General good buy? or not?

[mitchellinman]

hi i have been looking for a stilo for months now and i simply cant find the one i want, but i have found one that takes my eye:
jtd 3dr in burgandy (colour of ben r's)
65,000 miles
2002 '02'
1 owner from new
£4495

is that good? im just worried bout the mileage and the fact that i do bout 8k miles and after say 2 years max the mileage will be too high for resale?
will i be able to get a remap with the high mileage?
Thanks Alex

 

[mbarratt2]

The price you mention is probably roughly in line with resale prices, you don't say whether it is private or from a dealer? With tough negotiation you should be able to get it below £4000. I would say get it to say £3950 and you should be happy. It is difficult to price 3 door JTD's as they are fairly scarce, although if you can live with the looks of a 5 door you can fairly easily find yourself in a 2 year old car for under £6000.

On the subject of mileage, as long as its been serviced well you should have no real concerns. The JTD engines are bullet proof and good for well over 200,000 miles when maintained.

 

[mitchellinman]

it is from a dealer, what techniques or so on should i do to get the price down? should i get them to throw in warranty for free? also i have w reg punto mk2 with just less than 50k on the clock in excellent condition, whould i sell this privately or get them to do a part ex?
Thanks Alex

 

[Ben R]

The colour is bordeaux old rose! I would agree with mbarrat that price seems a little on the high side, but if it has been looked after there should be nothing to worry about & as far as I know you can remap at any mileage!

 

[mitchellinman]

cheers ben, yeh the mileage factors putting me off a bit, if anyone can find me a jtd 3dr with reasonable mileage for under 5k ill be very happy,
Thanks Alex

 

[thepottleflump]

Make sure you check the front inside tyres well.

 

[TheItalianJob]

Hi Alex,

From a dealer, £4500 doesn’t seem too unreasonable. 3 door JTD’s are fairly rare, and this is the cheapest I’ve seen one advertised.

I’ve just had a quick look on Autotrader – is the car you are talking about at Rockingham Cars? If so, I’d say it’s a good buy as it’s got climate control (£300 option), “side protection mouldings” (presumably sideskirts?) + rear spoiler (£370 option), traction control (no longer standard) and “electric seats” – if these are heated, it should also have heated headlamp washers as part of the “Cold Climate Pack” (£260 option). It looks like a well spec’d car

Most of the other JTD’s around that price are 5 door Actives so if the above car is the one you are talking about, you’re getting a lot of options thrown in on top of the Dynamic standard spec.

Remember a lot of people buying a diesel do so because they are doing a higher than average mileage so many used cars will have a higher mileage than equivalent petrol models. 8000 miles a year is not a lot therefore after a couple of years the mileage will be more in line with average.

What warranty is being given with the car? Good advice from thepottleflump to check the tyres in view of the number of problems discussed on the Forum.

If I was only doing 8000 miles a year I’d buy an Abarth!

 

[mitchellinman]

yeh i thought it has some good extras, the dealers being a right prick though ive emailed them several times and get no response and when you phone no one answers!
i presume that it should come with 3 years being from a fiat garage? i looked at a yellow one on a 03 plate and they said for £300 you can have 3 years warranty.
do you think ill be able to get it for £4,000 with say if its got wear on inside tyres and other several things? shame its not local have to mean 90 mile trip or do you think they can get it sent to my local fiat?
Thanks Alex

 

[thepottleflump]

You're unlikely to get the car for £4k, that is a 10%+ reduction in price and there is no way that they'll throw in a free 3 year warranty too! If they do I'll eat my hat. The likely hood is that you might be able to knock £200 - £250 off the price with a bit of haggling and they'll be able sell you a warranty for it. In my opinion after market warranties are more hassle than they are worth. Bank the £300 notes for when it does go wrong. Trouble with warranties is the bit that goes wrong always seems to be excluded, or you miss the scheduled service by a couple of days/miles and invalidates your warranty. On the otherhand if it gives you piece of mind that is down to you.

In terms of your part ex they'll probably offer £1500. Your best bet on an older cheaper car like this is private sale. It is perfect first car territory so finding a buyer who'll pay more than the garage should not be a problem.

I very much doubt they'll send the car to another dealer for you to look at. They might sell it to you over the phone and send it to your house though.

This is just my opinion, all you can do it try. At the end of the day get down to the garage and see what happens.

 

[TheItalianJob]

Alex,

I’d have been down there today negotiating a deal face to face – they were open till 4.00pm. There’s no point trying to do a deal by email. You need to be talking to a salesman hungry to meet his target!

Their asking price is fair – it’s only £500 more than a 2 year older diesel Punto they’re selling (OK, it has 10,000 less miles). You will probably be able to get a notional discount, but not £500 plus a warranty.

Regarding the warranty, according to information on the Fiat website, the 3rd year dealer warranty is restricted to cars under 60,000 miles from date of registration, so you would need to buy a warranty or keep the money as a contingency for any problems.

How long have they had the car? The longer it sits there, the better your chance of getting a deal on it, although there is the danger of someone else beating you to it!

You said “i have been looking for a stilo for months now and i simply cant find the one i want…..”

It could be a while before another one comes along (reasonably) locally. You should go and see it - if you believe it’s overpriced, make them an offer and leave them your details and put the ball in their court. You’ve nothing to lose.

One final thought. Do you really need a diesel? You’ll get a petrol one for less, and there are more around – for example a dealer in Romford is advertising a 3 door 1.6 52 Reg Dynamic with 25,000 miles + climate control for £4295.

I hope you find one!

 

[mitchellinman]

to be honest i dont really need a diesel just like the performance of them and especially the remap issue.
i have looked at the 1.6 and would kinda want a sky roof with it if i didnt settle for a diesel, but that seems a good price on the 1.6 you mention, where can i find more about it?
Thanks Alex

 

[TheItalianJob]

Alex,

Interesting that you’d like a sunroof on a petrol Stilo but aren’t fussed if it’s a diesel? I really wanted a sunroof as you can add most of the other options later, but it’s difficult to find the exact specification you want when buying second hand.

I found the 1.6 I mentioned by doing a national search / 200 results on Autotrader – I just put “dynamic” in the “trim” box. The car’s on the 2nd page of results (sorted cheapest to dearest).

Here’s the dealer’s website URL: http://www.chariotsofromford.co.uk/
There’s no picture at the moment as they’re saying it’s “just arrived”.

 

[mitchellinman]

yep with a diesel i get the performance and the remap
with the petrol i get the skyroof as a gadget, so they equal each other out.
Thanks Alex

 

[Stilo_ste]

To be honest 65K is not high mileage. My last car went up to nearly 95K and that was 3 1/2 years old and diesel. (Vectra)

You seem to be trying to discourage yourself from buying it with the tone of your posts, which I find a little strange to be honest.

Another thing is that you don't seem to be sure what you want. Until you are sure, I think you should avoid buying any car. What do you want out of a car? What finances are available to you? Running costs? Purchase Price? Is warranty important? Is the 'warm cuddly feeling' from the dealer important?

You have to decide all these before you can even settle on a type of car, let alone which engine / extras / mileage.

You also want to haggle over the price / options etc but also states that you don't know how to do this effectively.

In a non offensive way I think you need to make your own mind up... and decide whether or not to buy this, or any other car.

 

[daftcars.com]

I agree with Stilo_ste. You need to know more or less what you want before looking. Be flexible of course, but you need to know if you want a diesel. Have you had a diesel before? They aren't for everybody.
One thing I'd definitely like to add is this: if it has any tyre wear - walk away.
You don't want the stress and hassle of trying to get that particular problem fixed.
Do a search for tyre wear on this forum for more info.

 

[Argonought]

....if it has any tyre wear - walk away.

This is one problem you wouldn't expect on a motor that's done over 65K as it would be very odd if that hadn't already been sorted.

........but agreed still worth looking for uneven tyre wear as this is something anyone can check for.