New Caterham

[DoubleD]

Hi all,

I was just wondering what your thoughts are about this car? It's just under £15k which seems fairly cheap. The dealer doesn't seem to know much about the car as the details are all blank, but I am guessing that it's a Road sport 125? MOTs seem to be fairly regular with no issues. It's had 5 previous owners, but I guess that's fairly normal for these types of cars?


https://www.stirling-cars.com/

[Boggo]

Hard to comment on what spec it is, looks like a non vvc sigma. Ex race car by my eye (electrical cut off, starter button, and blanked off hole on the dash where an extinguisher pull would have been). Not a bad thing, but forget about the milage being accurate, most race cars have speedo disconnected on track.

5 owners isn't a bad thing either, I always think of it as its had 5 'honeymoon' periods (one every 2.5 years on average), where the new owner will have spent the extra time to polish/service/upgrade it.

Seems a little highly priced to me, but no expert.

[lord summerisle]

dunno about the ex racer bit... since it just has a trackday bar rather than a cage, plus has a heater & the leather seats (not that an ex racecar can't swap the cage for the bar, and retrofit the heater, just i haven't seen it often). Might have been the original owner wanted to track the car so added the extra options of the extinguisher & cut off, and now the extinguisher has been removed

[DoubleD]

I notice that it has a bit of an odd setup at the back for the reg plate light? I don't know if that hints to its past maybe? Would it be easy to move, or are they drilled through the bodywork?

Looking at the price of others that are for sale this one seems to be at a fair price? Even if £15k seems like quite a lot!

[Aeroscreens]

Re number plate light, older 7s came with a spare wheel and carrier. The spare wheel rested on the carrier which protruded from the rear of the chassis and was secured through the centre of the wheel by a bolt which screwed into a captive nut on the inside of the boot. Many people ditched the spare wheel and simply used the existing hole to mount the number plate light.

Others made the carrier removable as per this link

ETA I think Caterham offered a bolt-on spare wheel carrier on newer 7s which my be the case here as I can't see the stub remnants

[DoubleD]

Ahh that makes sense, it just looks a bit fussy. I guess it could be moved and the hole covered.

[nigelpugh7]

I would be more concerned about the surface rust thats present in quite a few areas, it would suggest its been stored outside, perhaps even at a location by the coast that might have caused the corrosion.

It’s a very low spec base model car, and looking at the items mentioned, like the number plate light odd location, and the incorrect non Caterham flocking fuel cap, would suggest its been owned by a non Caterham Enthusiast.

It also has the very poor standard brakes, with what looks like poor condition front disks, which again could be due to salt corrosion.

My advise would be avoid this car, and hunt for a better one of a similar spec that has been looked after better,

[DoubleD]

Looking at the images more closely I can see what you mean about the surface rust. I imagine the odd placement of the number plate light could be easily addressed, but surface rust could be another matter. The problem is that there arent many fuel injected cars under £15k at the moment.

[nigelpugh7]

DoubleD said:

Looking at the images more closely I can see what you mean about the surface rust. I imagine the odd placement of the number plate light could be easily addressed, but surface rust could be another matter. The problem is that there arent many fuel injected cars under £15k at the moment.

Yep always going to be a challenge to find anything around that price bracket, as it’s not going to be anything one of the lotus seven club members would be interested in, as you know that are much more fanatical about cleaning and polishing!

It also seems very few Caterham’s in general are for sale right now too, perhaps people are hanging on to them due to all the COVID restrictions!

My 620R is currently sat in the garage, Under it’s cover with the Ctek charger on it , it’s not moved for about three months!

[AndrewGP]

nigelpugh7 said:

It also seems very few Caterham’s in general are for sale right now too, perhaps people are hanging on to them due to all the COVID restrictions!

I think you're right. This, added to the creeping lack of driver involvement with new cars and the impending end of ICE by 2030 means keeping them makes lots of sense.

[DoubleD]

The orange one was up for £17k for a while! Ive seen a private one for sale at under £14k, but that seems to have some corrosion. I guess it's just a case of waiting and saving a bit more.

[dalefawcett90]

I can tell you first hand some of the history of this car as I used to own it.

I bought it at the start of 2013 from caterham in Leicester, absolutely loved it all year and used it as my wedding car aswell. I had never tracked it but it was pretty much as you see here.
Unfortunately at the end of 2013 only 7 months later I had an accident in it and wrote it off completely getting a full payout from the insurance company.
Last year I saw it pop up on autotrader and then again for sale on eBay from another dealer, neither of these mentioned that it was a write off.
From the initial pictures we worked out it would cost roughly £15k in parts from caterham to get it back on the road including a new chassis.
I’ll try and work out how to put pictures on for you guys.
I don’t know what’s happened between then and now but it has been in an accident, that I can tell you for a fact.
It’s had a respray but they haven’t added the badges back on, looks as though they haven’t put all the button on the back either for the boot cover to be fitted properly. The number plate light will be in the wrong place as they had to straighten out the rear quite a bit so they would have just whacked it on there. I do miss it like crazy and still hold out for another but I’d avoid this one as it might not have been rebuilt very well if the finish is anything to go by.

Edited by dalefawcett90 on Saturday 16th January 21:33

[dalefawcett90]

The day I collected it, I put my private plates on not long after this [url]
I fitted the Roose Motorsport hoses which were custom made by Jonny Roose in Lincoln.

|https://thumbsnap.com/Qz2C2fLM[/url]

The day I wrote it off
[url]

[dalefawcett90]

I’ve still got the old number plates, mounted in the garage now as a trophy along with a small orange piece of fibreglass haha!

[dalefawcett90]

[dalefawcett90]

[DoubleD]

Oh wow, that's pretty shocking! Thanks so much for posting.

[Durch]

I'd spotted this one for sale too. Seemed cheap, but even without knowing the full history it didn't look like a good example. Too much was just a bit off and now we know why.

The pics with the damage are a bit of a comedown after the others! What happened?

[Durch]

nigelpugh7 said:

It also has the very poor standard brakes,

Are they that bad? What do you think makes the most difference in terms of upgrades?

[DoubleD]

Looking at it again it's starting to all make sense, the chrome headlights on a black pack, the missing front badge, the strange filler cap and the strange number plate location! This car has been fixed on the cheap. It also explains the lack of info on the dealers website, they obviously want to pull you in, then when you fall in love with it let you know that it's a write off.......well hopefully let you know!