do you think ti is worth goin 100's of miles to find the perfect bravo. i am lookin for a 1.2 and all the good ones are miles and miles away. do you think it would be well worth the journey or should i wait and see if somethink closer comes up ??



life is to short to look back

Well if you're sure you won't waste your time then it is worth it.
Say a nice bravo 400 miles aways appears at good price. You have lot of recents photos that shows the bravo is ok and looked over, then it is worth it. Ask photos of receipts. You take a plane to go, and you come back with a bravo, this can be done in one day.

However, if you could do the reverse and ask the seller to come if he is sure to sell and pay him a fly back. This would be a good test 4 the car and would be better imho.

well i have found a few. from dealers. they are kinda hi millage but most of them have full dealer service history. and the price isn't to bad. most are around £1.250



life is to short to look back

be careful buying far away from home if your buying from a garage because if the car turns out to be dodgy you'll be doing another long trip back to the garage to sort it out. Ive had this with a car about 30mile away and that was alot of hassle taking the car back for repairs, collecting it again etc etc

As mentioned above, make sure you have as much information about the car as possible.

Before I bought my first Bravo, I had a vehicle inspection agency send out someone to have a look at the car - so basically like me inspecting it myself. He produced a report, and sent it to me, and once I had gone over it all, and all faults were read carefully, I decided to go get a train down, and drove it back up, as the car was around 450 miles away.

This did cost a couple of hundred, but I only decided to go for doing this once I had checked and double checked all details of the car with the owner first, and called many garages to confirm some bits of work which were done.

how muich is it or the inspection?
well it has had one own from new, has around 100,000 miles but with full dealer service history, is a 1.2 sx on a 2000 plate. so not extreme hi milage.can also buy warrant.seems like a good garage. sells al types of cars.
any more ideas



life is to short to look back

I went 100 plus to get mine!

Chris

Will i went over 150miles driving over 3hrs each way to view my bravo.

Did it again 2days later to buy it!


Saying that i did over 300miles just to go see 2 bravo's the other day!!!


Sometimes you have to drive a long way to find the bravo for you, but thats a small price to pay wen you think of how many miles your likely to do if you buy the wrong one... or don't do for that matter if you buy a shed!!!


tommy




Tommy K - Have you got the Bottle!!

Craig - high mileage isn't always necessarily a negative issue - the fact that they have full dealer servicing etc should put your mind at ease to an extent. It could have just been an ex rental/company car or something which is now in their hands or something.

Look through it thoroughly as before, and make sure the basics are covered (eg. it has a steering wheel!), and you should be fine ^ ^

Oh, and depending where it's done, the inspection is around 150 for under 1.4, and about 200 something for above engine (but my uncle jamal can do it for you for 50 quid! - **work not guaranteed**)

high milage is high milage dealer history or not.

Yawn.

I'd rather have a car with 100,000 miles and all the stamps than one with 50,000 and none. At least you have an idea that's it's been looked after. I think age is more of a factor than mileage.

Agree with Matt. If it's low mileage and no stamps run a mile. likely clocker.

All the stamps there then it's less likely to give probs and has more than likely been cared for.

"What's the word on the street Huggy Bear? "

http://www.billhicks.com/ New Ozrics Site now up: - http://www.ozrics.com/

it's just the 12 months MOT. i no it is good as i wont have to worry about money side of things for a while. but it is from a dealer. he is gonna get it through it's mot. he will no the MOT guys well i guess. thats all i would be worried about.
but thats illegal so im sure they wouldn't put one on just to seel it.
what do you think ?



life is to short to look back

Dont forget an MOT certificate only says the car was legal and passed certain fiarly basic tests on that day. The fan belt, cam belt ect could snap the next day and you wouldnt have a leg to stand on, the only time a mot would be worth something is if (for instance) the tester says the brakes are ok and they fail 100 miles later.........I only look at an MOT as a bit of paper saying I dont need to fork out more money for a year (legally at least)

As i said earlier i had some problems with a car i brought from a dealer, it had a full mot when i brought it, but to be on the safe side I had a trusted mechanic used by my family to give it a full MOT style inspection, he found several things including it failing an emmisions test.

The dealer I used wasn't a very big company but had a couple of garages, so it depends how big the reputation is of the dealer. There are alot of dodgy salesmen about.

I'd say an engine with 100,000 with service hisory would be better than a 50,000 one without. But remember there will be 100,000 miles worth of wear to other parts of the car, so best check receipts for any work carried out as mentioned in other posts

Gaz

@oz, got to disagree with you mate, its all down to circumstance. Take a look at my car, a P reg saab, no history and an EXTREMELY low milage of less than 45,000. According to you that sounds very dodgy, esp from a private dealer, but the upshot was that the first owner was a very well paid professor who only used it in the summer wich explains the milage and put to rest any worries I had about small journeys, he traded it in at a saab garage where a staff member lost the history just so he could flog it cheap to his brother who was starting as a dealer and sold it to me. Working as I do at manchester uni, I managed to use the old boy network to track down the first owner and check all the facts out.

In my opinion you just have to go with a gut feeling and for insurance maybe take a mate along for a second opinion cause quite often even those inspections are so vauge and full of legal loopholes to be next to useless. You would be better off aranging a long test drive and take it to a normal garage and pay for a quick check up

well as soon as i buy one and get it home it will be goin to fiat for a diagnostics. as i have a fiat garage about 5 mins away from my house. but i dont have the money yet so well continue to keep lookin 4 the perfect one.
cheers



life is to short to look back

My Jtd was 75 miles away and I bought it on the second visit!

I wouldnt go any further, unless maybe it was from a regular off here.

read again i said dealer stamps. the car has still done 100,000miles the shell, the chasis, all the brake components, gearbox etc. expect problems

i went 380 miles for my last bravo. and i went about 5 feet for my skoda, because it was my dad who sold me it, lol

Buzz
The champion of the Bravo 1.4 & now ex owner of a Bravo 1.8