Buying A 205 Gti

[jamiej 0]

Righty,

 

I have been looking for a 205 for a long time now but i have now found one and i just thought i would run some questions past you guys.

 

Its a 1993 1.9 GTI in White

 

mileage 123,000

FPSH to 75K then reciepts from then onwards

Cambelt done at 72K (i thought these engines needed one every 48K, can someone verify this)

Its a Non CAT model (seems very late for a non cat car, does a non cat 1993 GTI exist ?)

there is a small amount of rust on the bodywork, only surface rust, is this anything to worry about ?

 

he is asking £1750 for the car which to me seems a lot of money, but the value of these cars (ive learnt) does vary madly from car to car.

 

Any advice, opinions, pointers, would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks

Jamie

[gerry 5]

james is this the one that just come on ebay??

[gerry 5]

fairly sure it should have a cat ie being a 93 which is a late 93 being a L reg and how come it hasnt got the black inlet manifold???

 

and it will be the 122bhp ie with the cat!!!

 

ask him if there is any rust in the usual places....

Edited April 21, 2008 by gerry

[Coonper 0]

Dont pay that much for it mate! I wouldnt anyway!

 

You will get a better one for your money. 123,000 miles is a hell of a lot of miles for such an engine.

[gerry 5]

is this it??

 

it sounds like it......

 

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...E:X:RTQ:GB:1123

[jamiej 0]

Yea yea, thats the one,

 

its also on Piston Heads !

 

so, its too much money then ... this is all soo annoying. i need a new car fast !! but i dont want to pay over the odds.

Im not sure how camparible they are but ... i bought my Mk2 GTI golf for £900 and it only had 90k miles, this one does seem a little expensive !

 

any more views opinion, now you can actually see what car we are talking about.

[steve@cornwall 100]

Yea yea, thats the one,

 

its also on Piston Heads !

 

so, its too much money then ... this is all soo annoying. i need a new car fast !! but i dont want to pay over the odds.

Im not sure how camparible they are but ... i bought my Mk2 GTI golf for £900 and it only had 90k miles, this one does seem a little expensive !

 

any more views opinion, now you can actually see what car we are talking about.

 

 

Hasn't it got the wrong door cards for the year? and the upholstery job on the seats looks gash....... Points me to a hastily tarted up car (having done a few over the years. difference is I wouldn't ask top dollar for them ). I think you'd have problems convincing the mot man that it shouldn't have a cat - Isn't it a pity that the lack of available honest, straight gtis is driving up the price of average cars (and total sheds, too)

[jamiej 0]

Thanks for confirming my thoughts.

 

He has only has the car for 8 months, and he said that it needed a lot of work to get it through the MOT. to me that kind of says a lot about the previous life the car has had.

 

It does seem a lot of money for a car that is old with that many miles.

 

Makes you wonder what else may be wring with the car !

 

Cheers guys.

[gerry 5]

lol just realised it has wrong carpet in it!!

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Mileage is not that important IMO, after all it is a 15 year old car, so on average it has done roughly 8500 miles per year, not a huge amount really. Personally I am more wary of 15 year old cars having done 50k miles in their life, as generally they must have been sat around a lot, and unless the owner was fastidious and had them serviced yearly potentially could have gone 3 years between oil changes for example.

 

If I were looking to buy a 205 I'd be looking at the common problem areas. Starting at the front

 

1 Any evidence of crash damage/repair? 205's can be difficult to get everything to line up well if they have been damaged.

2 Rust, the forward edges of the inner wings can corrode away merrily, seen from under the bonnet

3 Driveshafts/Wheel Bearings/Front susp/Steering. The car should feel tight with no undue slop or knocks, unless parts have been replaced stuff will be most likely getting worn out by now as most are enthusiastically used

4 Engine, valve stem oil seals are a common fault, also look for signs of head gasket failure. Poor idling is common and can usually be easily sorted out.

5 Interiors can range from tatty to tidy, later 1600 cloth seats fare especially badly.

6 Rust again, this time at the seam between the sill and the 1/4 panel, behind the doors.

7 The real achilles heel, the rear beam. 1600's fare a lot better especially if on their original wheels as these don't seem to load the beam as much. However 1900's to really suffer and the majority will either have had some work to the beam at some point, or will be needing some.

[welshpug 1,657]

this particular example has been a Traders own vehicle, http://www.306gti6.com/forum/showthread.ph...2919&page=1

 

externally it does seem very tidy, and as has been mentioned, its underneath that these tend to go first so that's where I'd check it out most thoroughly.

Edited April 21, 2008 by welshpug

[damien 22 1 Cars]

it looks ok but i would be worryed about it not having the CAT and the wrong interior.

all the later 205's suffer for light rust and thin paint.

i think the price is a tad on the high side, if you want it i would wave £1500 at him and see how you get on

[chrisj21 2]

Carl who is selling the car is a very honest and good mechanic, he has an amazing reputation amung 306 gti6 owners and always services repairs my cars weather 205's or 306's i couldn't recommend him enough. i'd be very suprised he would sell a dodgy car.

[gerry 5]

£100 quid for a valet though???!!!!

 

who valeted it mr al fahad

[chrisj21 2]

You'd be suprised how much some people pay, i have four receipts in my service history from previous owners one being £180 for a full valet and polish.

[cheapthrills 0]

if it doesnt have to be a 1900 what about THIS, same mileage, non sunroof, looks very tidy and half the price

[Baz 421]

IMO Mileage doesn't always reflect the state or mechanical condition of 205's.