar one - i'm not sure if this means it missed it's service or whether it was done at an Independent. If it has missed a service should this be something that bothers me at all? Especially looking at a resale at some point

Many thanks for any help and buying tips you can offer me, James

I pass that place twice a day to and from work. Happy to look over the car, but have no experience of them. Try Google and see what is said about them perhaps? Sadly though people will often put bad experiences and never good ones on the Interweb.

[shrimpled]

Thanks for the advice gibbon, I will certainly look through all the paperwork with a fine tooth comb.

Thanks Mikey, the price struck me as reasonably low for an 07 (the newer style seats appeal more than '55 onwards cars although not sure thats a reason to go with this as opposed to say an older, cheaper, lower mileage car) and over time I can try and resolve those kind of issues.

I'm a local boy also Cockernee, based in Brentwood so not too far for me to blast up the A127 and have a quick look as I may do over the weekend. I tried to google the place and found nothing, which I guess is a good sign. If you do get a chance to stop and look it'd be great to hear your opinion.

[JACK6284]

I looked at that car last year. It's ok but wasn't for me. You may be able to haggle them down a bit as they have had it for some time. I bought from Grange at Brentwood and paid a similar price to the one in Dickford. My experience with them and Matt in particular was very good so well worth a chat.

Very nice green one there at the moment but obviously the colour is a personal choice/issue. It's a bit more expensive though.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/a...

Gary

[peterr96]

shrimpled said:

I'm a local boy also Cockernee, If you do get a chance to stop and look it'd be great to hear your opinion.

If Cockers takes it for a test drive, you can probably haggle a bit harder on the grounds of it being a thrashed example

[v8woollie]

JACK6284 said:

I looked at that car last year. It's ok but wasn't for me. You may be able to haggle them down a bit as they have had it for some time. I bought from Grange at Brentwood and paid a similar price to the one in Dickford. My experience with them and Matt in particular was very good so well worth a chat.

Very nice green one there at the moment but obviously the colour is a personal choice/issue. It's a bit more expensive though.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/a...

Gary

That looks like Little Donkey's old one

[gibbon]

JACK6284 said:

I looked at that car last year. It's ok but wasn't for me. You may be able to haggle them down a bit as they have had it for some time. I bought from Grange at Brentwood and paid a similar price to the one in Dickford. My experience with them and Matt in particular was very good so well worth a chat.

Very nice green one there at the moment but obviously the colour is a personal choice/issue. It's a bit more expensive though.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/a...

Gary

By the sounds of it, i had a similar experience, saw several privately and through none franchised dealers and couldnt find anything that met my standards. Maybe im picky, maybe i was unlucky, i ended up buying an slightly earlier can than planned from a main dealer.

[sukh_m]

My 2p's worth:

Just had a look at it, quite high miles for the price and Im assuming no warranty either? I personally think at 35-38k price range you can pick up a 4.3 similar age with 20-30k miles. Maybe even with an AM warranty from a dealer (with a bit of haggling).

I'd expect to pay 30-32k for this, no more especially if they've had it a while.

[gibbon]

sukh_m said:

My 2p's worth:

Just had a look at it, quite high miles for the price and Im assuming no warranty either? I personally think at 35-38k price range you can pick up a 4.3 similar age with 20-30k miles. Maybe even with an AM warranty from a dealer (with a bit of haggling).

I'd expect to pay 30-32k for this, no more especially if they've had it a while.

In my opinion the price has already been adjusted for the miles already, my issue would be with the fact it doesnt look a that clean example, so i would worry about the level of maintanence done by the previous owner and lack of dealer prep.

From my recent experiences i dont think you could buy a warrantied 2007 car from a main dealer for this price, but I could be wrong.

A £5k repair bill is not a that hard thing to run up on a car like this, if the car has not had the extra 1 or 2k spent come service time, there will be big bills looming. Suddenly makes an earlier dealer car with warranty and prep seem better value to me, but everyones risk appetite is different.

Edited by gibbon on Friday 5th April 11:55

[AMDBSNick]

Just so you know the dealers will happily retail cars with incomplete history

[Bravo73]

v8woollie said:

JACK6284 said:

I looked at that car last year. It's ok but wasn't for me. You may be able to haggle them down a bit as they have had it for some time. I bought from Grange at Brentwood and paid a similar price to the one in Dickford. My experience with them and Matt in particular was very good so well worth a chat.

Very nice green one there at the moment but obviously the colour is a personal choice/issue. It's a bit more expensive though.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/a...

Gary

That looks like Little Donkey's old one

That is definitely Little Donkey's old car.

I've not seen it but I was considering swapping my V8V for it (due to the colour). I was told that it is very low mileage, very good ('as new'!) condition but very light on options/extras. I personally think that Grange are being very optimistic with their pricing on this car.

[Bravo73]

gibbon said:

From my recent experiences i dont think you could buy a warrantied 2007 car from a main dealer for this price, but I could be wrong.

Really?

It wasn't long ago that you were telling us all that a car like that wasn't worth much more than £30k.

[v8woollie]

Bravo73 said:

That is definitely Little Donkey's old car.

I've not seen it but I was considering swapping my V8V for it (due to the colour). I was told that it is very low mileage, very good ('as new'!) condition but very light on options/extras. I personally think that Grange are being very optimistic with their pricing on this car.

Agreed. Four or five thousand too much. And I've seen the way Greg drove it

[Little Donkey]

v8woollie said:

Bravo73 said:

That is definitely Little Donkey's old car.

I've not seen it but I was considering swapping my V8V for it (due to the colour). I was told that it is very low mileage, very good ('as new'!) condition but very light on options/extras. I personally think that Grange are being very optimistic with their pricing on this car.

Agreed. Four or five thousand too much. And I've seen the way Greg drove it

Yep, that was mine alright!! Short on extras, but in fantastic nick. Ask Mike at B.R for an independent opinion. I would have it back in a heart beat.........if it was at all possible to separate me from my V12.

Is that a current ad?? Thought Grange had a buyer for it???

[Lunablack]

Short on extras would be a buying point for me

[Little Donkey]

Lunablack said:

Short on extras would be a buying point for me

It wasn't my daily drive so not having Bluetooth or iPod connection was actually quite liberating. My BMW daily drive is like a mobile office so just to be at one with the driving experience is great for me. Can't remember the last time I switched the lights on myself before the V8 came along.......it really isn't a problem to operate a switch when it gets a bit dark.

Try leaving the trappings of mobile phones, iPods, bookface and stter behind and savour the mechanical marvel of our wonderful cars for a few hours.

Case in point, I don't connect my phone to the V12, couldn't even tell you how the cruise control works and boy am I glad it's not an auto!!

[gibbon]

[quote=Bravo73]

Really?

It wasn't long ago that you were telling us all that a car like that wasn't worth much more than £30k.
[/quote=Bravo73]

Please read my posts again, you can get a 2006 car for 30k yes, that appear to be a good car on pure spec and miles etc, however, as stated when I went to see them, they were not all that, I ended up paying more for a car that met my standards. And the quote you are referring to was regarding a private sale car, and the proximity of its pricing to dealer, and main dealer cars.

I learnt i needed to pay more for a car that met my standards, thats all.

Edited by gibbon on Saturday 6th April 02:06

Edited by gibbon on Saturday 6th April 11:52