Just stumbled across this on Autotrader, lovely looking car but price is a bit steep..........

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...&model=BARCHETTA&min_pr=&max_pr=&max_mileage=

Looks real clean but the money is way OTT. Why would anyone bring a B back from Japan!?! Just no money in it.

Link not working for me!

Being Japanese it's likely to have air-con.... and those sexy square side repeaters

i like it but its not orange!!! what do they men all the usual problems??? mine 96 model and i havent had problems a tiny bit or rust around wheel arch,but hey i git rust on me too!!

The aerial seems to be stuck in the up position!

On for 50% more than it's worth by my reckoning. Could still need a load doing to it despite the low mileage. I mean it is 12 years old for heavens sake.

Having said that it is the proper colour

I think 4k-ish would be OK if it is immaculate, has FSH and is totally original........

I am always a bit sceptical of the grey imports, a friend of mine bought a Pajero (Shogun) - allegedly had FSH, 1 owner, circa 45k miles on a 10 year old car - to look at it was fine however it turned out to be a horror story once in ownership. There was no way it was a low mileage car, turned out the reason that it looked so clean was down to the fact it had been resprayed (and a very good job)........I always think its a bit of a leap of faith buying from the Far East - that said if this one was up for 3.5k and I had some spare cash I would probably go for it!

What you see when you look at a B is only half the story, you can find a load of bits underneath the skin that will set you back a good few $$.

Finding a mint 1996-2002 B is almost impossible now so keep your eyes open when looking at any for sale.

I am about 9k into my B and it's stil not in A1/mint condition yet.

From what I have seen on my travels... seems that in Japan they have to export cars over about 50,000 miles, X years old or re engine them???

In places like New Zealand, Malta etc that charge a fortune for cars the Jap imports are a cheap way of getting a good quality 2nd hand car.....

They are normally priced way below a locally registered car... so I think the seller is taking the p**S.....

4K for a 1996 B seems way out of what ive seen.... there again I can not really comment on the uk market! Here in Bahrain I bought a 1999 B for almost £2000 which seemed expensive.. (by local prices... but i've been told there are only 2 in the country and have never seen the other one..... which is suposed to be orange..) !!

1999 B for almost £2000 would be a good price in the UK so you have done well. The age is not that much of an issue, its all about condition that counts on this car.
I would go for a mint 1998 over say an average 2002.

I paid 2.9k for mine with about 58k (miles) on the clock with FSH, its not mint but it is clean - one or two little rust spots that need to be addressed but overall a good sound car. I have to admit I think I was lucky though, it should have been 3.25-3.5k when I bought it and probably a little bit more now I have sorted out some of the little things that did not work on purchase (fog lights not working, plastic stuff plate cracked, washer bottle broken, new discs/pads all round and all of the other mods)............

Don't know, probably alright. From Japan, who I'm sure look after their cars... and from them pictures it looks like it aswell. Only problem, the wheels. Don't like them`

dannyb-with-a-gp said:

Don't know, probably alright. From Japan, who I'm sure look after their cars... and from them pictures it looks like it aswell. Only problem, the wheels. Don't like them`

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Yep that's the standard steelies, definitely bring the overall look of the car down a bit. I'm dying to get mine replaced with alloys as soon as I pay Christmas and New Year off my credit cards

I have to admit, as steelies go I actually quite like them........

what do they mean with "full UK conversions" ?

last time i looked, Japs drive left side of road, so headlights and stuff should be set correctly anyways.. the only thing i'm not sure of is wether they use KMs or MPH in Japan.

ok, it looks clean, but what was it doing in Japan? They've got their choice of convertibles overthere And if it was an European collecters item for some overpaid Jap.. what is it doing back in Europe again?
Why source it from japan, if you've got the whole European continent to choose from?

anyways, 5k is too much.

RnRollie said:

last time i looked, Japs drive left side of road, so headlights and stuff should be set correctly anyways.. the only thing i'm not sure of is wether they use KMs or MPH in Japan.

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Yup, one of the reasons that there is such a booming business shipping Jap cars over to the UK is because there is little that needs to be done to convert the car to UK driving (unlike buying on the continent). The tacho will be in KPH not MPH so the speedo will need to be changed.............

3.5-4k and as long as its as good as it looks could be a good buy.......